Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs

This major introduces you to the theoretical and practical aspects of international relations, comparative politics, and diplomacy. It provides you with an understanding of foreign and domestic security policies, international economic relationships, and foreign cultures.

Program Strengths

Miami's own overseas study center: Miami is one of the few public universities with its own facility abroad, the John E. Dolibois European Center in Luxembourg. Its central location in Western Europe allows for faculty guided study trips throughout the continent. Students in any major can take classes there.

Focus on issues: The study of world affairs is moving away from specializing in a geographic region and toward exploration of issues and problems that cross geographic boundaries. Our program reflects that change.

Your Program of Study

While centered around courses in political science, the major has a broad, liberal arts focus that includes study in geography, history, and economics to add to your understanding of foreign regions, people, and systems. A foreign language is required.

In your first year, you'll complete much of your Miami Plan for Liberal Education requirements: courses in the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, and formal reasoning. In your sophomore year, you'll start with some broad-based courses in world governments and politics and American foreign policy.

In your sophomore through senior years, you'll also take related courses in economics, diplomatic history, world regions, international economic problems, and calculus or statistics.

We highly recommend study abroad, either at the Dolibois Center, in one of Miami's summer programs, or through an exchange program.

Student Life and Culture

You don't even have to leave Miami's campus to experience other cultures. You could get to know some of the more than 375 international students from 70 countries who are enrolled at Miami each year. As a freshman, you can live in the Clawson Hall International Living/Learning Center where you can take part in cross-cultural programming with international students as well as other students interested in global affairs.

Or you could experience the culture of Germany by living in the German language corridor of Wells Hall, where you can improve your conversational German, watch international television from Germany via satellite, read German periodicals, and help host the annual Oktoberfest Karneval. The French language corridor offers similar opportunities.

You can view important events from around the world on SCOLA, the international news programming network which is part of Miami's academic cable television system. You also have access to international E-mail networks and bulletin boards.

You can also get involved, or form a student organization, that focuses on another culture. Some of these at Miami include the Asian American Association, Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC), the Association of Latin and American Students, Black Student Action Association (BSAA), Chinese Student and Scholar Friendship Association, Foreign Language Education Association, Greek Club, Indian Students Association, International Club, Italian Club, Japanese Culture and Language Club, Korean Club, Luxembourg Club, and Russian Club.

Study Abroad

The most effectiveand interestingway to gain international experience is to study abroad. You'll have many such opportunities at Miami. In fact, Miami consistently ranks in the top 10 in the nation for the number of students who study abroad.

Affordable study abroad programs are available to meet the needs of almost every student, but you must begin to make plans early in your academic career if you want to study abroad. With planning, you can study abroad without delaying graduation.

Students in any major can study at our John E. Dolibois European Center in Luxembourg for a semester or a year.We have other programs where you can study almost anywhere in the world for a semester, a year, or a summer.

Graduate Study

The major in diplomacy and foreign affairs can be an excellent first step toward graduate study in international affairs, political science, law, history, international economics, journalism, business, and other fields. Typically between 30 and 40 percent of our graduates continue their education in graduate or professional school.

If you are interested in embassy work, which is highly specialized, you will need to get a graduate degree. Because most jobs are in trade-related areas, law, accounting, and finance are helpful areas of study.

Careers to Consider

This major can be preparation for careers in government or the private sector. We recommend that students develop an additional expertise in communications, statistics, economic analysis, computers, or policy analysis since these skills are often essential in getting your first job.

As we mentioned above, you often need a master's or doctoral degree for many career areas. American corporations hire a significant number of lawyers to investigate price structures of foreign products and to lobby for fair-trade laws. With a Ph.D. in political science, you might work in the Department of Agriculture, monitoring the production and sales of other nations' food. This affects U.S. agricultural support programs and tells American farmers how much to produce. Or you might work for the Department of Energy, as does one Miami graduate, specializing in nuclear weapons production and monitoring other nations' supplies of weapons-grade plutonium.

Overseas Programs

The Office of International Programs maintains a well-equipped library of resources on overseas study opportunities. A full-time study abroad adviser is available to help you make plans.

Summer Study Abroad

Going abroad in the summer is a popular way to experience foreign cultures. Each summer, Miami offers intensive advanced French language and culture in Dijon, France; intermediate and advanced German in Heidelberg, Germany; Japanese in Mishima, Japan; Portuguese in Brazil; Italian at the Summer Language Institute in Urbino, Italy; and Spanish in Puebla, Mexico.

These programs enable you to accomplish a full year of language study in one summer.

Many of our academic departments offer summer programs overseas in several countries of Western and East/Central Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Africa, South Asia, and the countries of the Caribbean and Central America. Summer workshops involving overseas study include Gothic architecture in France; international advertising in London; archaeology in Crannog, Ireland; tropical flora of the Bahamas; and anthropology in Nepal.

Exchange Programs

Through a special arrangement between Miami and the Kansai University of Foreign Studies in Osaka, Japan, you can spend a year studying and living in Japan, exchanging places with a Japanese student who comes to Miami. Similar exchange agreements are held with the University of Glasgow in Scotland, the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration in Austria, Aarhus University in Denmark, and the University of the Americas-Puebla in Mexico.

In addition, Miami's membership in the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) provides an opportunity for Miami students to attend any one of 120 institutions in more than 30 countries.

In all of these exchanges, you pay regular Miami tuition and fees and continue your registration at Miami to maintain scholarship eligibility.

Student Teaching Abroad

A very popular option at Miami is our Student Teaching in Europe Program. You teach in English with an American-style curriculum. Programs are available from kindergarten through high school in Department of Defense Dependents Schools, which serve children of U.S. military and civilian personnel stationed in Germany.

An international school in Luxembourg is also used for placements. This is a private school serving children of English-speaking and international communities living in the Luxembourg area.

Recognizing the importance of diverse settings and cultural experiences, Miami recently has expanded its international student teaching opportunities to include sites in Guadalajara, Mexico; Ghana, Africa; and Perth, Australia.

In all our international teaching programs, you receive the same quality of supervision as you would student teaching in the United States. A university faculty member supervises you, and you work under the guidance of a cooperating teacher at your school.

Honors Program Abroad

The Selwyn College, Cambridge England program allows you to conduct independent study under the supervision of British faculty through Miami's Honors Program.

Programs sponsored by other institutions: You may enroll as a visiting student in other institutions' programs worldwide and earn Miami University transfer credit.

For More Information

For general information about Miami University, please contact:

Office of Admission
301 S. Campus Ave.
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056-3434
513-529-2531 (v/t)
www.muohio.edu/requestinfo

For specific information on the Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs major, please contact:

Dr. John Rothgeb
Department of Political Science
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-2000
rothgejm@muohio.edu
www.muohio.edu/politicalscience

For more information on exchange programs or other study abroad opportunities, please contact:

Marcia Waller, Study Abroad Adviser
Office of International Programs
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-529-5985
wallermb@muohio.edu