Building on the recent initiative to truly globalize the field of international relations, this book provides an innovative interrogation of regionalism.

Understanding the complexities of world affairs requires an ability to think critically and to draw insights from a variety of perspectives, sources, and analytic frames. Leiden University’s Master of Arts in International Relations addresses these needs through distinctive humanities-based training…

Conference

The two-year Advanced MSc IRD programme offers you a unique blend of academic education in international relations and political science with practical graduate education and training in international negotiation and diplomacy.

Are you thinking about studying International Relations: Culture and Politics? Learn more and watch the introduction video and the programme presentation.

Are you interested in international organisations, issues of peace and security, or current changes in global political relations? Would you like to study the causes of terrorism and the resolution of violent conflicts? Develop your scholarship and skills in international affairs in The Hague.

This project studies social distance—the degree of sympathetic understanding that exists between people—in relation to state foreign policy making. Does, and if so how does, social distance shape political biases, aid narratives, and, ultimately, state foreign policy priorities and decisions?

Are you thinking about studying International Relations and Diplomacy? Learn more and watch the videos.

Are you thinking about studying Global Political Economy? Learn more and watch the introduction video and the programme presentation.

Are you thinking about studying European Union Studies? Learn more and watch the introduction video and the programme presentation.

The Leiden University Centre for International Relations (LUCIR) is a multi-disciplinary platform promoting research and education on international relations at Leiden University.

Are you thinking about studying Global Order in Historical Perspective? Learn more and watch the introduction video and the programme presentation.

This book offers readers an alternative history of the origins of the discipline of International Relations.

Are you thinking about studying Global Conflict in the Modern Era? Learn more and watch the introduction video and the programme presentation.

This book questions the accepted origins of the field of International Relations (IR). Commonly understood to have emerged from the horrors of WW1 with the goal of bringing about world peace, the authors argue that on the contrary, IR came from a somewhat less noble tradition – that of the Round Tab…

Social and Behavioural Sciences, Political Science

Study information

Article by Leiden University political scientist Daniel Thomas about shifting norms for membership in international organisations.

On Wednesday 19 October 2022, the graduation ceremony for the International Relations MA programme took place. In the Teylerszaal of the Academy Building, the cohort of Master's students received their diploma.

Reasserting America in the 1970s brings together two areas of burgeoning scholarly interest.

Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science is looking for four assistant professors in International Relations. Application deadline: 1 March 2017.

Vivian Ng came back to Leiden last June to finally sign the walls of the Sweat Room. Graduated in 2020 during the pandemic, she missed out on this wonderful tradition, like so many others. While enjoying a day off in Leiden, we talked about her time as a student and her current job.

Nichiran kankei-shi o yomitoku [Revisiting the History of Dutch-Japanese Relations] is a new, two-volume Japanese publication with a chapter written by Wulan Remmelink. Both volumes offer a new look on the historical relations between Japan and The Netherlands during the Edo period by examining various…

'After my BA International Studies I decided to do the MA International Relations, and that proved to be a good choice,' Mats Radeck (23, Trier, Germany) says. He is in the last phase of the MA, working on his thesis on

The ongoing conflicts between the United States and its allies and Russia and between the United States and its allies and China reflect both the anarchical nature of the international system and the uncertainty with which decision-makers and diplomats have to deal with in attempting to solve the conflicts…

KIGS is a research project on communication patterns in the social sciences and humanities. Counting of publications and citations are common methods to measure international scientific impact. Based on citation analyses, various calculation methods and indicators have developed in recent years. However,…

Legitimacy is generally a term that is associated with the state. The term surfaces when there are problems with state legitimacy—when it is lacking or absent. This present volume attempts to think through the relevance of the concept of legitimacy for other political actors than the state.

Various GTGC researchers convened panels and presented papers at the 14th Pan-European Conference on International Relations: The Power Politics of Nature, that took place online from 13-17 September 2021.

We are proud to announce that the Advanced Master programme International Relations and Diplomacy has been assessed as excellent by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). This is the highest score possible for an educational programme.

In our rapidly evolving and interconnected world, the study of International Relations has expanded beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries. Leiden University’s MAIR program, with its emphasis on humanities-oriented and multidisciplinary perspectives, contends that understanding the complexities…

Violence during war often involves upswings and downturns that have, to date, been insufficiently explained. Why does violence at a particular point in time increase in intensity and why do actors in war decrease the level of violence at other points? Duyvesteyn discusses the potential explanatory variables…

University lecturer Vineet Thakur hosts a series of webcasts for the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement. Karen Smith and Audrey Alejandro joined him to discuss western dominance in the field of International Relations.

It is often said that the true character of a person is only revealed in a crisis. In these days, the coronavirus causes concern about the true state of the multilateral system. Political scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) is worried about the future of multilateralism.

What makes some international organisations more likely to succumb to crises where others manage to survive or even thrive? And what can international organisations do to become resilient and withstand existential challenges? Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) studied the example…

The coronacrisis makes painfully clear that a transboundary crisis requires a transboundary response. The European Union could play a key role, but that has not happened so far. Political scientist Amy Verdun (Leiden University) explains why.

Through a range of case studies spanning the post-Cold War period in Iraq, Moldova and Serbia, this book studies asymmetric conflicts where warring sides exhibit vast power differentials.

Madeleine O. Hosli, Professor of International Relations, wrote this book in which she analyses the complex relations between the European Union (EU) as a regional organization and the United Nations (UN) as an international, global governance institution.

Practical advice, a panel discussion, and an informal networking reception: students and alumni from the MA International Relations can look back on yet another successful event last April. The diverse backgrounds and careers of the alumni vividly illustrated the range of opportunities awaiting students…