International Relations (IR) is an honors major that seeks to provide students with an understanding of the global system’s past, the tools to function effectively in the present, and the ability to respond to future developments. The program recognizes the changing nature of the contemporary political and economic environment and seeks to lay an interdisciplinary basis for understanding these changes. It provides students with an opportunity to study the complex web of transnational politics in an in-depth, interdisciplinary fashion. The breadth of courses is designed to match the breadth of knowledge and skills that the field requires. Fluency in a foreign language and a semester of study abroad are required of all majors to help ensure that they acquire a deeper understanding of a country’s culture and institutions. In their junior or senior year, majors are also encouraged, though not required, to take advantage of the many internship opportunities that are available in New York City to students of international relations.