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Develop your skills & expertise Find actionable solutions to international policy challenges

International Affairs Policy and Analysis (IAPA) provides students with the skills they need to tackle the international and foreign policy problems that they care about. As such, the curriculum offers significant flexibility. Students self-design a specialization drawing from courses across subfields of international affairs and select a Professional Competency Track composed of skills-based courses.

All IAPA students take three core courses. Between them, these courses teach students the foundational skills and knowledge to effectively analyze policy problems in international affairs. After completing their self-designed specialization and professional competency track, students compete a capstone Integrated Policy Exercise. This unique capstone experience requires students to create a portfolio of professional deliverables, such as a briefing deck and policy memo, that presents their analysis and actionable recommendations of their chosen international and foreign policy problems.

Core Courses

IAPA students complete three core courses. These courses provide foundational knowledge and teach students to apply data and research insights from across the fields of international affairs to analyze complex policy challenges.

Policy Core

  • SIS-760: Complex Problems in International Affairs

Analytical Core

  • SIS-761: Research Design, Analysis & Communication
  • SIS-600: Statistics & Research Methods for International Affairs

Professional Competencies

Students choose one of four tracks. Each track is composed of skills-based courses designed to meet the needs of the international workplace. Students select three courses from the list of approved courses for their chosen track. Please note that some of these courses have prerequisites. Sample courses for each track include:

  • SIS-750: International Policy Analysis
  • SIS-750: Political Risk Analysis
  • SIS-653: Art and Science of Intelligence Analysis
  • SIS-609: Conflict Analysis and Resolution
  • PUAD-671: Cost Benefit Analysis
  • PUAD-670: Economics for Policy Analysis
  • PUAD-684: Organizational Analysis
  • SIS-750: Data Analysis
  • SIS-750: Strategic Analysis: Game Theory
  • SIS-750: Big Data and Text Mining
  • SIS-750: Qualitative Methods
  • STAT-613: Data Science
  • STAT-612: Statistical Programming in R
  • ITEC-621: Predictive Analytics
  • ECON-623: Applied Econometrics
  • SIS-611: International Negotiation
  • SIS-628: Strategic Communications
  • SIS-642: Intercultural Relations
  • SIS-750: Program Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation
  • SIS-696: Global Social Entrepreneurship
  • ITEC-620: Business Insights Through Analytics
  • ITEC-660: Business Intelligence
  • MGMT-609: Management of Orgs. and Human Capital
  • PUAD-633: Budgeting and Financial Management
  • SIS-616: International Economics
  • SIS-620: Environmental Economics
  • SIS-731: Economic Development
  • SIS-665: International Trade Relations
  • SIS-666: International Financial Relations
  • ACCT-607: Financial Accounting
  • FIN-605: Financial Management

International Affairs Specialization

Students in IAPA take four concentration courses from across the fields of international affairs. This specialization gives students substantive knowledge. Students are encouraged to organize their concentration around a set of policy problems.

Students choose courses in areas such as:

  • Foreign Policy
  • Security Policy
  • International Development
  • Peacebuilding
  • Economic Relations
  • Regional courses
  • Human Rights
  • Environmental Policy

Capstone Experience

In the Integrated Policy Exercise course, students apply their analytical skills and substantive expertise to real-world policy problems to produce a portfolio of professional-quality deliverables, such as a briefing deck and a policy memo

Application At a Glance

View a detailed admission and degree requirements listing for your degree of interest.

Entrance Semester
Fall and Spring
Application Deadline
January 15 for the fall semester
October 1 for the spring semester 
Additional Requirements
Undergraduate degree
Two letters of recommendation
Resume
Statement of Purpose
TOEFL/IELTS score if international applicant
Application
Completion of online application