Harvard Kennedy School Inaugurates New Concentration in International and Global Affairs

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Beginning in the 2008-09 academic year, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University will offer a new and innovative concentration in International and Global Affairs (IGA) to Masters in Public Policy (MPP) students. The new concentration will provide intensive training to graduate students preparing for careers addressing international and global challenges and governance, including international security, human rights, energy security, environment and natural resources, public health, and information systems.

“We now live in an increasingly complex, interconnected world. We need leaders who can approach these challenging issues in an integrated and thoughtful way. Leading in a globalizing world requires rigorous and comprehensive training,” said Harvard Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood. “The new concentration in International and Global Affairs builds on a long tradition of unparalleled strength in the study and teaching of world affairs at the Kennedy School. We are also very pleased that in partnership with the Belfer Center we can make this exciting new program accessible and affordable to the best students.”

Students pursuing the new concentration will be required to take a greater number of courses in their field than non-concentrators.

“But the extra course requirements will be more than offset by the value of the in-depth training, and also by the new opportunities for financial aid, research assistantships, and summer internships that come with the new concentration,” said Ashton B. Carter, Ford Foundation professor of science and international affairs and chair of the IGA faculty.

“Imagine the mentorship opportunities with faculty like Joe Nye on soft power, Samantha Power on human rights, Nicholas Burns on diplomacy, Graham Allison on nuclear terrorism, or John Holdren and Bill Clark on energy and climate change. Imagine the inspiration provided by our graduates who have gone on to great positions of leadership, including Bob Zoellick at the World Bank, Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations, and Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the president of Liberia,” Carter said.

The concentration in International and Global Affairs is intended for students seeking to become policymakers in national government agencies (foreign affairs, defense, intelligence, environmental, homeland security, finance, energy, etc.), regional and local governments with worldwide interests, international organizations (the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank, NATO, and others), and the non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations that play essential roles in creating world order.

Joseph S. Nye, university distinguished service professor and former Harvard Kennedy School dean, noted that the name of the concentration – International and Global Affairs – is significant.

“Important world problems and their solution are no longer purely international in terms of being resolvable by or between national governments,” Nye said. “Some of them are truly global rather than purely international, and international organizations, NGOs, and multinational corporations all play a role. It’s important that our new concentration reflect this new reality.”

A number of students pursuing the new concentration will be offered extra financial aid and all students will have the opportunity to compete for fully-funded summer internships between their first and second years.

“We want to make it affordable for the very best students to come here to the Kennedy School and get this new and distinctive training. We also want to link them to mentors who can give their careers an early boost,” said Graham T. Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and founding dean of the Kennedy School. “Through the means available to the Belfer Center, we are able to offer financial aid, research assistantships, and summer internships to the most gifted of our IGA concentrators.”

The idea of a concentration grew out of a wide-ranging review of the curriculum conducted by Dean Ellwood three years ago.

For further information, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School’s web site at http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/masters/mpp/curriculum/iga-concentration. The site offers in-depth information about the IGA concentration.

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