ALM offers a new concentration – International Relations
I am pleased to see that the ALM program is creating this new concentration in international relations. When I began the program over four years ago, I started with the idea of focusing on foreign policy which led me to international security as my main interest. Yet, the concentration was a broad-based generic “government” program and it took several years to build a solid IS transcript.
Here’s the description on the ALM website:
international relations has a fresh appeal because of the many critical worldwide issues that now confront us. This burgeoning field studies relationships among the world’s governments, political economies, laws, and multinational corporations, as well as global issues such as poverty, genocide, and the environment. Certain to appeal to new master’s degree candidates, this unique offering at Harvard will also be of interest to those employed in various Washington offices, military personnel, and students taking government courses.
Associate Dean and Director of the ALM Program Schopf explained the new concentrations
are being structured as liberal arts fields and not as professional programs. As such, they will engage with history, theory, criticism, and current research topics within an interdisciplinary context.
This is a crucial distinction! The liberal arts foundation is fine but if one is thinking of the degree as a career move, the applied element is important. You don’t get it in this degree. One small way to fill that void: special events and lunch talks at Belfer, the Carr Center, and Shorenstein at HKS. It’s not the same as doing policy memos or analysis but it’s a good way to learn more about current issues and meet people. This also requires an additional time commitment; most of the Belfer events are mid-day or during the afternoon.
So far, there is no separate “IR” concentration in the list so I looked at the “government” course listings (but I suppose they’ll pull from other pertinent concentrations). I don’t see any new courses being offered along with this new concentration yet. Wonder if they are going to beef the listings up a bit or just expect students to put things together based on current offerings? If it’s the latter, uh oh. One particular problem some degree students may face if they don’t check the “fine print” is they will build a nice IR transcript but not have enough “Harvard instructors” (HI) to graduate (8 out of your 10 courses must be HI). Ironically, the current IR course is taught by David Rezvani — he is not an HI now (he was when I took it). Several courses in the 2009-2010 catalog are IR-centric but they aren’t taught by HI instructors (e.g., International Organizations, The Future of War, Globalization and Terrorism).
Along with dropping certificate programs, adding new master’s degree concentrations is a good way to enhance the credibility of the division overall. The division seems to be waking up from a somewhat sleepy role on campus. Kudos. Harvard offers several paths to a degree in government: the Kennedy School, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Ph.D. in government, and this ALM degree. These new concentrations are a smart move.
