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Hamilton Lugar School of
Global and International Studies
Indiana University Bloomington
Master’s Programs

International Affairs

A one-year master’s built jointly with the O’Neill School, for people who want the analytical training and the international training at the same time.

Apply to Hamilton Lugar Talk to graduate services

About this degree

You will learn how the international system was built, how it is governed now, and how to make an argument about it that holds up: history and institutions on one side, economics and evidence on the other. It runs a year, which is short enough to take while a career waits for you.

It is taught jointly by Hamilton Lugar and IU’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and that pairing is the point of it. O’Neill teaches policy and management; Hamilton Lugar teaches the regions, the languages and the area expertise. You leave able to analyze a problem and to understand the place it is actually happening in. It was also priced deliberately, to be among the most affordable degrees of its kind at a public research university.

  •  
    3
    concentrations to choose from
  •  
    1
    year to completion

Based on 2026 data

Who this degree is for

This is the right degree for you if:

  • You have a career underway, or one waiting, and two years away from it is too long
  • You want the quantitative training as well as the regional and language teaching
  • You would rather finish with a piece of policy analysis than a thesis

Courses you could take

Five courses make up the general core and from there you take concentration coursework and electives drawn from Hamilton Lugar, O’Neill, and the College of Arts and Sciences.

  • History of the International System (INTL-I 520)
  • International Economic Strategies and Trade Policy (SPEA-D 577)
  • Global Governance and International Organizations (INTL-I 521)
  • Statistical Analysis for Effective Decision Making (SPEA-V 506)
  • Practicum in International Policy Analysis (INTL-I 500)

Choosing your concentration

Everyone takes the same core. After that you choose one of three concentrations, and you can take more than one, or design your own with approval. Each is anchored by a course that tells you what it is really about.

  • Security, Diplomacy and Governance — including International Security Regimes (INTL-I 523)
  • Finance and Trade — including Development Economics (SPEA-D 573)
  • Global Development, Environment and Sustainability — including Seminar in Global Development (INTL-I 503)

Where this degree leads

A year in, graduates go into work that is international by default. Four broad directions:

  • Multilateral organizations, and regional institutions with global mandates
  • National government — ministries of foreign affairs and defense, intelligence agencies, environmental agencies, trade offices
  • NGOs and nonprofits — advocacy, research, education, social enterprise, impact investing, grant-making and field work
  • The private sector — consulting, energy, environment, technology, media, financial services and healthcare

Planning your Degree

  • Degree requirements
    Your required courses, what counts toward the degree, and the language and research expectations. This opens the current Graduate Bulletin. If you started in an earlier year, find that year in the archive — it is the edition that governs your degree.
  • Courses and schedules
    What is actually being taught this term, when each class meets, and where seats are still open.
  • Sample pathway
    A suggested route through the degree, semester by semester, that you can adjust around your own track, language and time abroad. Build on it in Pathways.

Where to go next

Hamilton Lugar School

Graduate Admissions

355 North Eagleson Avenue Bloomington, IN 47405-1105