Department of International Relations
The Department of International Relations at Ashoka aims to provide students with in-depth knowledge of the events and issues that shape the international world and equip them with a profound understanding of the foundational concepts and theories that enable intellectual analysis of international relations. Its faculty introduces students to varied perspectives on international affairs from both a scholarly and a practitioner’s point of view. This is a highly interdisciplinary department, offering courses that are grounded in theory and history, complemented with a wide variety of electives on specific issue areas, world regions, and intellectual approaches to international relations.
The department especially boasts of regional expertise of South Asia with several faculty members analysing the region’s international-historical position as well as South Asian thinking in international relations, two exciting areas of research in the discipline. This regional focus is complemented with courses on China, the United States, and Latin America, as well as courses on topics ranging from decolonisation, gender, globalisation, and diplomacy, to international conflict, aesthetics, ethics, social theory, security, and democratic peace.
The department currently offers a Minor, and a Concentration in International Relations and will be offering a Major soon. The Minor and Concentration are ideal for students who seek a ‘bridge’ discipline that can supplement and further develop their understanding of how the world works, providing them with intellectual baggage that they can then apply to other fields of study and in their future careers.
