This degree provides the student an opportunity to research, study, and write in the interdisciplinary field of international relations and conflict resolution. Due to the rapid pace of globalization, traditional boundaries are blurred within the international system. Transnational flows of goods, finance, ideas, communications, images, crime, and terrorism operate in an environment of connectedness and interdependence. Individuals increasingly participate in complex networks of international society.

The MA in International Relations and Conflict Resolution degree offers students the opportunity to develop broad integrated knowledge in the core of the discipline, including theory, a study of comparative political systems as well as complex international systems, international organizations, political economy, and international law. Specialized concentrations and student research are centered on the interdisciplinary nature of the field with a focus on regional and global issues. Students must take NSEC500 as the first required course in this program.

Students in this concentration undertake an in-depth analysis of the principles and foundations of peace, conflict theory, conflict analysis and resolution, negotiation strategies and concepts, and the factors necessary to build a lasting peace.

Upon successful completion of this concentration the student will be able to:

• Evaluate the potential for conflict in a society/state/region based on theories of causation.
• Assess the approaches to peace through coercive power, nonviolence, and world order constructs.
• Reconstruct the phenomenon of peace through examples and case studies.
• Synthesize the rationale for negotiation versus historical tendencies toward coercion.
• Evaluate the development of multiparty mediation and assess the value of such an approach.
• Analyze the complexity and limitations of negotiating across cultures and historical divides.