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Maxwell / International Relations

  • International Relations Undergraduate Program

    Welcome to the Undergraduate IR Program!

    We live in an international age. We are more closely connected to other peoples, cultures, and countries than ever before, and global events affect our daily lives in countless ways. Modern communications instantly deliver news from around the world; we consume goods produced through global supply chains; millions of people continue to migrate across national borders and across the globe, to seek economic opportunities or to flee violence and chaos; carbon emissions in one country can affect the climate in many others; ideas and ideals can spread like wildfire. This new and intense level of interconnectedness presents American and global citizens with enormous challenges and opportunities. Environmental degradation, poverty, the spread of disease, and many forms of political violence result from global trends and require global solutions. But globalization also presents us with the opportunity to pursue unrivaled levels of economic empowerment, cultural understanding, and human flourishing – if we can learn how to manage it for the benefit of all.

    The undergraduate major in International Relations helps students develop the analytic, cultural, and linguistic skills needed to understand contemporary international affairs, to function effectively in a global environment, and to prepare for further academic or professional study and international career opportunities. This multidisciplinary program provides students with tools and approaches from social science disciplines – anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, and sociology – to explore current issues and to conceptualize global citizenship.

    In addition to our own dedicated faculty and staff, our students learn from a team of more than 60 full time faculty who teach on every manner of international issues and affairs, covering all major world regions. Our students benefit from a variety of additional learning experiences, including: study-abroad opportunities in more than 60 countries  through Syracuse Abroad and a semester-long program in Washington DC; and participation in our award-winning Model United Nations team, as well as many other club and conference opportunities. Most importantly, we offer a rigorous academic program that prepares our students for a variety of careers in international development, human rights, security, diplomacy, advocacy, consulting, and law.

  • For Yiwei, the National Model United Nations course she took at Maxwell gave her hands-on experience for practicing diplomacy and leadership, something she could not find anywhere else. 

    Yiwei Wu

    ~ Yiwei Wu'12 BA (IR)

    Director, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence 
    Interactive Advertising Bureau


  • Commitment to Inclusion

    The Maxwell School stands in support of all who are demanding change in the face of racism, violence, and hate speech. We are committed to making our school, our university, and our communities more inclusive and just for all.

    There is absolutely no place for behavior or language that degrades any individual or group’s race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, or religious beliefs.

  • News

    New study by Cleary examines regime dynamics in fragile democracies

    "When Does Backsliding Lead to Breakdown? Uncertainty and Opposition Strategies in Democracies at Risk," co-authored by Matthew Cleary, was published in Perspectives on Politics. The authors develop an agency-based perspective to enhance the understanding of aggrandizement and to explain when it results in democratic breakdown. Relying on comparative case studies of five countries—Bolivia, Ecuador, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela—their analysis suggests that the contingent decisions of opposition actors during the process of aggrandizement have a significant effect on regime outcomes.

     

    D'Amico quoted in CSM article on the 2020 UN General Assembly

    U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres noted in his address opening the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tuesday that the world is at "another 1945 moment," referring to the hinge year that saw both the end of World War II and the founding of the U.N. "The U.S. chose multilateralism in 1945, and we were able to remake the world in our image, and in ways that served our interests," says Francine D’Amico, teaching professor of international relations. "But now Trump’s theme seems not to be America as leader or partner, but more of an America-focused individualism," she says. Read more in the Christian Science Monitor article "At UN assembly quieted by a pandemic, the US-China clash is loud."

     

    Cleary study on rights of indigenous women in Mexico published in LAPS

    "Subordinated Autonomy and the Political Inclusion of Women in Indigenous Mexico," written by Matthew Cleary, was published in Latin American Politics and Society. The study argues that the act of formalizing autonomy for indigenous communities, in the context of Mexico’s homogenizing neoliberal state, had the unanticipated effect of exposing exclusionary practices to state scrutiny, which eventually forced those communities to recognize women’s political rights.

     

International Relations Undergraduate Program
225 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244-1020
Phone: +1.315.443.2306