UNDERGRADUATE foreign policy schools?

Maybe I’m missing something, but …
I see a lot of threads on this forum asking what schools have the best IR major.
It strikes me that If someone is interested in a career in IR, a major in IR almost seems like premature specialization. It would seem that any number of liberal arts majors can help develop the knowledge and skills that are important in this career area. A deep and broad understanding of American culture, politics, and history, the languages, cultures, and histories of other countries, oral and written communication skills, economics, etc. would seem to be a more important background to acquire than a large number of IR courses. Over the years, I’ve made the acquaintance of several persons from other countries who work in international jobs at various levels. One thing many of them had in common is that they tended to be cultured persons with broad familiarity with the arts, literature, and their own societies. I’ve also known many international students, some of whom have families involved in their countries’ government. Many of them attended the best international schools in their home countries, were multilingual, and had the type of broad education I mentioned above. A family member who has been involved in international development projects for many years emphasized a solid background in the traditional academic disciplines of politics, economics, and law as well as the languages and cultures of the region in which he works. There’s a lot of competition for the best international positions—not just from other Americans, but also from Europeans, Australians, et al. Many of the persons competing for these positions also have that kind of education in one or more traditional social science disciplines and law as well as in languages.

The point I’m making is that there are many other relevant educational pathways to international careers, and an undergraduate major in IR may not necessarily be the best one.

Finally, when I was an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to know many international students. For a time, I had a Saudi roommate; one of my best friends had a roommate from El Salvador; another good friend had a roommate from Iran. I often ate lunch with an Afghan student and a Chinese student from the Philippines. It seemed that once I had a friend from a particular country, I soon made the acquaintance of all the other students in the dorm from his country. Even though I didn’t pursue an international career, I still consider the discussions I had with these students to be among the most valuable learning experiences in my entire undergraduate education. Yet, I also was astounded at how very little interest most of my fellow American students had in meeting or knowing students from other countries. For anyone interested in international careers, I’d strongly suggest that seeking out a school with a large number of international students is perhaps more valuable than whether a school has an IR major.

ilovebagels · July 19, 2009, 3:24pm

Someone should sticky what zapfino wrote.

UNDERGRADUATE foreign policy schools?

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