MPA/ID Student

Electives and Policy Tracks

The goal of the second year of the MPA/ID is to broaden the students' knowledge in the field and to deepen their understanding of a major area of development practice. Second year electives specifically designed for MPA/ID students are offered by professors Hausmann, Pande, Rodrik, and many others. Students are given wide latitude to choose their six electives. They develop the ability to apply the theoretical and empirical tools learned in their first-year core courses to a policy track which they have chosen based on their professional and career interests.

National and International Economic Policies

Students interested in careers in this area should focus on courses on macroeconomic policies, international trade and finance, financial sector policies, and public finance (taxation and public expenditures) with an eye to also deepening knowledge in the institutional, political, and administrative aspects of policy reform.

Sectoral Policies and Programs

Students interested in this area should keep in mind two aims in choosing their courses:

  1. Developing the general public sector management skills that are relevant across a range of sectors
  2. Deepening their knowledge of specific sectors of interest such as:
    • Sustainable development
    • Social policy (including poverty, health, education, and community development)
    • Global governance, conflict and human rights
    • Science, technology and development

Private Sector Development and Its Regulation

Students in this area should focus on courses in finance and financial policies, the regulatory environment (including privatization), competitiveness and industrial policies, and policy related skills such as leadership and negotiation.

Additional Electives

Additional electives may be chosen from the broad array of courses available at HKS or through cross-registration with other graduate schools at Harvard University or MIT.

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Faculty Feature

Professor Brian S. Mandell

Brian S. Mandell is Director of the Harvard Kennedy School Negotiation Project. His current teaching and research address the theory and practice of negotiation, emphasizing third-party facilitation and consensus building in domestic and international protracted policy disputes. Previously, he was a strategic analyst for the Canadian Department of National Defense, specializing in UN peacekeeping and the implementation of arms control agreements.

He teaches elective courses MLD-221: Introduction to Negotiation Analysis and MLD-230: Advanced Workshop in Multiparty Negotiation and Conflict Resolution.

"I wanted to create something where students would have an intensive experience that would be both intellectually engaging as experiential learning, but also emotionally demanding. And so I wanted students to commit to something that in the U.S. military we might call a 'boot camp'." — Brian Mandell

Faculty Feature

Professor Nicholas Burns

Nicholas Burns is Professor of International Relations. He teaches IGA-110: Modern Diplomacy: Peace and War in the 21st Century and IGA-116: Great Power Competition in the International System.

Professor Burns served in the United States Government for twenty-seven years. As a career Foreign Service officer, he was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008; the State Department's third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement; a long-term military assistance agreement with Israel; and was the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran's nuclear program.