The IR Program does not offer the Ph D. However, students interested in a doctoral program in the area of international affairs are encouraged to apply simultaneously to the International Relations Master's Degree Program and one of the Maxwell School's eight doctoral programs. Both programs review applications and make separate admissions decisions. Students who are admitted to both degree programs earn the M.A. in International Relations and the Ph D. from another Maxwell School department or Program.

The Ph D. option prepares scholars in disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on global socio-economic structures and processes, and on their local counterparts. The program emphasizes comparative and integrative/disintegrative aspects; for example, comparative politics, history, and culture, as well as the political economy of cross-border transactions and their local impacts.