International Relations, B.A.

Requirements

The major consists of the following requirements. Prerequisites are noted where they are not already part of the major. Before registration each year, the International Relations committee will announce to majors which additional courses, if any, will count toward requirements.

• 1. 205-level competence in a modern foreign language, as evidenced by completion of FRE 205 , GER 205 , RUS 205 , or SPA 205 ; or placement into the 300 level of a modern language on a language placement exam; or equivalent transfer credit. Students may test out of this requirement in a modern language that Cornell does not offer; students who wish to attempt to do so should consult with the program advisor.
• 2. One course for background in political economy: ECB 101  (Macroeconomics)
• 3. Four courses in international politics:
  • a. POL 142  (International Politics) 
  • b. POL 333  (International Organizations) or POL 348  (American Foreign Policy)
  • c. Two courses selected from POL 244  (Holocaust and Human Rights in Europe), POL 246  (Gender and Development in India), POL 251  (Politics of the Past), POL 330  (Women and Politics) (prerequisite: POL 143 ), POL 332  (Human Rights), POL 333  (International Organizations), POL 334  (Strategies to Alleviate Poverty) (prerequisite: POL 143  Comparative Politics), and POL 348  (American Foreign Policy)
• 4. Four courses in the history of international relations:
  • HIS 104 
  • HIS 210 
  • Two courses selected from HIS 256  (Reel History: The Cold War and American Film), HIS 258  (India’s Road to Independence), HIS 259  (Travel Tales: Encounters with Others in the Premodern World), HIS 260  (Modern Propoganda and Media Manipulation in the 20th and 21st Centuries), HIS 304  (Europe: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries), HIS 315  (International Relations of the Modern West), HIS 317  (The Crusades), HHIS 321  (Moscovite and Imperial Russia), HIS 322  (Revolutionary and Soviet Russia), HIS 323  (Russia from 1941), and HIS 335  (The Early Modern Globe) 
• 5. One course having to do with how members of another culture/society view their participation in the international community, selected from FRE 206  (France in the Maghreb), FRE 254 (Rule Breakers), FRE 255  (Immigration in French and Francophone Film), FRE 303  (Cultures of France and the Francophone World), RUS 106  (Russian Encounters with the Other), RUS 250  (Russian Spies and Statesmen in their Own Words), RUS 355  (Film, Literature, and Politics), SPA 325  (Collateral Cultures: Voices from the Periphery), SPA 350  (Identity and Alterity in Latin American Literature). Other courses may be considered upon request.
• 6. A study abroad experience (class, internship, or independent study) that has to do with international relations, broadly conceived. We will accept any study abroad class offered in Anthropology, the modern languages in Classical and Modern Languages, Economics, History, Politics, and Sociology. Additionally, ART 364  (Rome Reborn: Caput Mundi in Acient, Renaissance, and Modern Contexts: Antiquity, Christianity, and Fascism in Rome) and CLA 274  (Gods, Emperors, and Philosophers) are also accepted. Other courses may be considered upon request. As an on-campus alternative, students may complete FRE 301 , GER 301 , JPN 301, RUS 301 , or SPA 301 .
• 7. As a capstone to the major, completion of POL 483  (Research Seminar), an independent project (IRE 390 ) or senior honors thesis having to do with international relations, broadly conceived, with a core faculty member of the International Relations program. This should be completed after at least eight other courses (or equivalents) counted toward the major.

Note: Study abroad experiences taken for item 6 may double count in another category.

Note: International students whose first language is not English are exempt from requirements 1 and 6, and need not substitute alternative requirements.