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International Security Policy (ISP)
The International Security Policy concentration is designed for students interested in international conflict and conflict management, defense policy, military strategy, arms control, intelligence, peacekeeping, coercion, negotiation, and alternatives to the use of force as an instrument of policy. It provides a conceptual foundation for understanding conflict and the political, economic, and military components of policies and capabilities for coping with the possibility of war, as well as expertise for analyzing specific functional and regional security issues. The course of study prepares students for employment in a wide range of professional positions: government (for example, the U.S. departments of State and Defense, intelligence agencies, Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office, legislative staffs, or their foreign counterparts), international organizations such as the United Nations, consulting firms, public interest organizations, non-profit research institutes, journalism, or other areas.
ISP attracts many students interested in the field known elsewhere as Conflict Resolution. The flexible requirements of the concentration make it possible for courses focused on conflict resolution to comprise up to half of the six needed for concentrating in ISP. Many students interested in non-forcible conflict resolution also decide that it is in their interest to get a solid grounding in how force is used in international politics in order to buttress the credibility of their claims, in working environments, to expertise in dealing with conflict. SIPA's International Conflict Resolution Program, under the direction of Dr. Aldo Civico, is headquartered in the Institute of War and Peace Studies, the SIPA institute affiliate for the ISP concentration.