Master of Arts Program in Conflict Resolution

The mission of the M.A. Program in Conflict Resolution is to train the next generation of leading researchers and practitioners with the skills and knowledge required to effectively analyze and intervene in the complex conflicts confronting humankind. The Program is guided by Georgetown University’s historic commitment to social justice and constructive intergroup relations that support the holistic development of its students. As a world-class center of training and research in conflict resolution, the Program provides a multi-disciplinary path to academic excellence. A major focus of the Program is conflict mainstreaming, which prepares students to apply conflict resolution skills and analysis across diverse sectors, ranging from domestic organizational and intergroup conflict to humanitarian emergencies and collective violence overseas.

Since its founding, the Georgetown Conflict Resolution Program has actively explored leadership and practice, undertaking a number of outreach efforts with academic and policy organizations, both at home and abroad. The ‘leadership and practice’ philosophy means that there is an intimate and integral relationship between research, teaching, and practice in the Conflict Resolution Program. The content of classes is directly shaped by the research and practice undertaken by faculty and through collaborative learning with students. This philosophy and practice enables students to see firsthand how theories and skills learned in the classroom can be applied in real life conflict resolution.

One of the program’s unique strengths is that the curriculum is built on a core set of interdisciplinary courses that provide students with conflict resolution practice and theory. The core courses are offered in the Government Department, Psychology Department, and the McDonough School of Business. Beyond the required classes, students are strongly encouraged, with the support of a faculty mentor, to concentrate their studies on a particular geographic and/or sectoral area. While conflict resolution can be conducted as a stand-alone discipline, the majority of students working in the field will bring their skills and knowledge into related sectors such as international development, humanitarian relief, the environment, organizational development, and other key areas.

Students focus their studies in two main areas. First, a number of students choose to pursue one of the certificate programs at Georgetown, which include Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies or area studies programs such as Arab Studies. Most students develop an area of focus beyond core conflict skills and theory, by drawing on the variety of electives that address conflict related themes across campus, including Georgetown’s international relations programs, as well as at the Georgetown Law Center, the Public Policy Institute, among others with the support of one or more GU faculty mentors. Building on the institutional strengths of the program and the university, students develop expertise in areas such as: religion, global health, peacekeeping interventions, and transitional justice and on particular geographic regions including the Middle East, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

The overarching goal of the Program is to provide students with the core theoretical and practical skills to help foster more peaceful relations in the world today. Students receive rigorous training in conflict analysis skills; explore how theory informs practice; become well-versed in the conflict resolution industry; gain solid ethical foundations; develop their communication, research, and writing abilities and prepare themselves to work across diverse cultural and institutional contexts. Graduates of the Program are equipped to pursue careers in government, nonprofit and private sector organizations, as well as doctoral studies in conflict resolution and related fields.