International Relations (REL)

In compliance with the qualifying educational objectives of the class of reference, the Master's degree course in International Relations (REL) aims to offer an advanced methodological, cultural and professional preparation in the political, legal, economic, historical, linguistic and social disciplines, such as to confer a full mastery of analysis, interpretation, evaluation and management of the various aspects in which the international dimension of political, economic and social phenomena is focused.
The multidisciplinary character and the constant focus of the degree course on the international and/or transnational dimension of every aspect of the phenomena analysed lead to the training of professional profiles in possession of the range of analytical tools, technical skills and theoretical keys that enable them to orient themselves in the complexity of the present international panorama, understanding the political system, diplomatic and economic relations and international and transnational policies. They will therefore be able to contribute to the definition, implementation and monitoring of policies, interventions and activities of public and private, intergovernmental and national institutions and organisations operating in the international field in the areas of strategy, security, human rights and their protection, economic growth and development, and trade regulation.
The degree course provides for various thematic in-depth studies, in accordance with a homogeneous basis of characterising scientific disciplines, modulated according to the above-mentioned course offering. One in-depth strand concerns diplomacy and international organisations. During the first year, this strand begins to offer an advanced preparation in the legal, economic, political and historical disciplines with an international vocation, with particular regard to international political systems, foreign policy analysis and the history of international politics, and international monetary economics, international economic and environmental law and the law of armed conflicts, as well as diplomatic and consular law. In the second year, students learn to apply the interpretative keys and methodological tools acquired in the first year, both in legal and economic terms and in the historical-political evolution, with regard to some specific areas of international relations, including, in particular, economic-financial and environmental law.
A second focus is on international trade and European integration. During the first year, the specific training objective is pursued of offering an advanced preparation with a mainly legal-economic character, relating to transnational trade and financial relations both within and outside the European Union, with particular regard to the economics of European integration, business economics and finance, international trade law, international law of financial markets, international contract and arbitration law, and single market and competition law. In the second year, students learn to use the operational tools and methodological approaches acquired in the first year in a number of specialised areas, including international contract and arbitration law, competition law and corporate finance.
A further in-depth study concerns the area of international security and regionalisation processes. In the first year, work begins on International security, with the aim of offering an advanced preparation with a political and historical-cultural as well as economic and legal slant. In the second year, the course continues with an in-depth study, alongside the dynamics of strategic and economic globalisation, of the contextual processes of regionalisation and the specificities of the functioning of the main regional geopolitical arenas of the international system, in terms of diplomatic and strategic alignments, the construction of regional international institutions, the dynamics of economic convergence and integration, and finally the formation of local identities, cultures and political languages. An in-depth study of international cooperation and trans-national social processes is also planned.
During the first year, a multidisciplinary baggage of analytical tools and methodological and theoretical competences is started to be formed in order to deepen, in particular, the socio-economic and socio-cultural transactional processes and trends that are growing in today's international society, now with global and now with regional latitude, such as migratory flows, international crime, the spread of human rights, the phenomena of encounter-clash, hybridisation and identity conflict, between different cultural spheres and civilisations. In the second year, the methodological tools and interpretative keys acquired in the first year are reinforced through courses designed to enable the design and evaluation of development policies that take into account the global phenomena outlined above and the different historical-political characterisations of the various regional areas.
An essential tool for completing all the courses is the acquisition of advanced language skills with a specialised slant. To this end, the acquisition of credits in (at least) two languages other than Italian is envisaged. An internship is also envisaged as an alternative to the acquisition of further advanced language skills.