Beginning in fall 2010, SIPA will offer a new specialization in International Conflict Resolution for students enrolled in the MIA and MPA degree programs. The new specialization, which will be directed by Professor Jean-Marie Guéhenno, will provide students an understanding of the root causes of international conflicts and of how conflict resolution and transformation take place on an international level. Students also will receive practical, hands-on training in various techniques and methodologies of international conflict resolution.
“The new specialization will build on the highly successful curriculum put in place by the Center for International Conflict Resolution at SIPA,” says Professor Guéhenno. “It will provide a venue for leading practitioners and scholars to prepare the next generation of conflict resolution specialists.”
Specializations, which are comparable to “minors” in other curricular arrangements, are designed to be paired with policy concentrations, comparable to “majors”. Students seeking a specialization in International Conflict Resolution will be required to complete nine credits, including the course, “Theoretical Overview of International Conflict Resolution,” and two electives.
SIPA also offers specializations in Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis, Applied Science, International Media, Advocacy and Communications, International Organization, Management, and regional specializations in Africa, East Asia, East Central Europe, Europe, Latin America, The Middle East, Russia, Southern Asia, and the United States.
Jean-Marie Guéhenno previously served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 2000-2008, leading the largest expansion of peacekeeping in the history of the UN. Before joining the United Nations, Guéhenno served as director of policy planning in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ambassador to the Western European Union, and chairman of the French Institute of Higher Defense Studies.
