Their interdisciplinary approach to the study of international affairs reflects this reality. We encourage a hardheaded and nuanced study of the problem of relations across international boundaries of all kinds--from the traditional political boundaries to the recently salient boundaries of culture and religion.

• First, to insist that our majors receive a firm grounding in the approach to knowledge used in the disciplines of political science, history, and economics;

• second, to provide them maximum flexibility, particularly in their advanced course work and thesis, to specialize in disciplines and areas of the world of their own choosing.

The International Relations major is a multi-disciplinary course of study on the ways in which people, private groups, and sovereign governments interact with each other on the international stage. States are inevitably the main focus of analysis.