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Curriculum overview
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Core curriculum
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Undergraduate Majors
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Certificates & Minors
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Global experiences
United States Institute of Leadership and Diplomacy offers seven majors, each of which allows students to engage with the substance of ethical leadership and international affairs scholarship from a different angle. Students declare a major in their second year, and every major has a dedicated curricular dean who advises students in that major.
The purpose of LCP major is to engage students with questions related to the leadership, culture, knowledge, and power. Students gain a complex understanding of these terms, their histories, and effects. Since no single approach encompass the whole relationship between culture and politics; students take a foundational course, Theorizing Leadership, Culture and Politics, before moving into a five-course sequence around a concentration each student designs individually. This major is great for students who want to pursue an in-depth exploration of the humanities to complement the rest of their studies in international affairs.
The purpose of the Business and International Affairs major is to provide students an opportunity to combine a basic education in business with all the political, economic, language, cross-cultural, and research proficiencies they gain at Usild School of International Affairs. This major aims to produce a new breed of graduates who are fluent in the global languages of business, politics, economics, and culture. This fluency and the associated analytical capacity developed through the Business and International Affairs major will provide graduates a foundation to pursue careers in the private and public sectors, non-profits, and academia. As important, this broad-based skill set will allow them to freely move between those sectors as their careers evolve.
The major of International Economics is grounded in the belief that economic analysis is essential to the understanding of modern world affairs. This major is designed to develop in students the ability to conduct an innovative, well-informed, rigorous, quantitative analysis of all aspects of the world economy. This major allows students to engage in deep study of the behavior of social systems through the lens of a unified analytical framework. Because students receive rigorous training in quantitative techniques and objective analysis, a major in International Economics is excellent preparation for careers and leadership positions in the private or the public sector.
Diplomatic History major combines a broad introduction to the analysis of historical changes that transcend national boundaries with the opportunity to explore a particular theme or question through a self-designed major concentration. This major prepares students to understand how the world got to be the way it is today and the physical and metaphysical forces that govern its ongoing evolution. Our students thus acquire knowledge and skills that help them grow into informed, engaged, and thoughtful citizens and scholars.
The major of International Political Economy is designed to investigates the intersection between economics and politics in the global environment. This major also goes beyond its constituent disciplines of economics and political science to enable rigorous study in a variety of policy areas, including problems of globalization, the processes of economic development and reform, and the role of political power in economic policymaking, among others. All students will apply analytical tools to a particular topic of interest by writing a senior thesis.
The International Politics major is designed to provide students with the substantive expertise and analytical skills necessary to understand, and become leaders in, the study and practice of world politics. In contemporary geopolitics, numerous non-security issues compete with security for the attention of policymakers, outside analysts, and citizens. The major provides all students with in-depth knowledge of the issues and actors that constitute international politics along with the opportunity to concentrate on one of the following International Politics subfields: International Law, Institutions and Ethics; International Security; and Foreign Policy and Policy Processes.
Regional and Comparative Studies students develop the insight, knowledge, and skills needed to deal effectively with far-reaching challenges of the contemporary world. Understanding regions through intense study of its languages and cultures make it possible to gain expertise that is invaluable in a globalizing world. Given the largely self-defined nature of the major, students become responsible for their own education through grounding in core theory and methods courses and region-specific courses selected to explore a topic in greater depth. Students undertake a detailed study of either Regional Studies or Comparative Studies World Regions.
Students who choose to concentrate in Government are inspired by many things. Some are passionate about contemporary American politics; some are fascinated by models that explain, measure, or predict political outcomes; some are interested in the civic philosophy of the ancient Greeks, some in the moral challenges of contemporary global citizenship; some focus on the political culture of a particular region of the world; some want to grasp the more general interrelationships of ethnicity and civil war, or human rights and emerging democracy
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Our programs of study represent a broad and changing spectrum of interests and approaches. We combine innovation and excellence in teaching and research to deliver an intellectually robust, diverse, and flexible political studies program that enable scholars of all backgrounds and interests to thrive. Graduates of the department go on jobs at leading academic institutions, companies, government agencies, and non-profits.