Europe has played a central role in international affairs throughout modern history and is now at a particularly fateful moment in its own evolution. With the Soviet collapse, it has regained its traditional geopolitical dimensions and some of its traditional problems as well. Its postwar experiment in creating a new form of continental interstate system has reached a critical stage, while its typical postwar socio-economic systems are under severe challenge. Studying Europe, in all its robust diversity, is fascinating for its own sake, and remains an excellent foundation for a career in the international field. Among leading graduate schools for international affairs, SAIS has always offered a particularly extensive program in European Studies. Our program is naturally concerned with the European Union and its member states, but also with other states in Eastern and Mediterranean Europe, including Russia. The program is closely coordinated between the Washington, D.C. campus and the Bologna Center. Candidates should spend their first year in Bologna, as there is a natural progression in courses from there to Washington. Courses should be selected and distributed accordingly. Roughly 50 to 100 candidates are enrolled in the two-year MA program. The strength, breadth of perspective, and unique interdisciplinary rigor of the program attracts not only American students but Europeans as well. Roughly half the candidates in European Studies are non-American. Much of the faculty is also European. In addition to student contingents from most West European countries, a growing number come from Central and Eastern Europe, and also from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Many find our program, with a year in Bologna and a year in Washington, an excellent introduction to the West in general. Career Possibilities Graduate education at SAIS has proved an excellent foundation for either a scholarly career of writing, teaching and research, or a professional career in government, business, or the media. Enrolling in SAIS European Studies is a good way for those with an undergraduate degree in European history, political science, economics or literature to transform their academic background into a professional capacity for analyzing problems in the contemporary world. Given Europe's central importance and the program's broad interdisciplinary character, its graduates not infrequently also find European Studies an excellent base for a career in some other part of the world. Ph.D. Program The European Studies Program accepts Ph.D. students. Typical European Studies Courses Click here to view full course descriptions History and Ideas - Europe and Islam
- Europe Since the Cold War
- Evolution of the International System
- Law of the European Union
- Theories of the Modern Political Economy
- Transatlantic Security: Issues, Dynamics and Challenges
- Warfare in European History
Politics and Political Economy - Contemporary International Political Economy
- The European Union: Institutions, History and Policies
- Problems of Advanced Economies
Country and Regional - The Balkans: From Fragmentation to What?
- Modern British Politics
- Modern French Politics
Advanced Seminars - European Research Seminar
- The Great Powers and the Politics of Central and Eastern Europe
- Trade and Investment in a Global Europe
Special Courses - European Lecture Series (non-credit)
- Faculty Research Seminar
- The Newspaper Seminar (non-credit)
Suggested Electives Offered by Other Programs - United States and the World Political Economy (American Foreign Policy)
- Law of the European Union (International Law and Organizations)
- Economic Development in Post-Communist Countries (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
- Modernization and Power in 20th-Century Russia (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
- Politics and Civil Society in Contemporary Russia (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
- Russia and the New Eurasia: Geopolitics, Economics and Foreign Policy (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
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