Bachelor of Arts [B.A] [International Affairs] From Eastern Washington University

The International Affairs (IA) Program, housed in the Political Science?Department, is designed to provide students interested primarily in the fields of international relations and comparative politics with a body of knowledge, perspectives and critical skills for understanding the political, economic, historical and socio-cultural relationships and issues shaping today's global community. It offers a thoughtfully-integrated and relatively flexible interdisciplinary set of courses in the social sciences, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts in international affairs. The goal of this major is to provide students with a solid foundation in the liberal arts for employment and/or advanced study in an international field.

What are the degree options?

The program of study provides a choice of three concentrations - global security processes, global socio-economic processes or global public policy. These concentrations afford students the opportunity to acquire a theoretically, and historically-grounded, understanding of one significant process in which people and countries are currently engaged. Students will be expected to apply these theories to the complex global process in question, and to put that process into socio-historical context. IA students learn to consider issues broadly, to see interconnections amongst processes and geographic regions, and to engage in critical and creative thinking about them. The IA major prepares students for employment, lifelong learning and life enrichment and fits Eastern Washington University's larger purpose of providing quality liberal arts education with meaningful career preparation.

The major requires students to minor in a foreign language or, if the student is a native speaker of a foreign (non-English) language, to minor in a field of his/her choosing. All IA majors are strongly encouraged to pursue study abroad or internship opportunities with public, private, semi-private and volunteer agencies as part of their undergraduate education. The IA major culminates in a senior capstone seminar, in which students demonstrate their ability to master analytical approaches to the complex process of globalization and to apply those approaches to a specific issue or process related to globalization. This course thus brings to bear their acquired knowledge of world events and their critical thinking skills on an issue, process or region of significance to the particular student.