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Graduate Program in International Studies

The University of Adelaide's Master of International Studies Program is one of the most distinctive in the country. Like the University's undergraduate degree, it approaches International Studies not from the sub-fields of International Relations and Intelligence/Security Studies alone (although these are major components of the program), but attempts to provide the student with solid multi-disciplinary foundations for understanding how states live and work together, what is the nature of their sense of security, and how lines of conflict may emerge between them.

At the heart of any modern political reading of the international system today is how states and peoples are able to express difference, while increasingly being forced to find common ground under the pressures of the international economy and the forces of globalisation. Our program recognises this equation, and therefore provides students with a variety of subjects which not only gives our graduates a grounding in International Relations/Politics, but introduces them to aspects of how many other aspects of politics (including such areas as political economy, politics of the environment, ethnicity, culture, philosophy and religion) may impact on the way in which the world functions today. Awareness of complexities and contradictions at play in the international system is an important dimension for people working in international business, governmental and non-governmental organisations, or for those who simply want to develop further insight into, and understanding of, how that system works.

One of the attractions of the Program is the presence of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, which provides a regular lectures, seminars and workshops on International Politics/Affairs. The website for the Institute has some useful materials for students, as well as a discussion area. Further information on the activities of the Institute can be obtained by writing to sa.branch@aiia.asn.au .

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