Specialisation Tracks

The Master in International Affairs offers three specialisation tracks:

In addition to the specialisation tracks, the Master in International Affairs also offers two clusters which can be selected as a secondary specialisation:

For details regarding specialisation selection and requirements, please visit Our Programme or consult the 2021-2022 Catalogue for the Interdisciplinary Masters.

 

SPECIALISATION COURSES FOR 2021-2022

Global Security

 

This specialisation track offers a variety of courses that will provide students with a systemic and critical understanding of the evolution of the global security architecture, as well as the transformations shaping it at the beginning of the 21st century.

The interlocked and evolving nature of state and non-state actors – as well as international institutions – in the international system will be at the heart of the track’s core course. The broad range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses – offered by a mix of Graduate Institute and visiting professors – will allow students to focus on more specific issues; from regional security dynamics (e.g. in the Middle East) to the role of business in shaping the evolving security environment. The students will also gain hands-on experience via a series of applied skills workshops, simulations and hands-on training. The overall aim of the track is to forge a mix of theoretical and practical skills that are necessary for effective participation for future professionals faced with security policy challenges.

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Global Security

Trade and International Finance

 

The Trade and International Finance track introduces students to core issues in international economic integration. Students can choose between two required core courses in this specialisation: one on Globalisation or one on International Finance.

The first required course looks at how globalisation and its conceptualisation have changed over the past two centuries and how it is likely to change going forward. The second required course covers some of the principles and key topics in international finance.

Drawing on the disciplines of the Graduate Institute and the expertise of experienced policymakers, a range of electives courses will provide other perspectives on international economic integration, in particular from history and anthropology. The courses will also cover specialised topics such as competition and industrial policy, internet governance, international standard setting and the global governance of intellectual property rights. Through case-based teaching and the opportunity to develop a capstone project, students will be challenged by concrete problems

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Trade and International Finance

Environment, Resources and Sustainability

 

Environmental issues lie at the heart of modern development and international politics and have become critical in the framing of programmes at all levels. This specialisation track allows students from the Master in International Affairs and the Master in Development Studies to focus on the emerging questions of environmental governance, environment, resources and sustainability/resilience.

As part of their specialisation, students are required to take at least one of the core courses, which introduce them to climate change, water, land use and resource trends and politics, examining how they modify international affairs and development paths, and exploring the dynamics between natural, societal and economic systems. They can choose from a range of elective courses to complete their specialisation.

A capstone project forms an integral part of the specialisation track allowing students to get involved with a key actor or institution, producing an applied research project.

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Environment, Resources and Sustainability

Global Health

 

Global health has emerged as a central concern in development and international affairs. The relationship between health and development is at least threefold: health has an intrinsic societal goal, health as a necessary input for human and economic development, and health as an indicator of society's progress toward sustainable development. Health is also a fundamental aspect of international affairs: health is a central component of human security, an outcome of global governance processes in and outside the health sector (e.g. security, trade, investment, migration, environment) in an increasingly interdependent world, and a potential threat to international peace and economic stability.

Studying global health also sheds light on broader aspects of development and international affairs: global health has been a site of growing investment, comprising a tenth of the global economy; social and technological experimentation that has generated innovative approaches to addressing public challenges; and an area filled with a dense network of institutions, states and non-state actors. Although health has traditionally been framed as a medical or technical issue, it is increasingly recognised that protecting global health requires also taking into consideration governance, politics, culture, history, law and economics.

This specialisation cluster will provide students with an understanding of global health, from the "micro" level of individuals and communities, the "meso" level of countries and organisations, and the "macro" level of the global system. The specialisation will train students to analyse and address global health challenges through courses that explore the historical development of global health, its legal and normative frameworks, the actors and policy processes that govern it, and the social and technological developments that drive it.

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Global Health

Gender

 

Gender is a key organising principle of human societies, founding inequalities, exploitations, and exclusions of many kinds. Social movements around the world have long sought to combat discrimination based on gender and its intersections with sexual orientation, race, class, and other status distinctions. Today there are a range of policies and laws geared towards accomplishing this goal, often with varying effects. We are also witnessing a virulent backlash to struggles for equality in conjunction with populist rhetoric.

The Gender specialisation applies a critical gender lens to issues of economic development, violent conflict, human rights, global health, decolonisation, and reproductive politics, making visible the way power relations based on multiple axes of difference inhabit these phenomena. It also explores movement politics and policy interventions, tracking their successes and conundrums.

The goal of this specialisation is to teach students the history and politics of struggles for equality, and to equip them with the theoretical and methodological tools to analyse oppression in its diverse form.

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Gender