Welcome to the International Relations Program

Welcome to International Relations, one of Carnegie Mellon's fastest-growing programs.

The International Relations Program has launched a new Global Politics major. Global Politics is about the intersection of politics, markets, culture, and technology; the declining significance of the distinction between domestic politics and international relations; the challenges from migration, economic and political transitions, disease, environmental changes, and war; and the often transcendent power of identity, ideology, nationalism, religion, culture, and technology on state and non-state actors. No single discipline can fully grapple with what it means to live in a global society, but analytical social science provides important insights.

Global Politics is offered by the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, with support from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is available as a primary major, additional major, and minor.

The International Relations major offers students an interdisciplinary avenue to address global events. Terrorism, human rights, environmental degradation--all can be understood through different disciplinary lenses. Scientific questions have political, economic, and ethical dimensions. Similarly, economic decisions are inextricably linked with their cultural, psychological, political, technological, geopolitical, and moral aspects.

The additional major and minor in International Relations are available only to those students who began at Carnegie Mellon during or before spring semester 2008.

International Relations is jointly offered by the History, Modern Languages, and Social and Decision Sciences departments.