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Doctorate in International Studies

The Doctorate in International Studies program is offered in a Spanish-English bi-lingual format. Students who are not native Spanish speakers take their first year of classes in English while simultaneously learning Spanish and take classes in Spanish throughout their second year of study. Native Spanish speakers, who do not feel comfortable taking classes in English, initiate their first year of their program in Spanish. Classes will be taught in English throughout the second year of their studies. Thus, students who graduate with a degree in International Studies will at a minimum be fully bi-lingual. All students entering the doctoral program are tested for their knowledge of Spanish and English through a corresponding language placement exam administered by IERC.

The Doctorate in International Studies program is up to twelve trimesters or four years long, depending on how long it takes a student to complete his/her doctoral dissertation. All students must take two years’ worth of classes, taking three classes per trimester. Additionally students will register for four dissertation related courses that they will take independently and once they have completed all the other classes and have passed their comprehensive exam, administered at the end of the sixth trimester. Each trimester is thirteen weeks long.

Students entering the doctorate in International Studies choose between two areas of concentration: commercial economic and international political and choose an additional subcategory within these areas. Sub-categories of study include:

International Commerce
International Relations
Development Studies
State and Nation Building

Doctorate in International Studies Course Schedule

TRIMESTER	COURSE TITLE	COURSE DESCRIPTION
1st	Communications in the International Arena	The course focuses on the basic principles of different cultures and how these are expressed in communications.
	Mindsets and International Perspectives	This course looks at the values inherent in mindsets of different cultures and how these correlate to interactions between people on an international level.
	The History of Development and Evolution	This course focuses on developmental theories and how they arose. It also looks at the historic background to the creation of the modern world system, which incorporates both a developed and a developing world.
2nd	An Analysis of Economic History- Major Developments	This course looks at economics as an evolutionary process. It revisits early economic systems and the processes by which these were transformed.
	The Economics of Wealth and Poverty	This course looks at the structure of the global economy -- how wealth is/can be created and how it is/should be distributed to provide greater opportunities for further generation of wealth and well-being.
	Issues in Cultural Conflicts, Negotiations and Compromise Solutions	It is widely understood that cultural differences can lead to conflicts. Highlights of cultural misunderstandings--from verbal communications to body language and cultural practices -- are provided in this course.
3rd	Financial Institutions and Ethics	This course looks at their activities and their role in international relations - commercial and otherwise.
	Corporate Finance, Trade and International Community Impact	The role of corporations from a financial standpoint in development and their interactions with the business relations and politics of host countries will be analyzed in this course.
	The Politics of Resource Management	This course studies various approaches to resource management -- what conservation and preservation measures are being taken; how companies and nations plan toward the future; and what measures are being taken in global business and developmental interactions to prevent scarcities of essential resources.
4th	Poverty Analysis, State Formation and Development	This course focuses specifically on poverty research from a wide range of schools of thought and the interpretation and analyses of this research.
Commercial / Economics	Transnational Strategic Management	This course looks at the addition of new transnational dimensions to core technology of strategic management.
Commercial / Economics	Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the International Environment	This course focuses on the development and creation of entrepreneurial and innovation-oriented skills within the international arena.
International Political	The Meaning of Life: Existential Questions and the Role of the Individual in the Community	This course looks at various major figures of philosophy who have dealt with the individual's role in existence and life.
International Political	Philosophies of Transformation	This course discusses those philosophical concepts and ideological foundations that have transformed the world.
5th Commercial / Economics	Community Investment and Economic Growth	This course looks at business opportunities and financial instruments used to promote community development-their effectiveness and their drawbacks.
	The Global Economy	This course focuses on the current conditions of the global economy. The impact of capital movements, policies implemented at national levels and their role in enhancing and/or impeding political, social and economic development of a region are analyzed.
	International Financial Mechanisms	This course provides an analysis of the international financial instruments employed by countries and international economic institutions for development and other economic relations.
International Political	The Role of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism in a Globalized World	This course focuses on individual and national differences and how these are combined to forge communities and nations.
	Peace Studies -- Conflict Resolution and the Impact of War on Individual, Community and National Development	This course will look at the process by which conflicts are resolved and how individual, community and national development must be approached in the post-conflict period to prevent potential future outbreaks of conflict as much as possible.
	The Power of One: A Historic Analysis of Social Movements	This course looks at major social movements and their impact on world events and world transformations.
6th International Trade	The Legal Environment of International Business	This course examines problems of doing business in a global context, the operation and business law of various legal systems, and of multi-national rule making bodies.
	International Economics and Trade I: Treaty Formations and Rationale	This course focuses on economic aspects of contemporary issues in a rapidly developing interdependent global economy.
	International Economics and Trade II: Treaty Implementation, Competitive Advantages and Future Perspectives	This course looks at how best to take advantage of existing and future treaties by corporations and nations, what competitive strategies and advantages can be gained through full implementation of treaty determinants, and how corporations should position themselves toward future growth.
International Relations	Leadership and Political Decision-Making	This course focuses on the historic factors that influence the type of leadership found in nations, these nations interactions with the international community and their traditional and customary approach to problem solving.
	The International Legal Environment of Peace and Conflict	This course focuses primarily on international law and international organizations and institutions as related to conflict and peace.
	International Organizations, Negotiations and Peace	This course looks at the role played by the United Nations and various other Non-Governmental Organizations on resolving and/or heightening the potential for conflict.
Development Studies	The Impact of Poverty of Communities and the Individual	This course looks at how extreme poverty has an impact on the negative development of communities and individuals.
	The Structure of National Development	This course focuses on the causes of underdevelopment and then looks at current models of development -- economic, social and political -- and how these can be adapted to meet specific national idiosyncrasies of a specific country and/or region.
	Religions, the Formation of State and Development Theories	This course looks specifically at arguments that have been made that certain religions and belief systems are more conducive toward development than others.
State and Nation Building	Human Rights, Individual Freedoms, and Nation-Building	Current issues that are being discussed at national and international levels -- such as indigenous rights, human rights, the creation of autonomous and semi-autonomous entities for ethnic groups, and the impact of these developments on nation-building are also investigated.
	Social Institutions and Social Development	This course looks at existing social institutions at the domestic and international levels and their impact on development.
	Understanding and Developing International Mindsets	This course looks at these realities and tries to identify models that are potentially more effective for long-term national development and nation-building.
7th-12th	Research Methods	This course is geared directly toward a student's dissertation topic to guide him/her in the research structure.
	Dissertation Proposal	Each student must submit a dissertation proposal that must be approved by three academics before the student can fully initiate his/her dissertation process.
	International Negotiations, Cooperation, Conflict Resolution and Arbitrage	In this course, students will gain insights into the origins of conflicts. They will also become familiar with negotiations in the past that have been successful in averting conflict and those that have not.
	Dissertation Supervision	Throughout the dissertation process, the student will be assigned to a mentor who will guide him/her to the conclusion of the dissertation.
	Dissertation Defense	Once a dissertation has been approved by a dissertation committee each student must defend his/her dissertation in front of a committee of five academics; the dissertation defense must be unanimously approved.