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Master of Arts in International Relations

Message from the Director

March 2013

Message from the Director to Continuing, New, and Prospective MAIR Students,

Nine MAIR students returned in late January from a three week tour of four European cities (Paris, Brussels, Vienna, and Istanbul.)   Some of the highlights will be posted on the website soon; they include our lectures in Paris by Moroccan journalist Aboubakr Jamai and French strategist Bruno Tertrais, our roundtable discussion with Secretary General David Hobbs of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and conversation with Phillip Massart of Sibelga in Brussels, our meetings with UN officials at the IAEA and UNODC in Vienna, and finally the tour of Topkapi palace and the academic talks at Bosporous University in Istanbul.   A variation of this 3.0 unit "Eurotour" will be offered again in January 2014; we will also probably be accepting an invitation to attend a NATO meeting in October or November 2013. 

This spring semester we are offering three 3.0 unit seminars and three 1.5 unit workshops, not counting electives outside the department of Political Science.  The seminars are on Comparative Politics with Department Chairman Dr. Mike Williams, Politics of Intelligence with recently retired CIA analyst Barbara Tato, and South Asian Politics and Security with retired Pakistani general Feroz Khan.  The workshops include Global Energy Politics with former Minister of Energy of Colombia Rodrigo Villamizar, 21st century international relations with Dr. Jonathan Wadley from the NGO community, and our comprehensive capstone course with me.   Four of these courses are offered one evening per week and the other two are offered on special compressed schedules (also in the evenings.)  Several students are taking electives in Peace and Justice and in other graduate programs on campus.  Seminars are a bit cozier than normal as our program has increased from 18 students last spring 2012 to 25 in the fall 2012 to 32 this spring 2013. 

We will be having some special guest lectures over the spring, beginning with John Stoessinger, author of Why Nations Go To War, in February, Ev Meade from the History program at UCSD on Central America in April, and others.  (Check out the MAIR Calendar of Events on the website.)   We will be hosting a workshop for international military officers on April 11 and we will be holding our capstone conference on May 2 when graduating students present their final papers for the program.

This summer 2013 we are tentatively planning to offer courses on Human Rights in Central America in early June with Dr. Ev Meade from the UCSD History Department, US National Security from late June to early August with Mr. Michael Dobbs, former Navy commanding officer of the USS Pennsylvania (SSBN), Comparative Criminal Law (in Xiamen and Shanghai China) in late July with Chinese and American faculty including Dr. Del Dickson in our Department, and Research Design in late August with Dr. Casey Dominguez also from the Department.  

The fall semester 2013 is now partially organized and will offer courses on US Foreign Policy by former CIA analyst Dr. Michael Turner, International Relations Theory by Dr. Vidya Nadkarni, and Politics in China by the Associate Dean of Peace and Justice Dr. Lee Ann Otto; other courses are still in planning but one will almost certainly be an opportunity to spend one to two weeks in October or November in Europe (including a NATO PA conference in Croatia or Italy.)

Our website is progressing through an extensive makeover reflecting updates and changes in the program over the past year; please revisit the site as we post our current student profiles and many alumni profiles from all over the world and in all sorts of career paths.   If you are an alum, please do stay in touch and know that you are welcome in any and all of our activities, including our international  seminars.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if I can answer any specific questions or if you have any suggestions.   I hope 2013 and the year of the Snake is a slithering success for you.    

Sincerely,

Dr. Randy Willoughby  (rwilloug@sandiego.edu)