IPOL

In the International Politics major, students learn how states and non-state actors cooperate and compete on political issues. In the post-Cold War world, there is no longer the stable hierarchy of issues that dominated policy makers' and scholars' attention from 1945 through the late 1980s. Now, numerous non-security issues compete with security for the attention of policy makers, outside analysts, and citizens.

The organization of the major addresses the principal building blocks of international politics today.  There are four fields in which International Politics majors may concentrate:

1. International Law, Organization, and Ethics;

2. Trans-State Actors in World Politics;

3. International Security Studies; and

4. Foreign Policy and Policy Processes.

The majority of courses in the major are taught by political scientists and international relations experts from the Government and SFS faculty, although there are significant contributions from the Departments of History, Philosophy, Sociology, Theology, and the SFS' regional studies programs.