A joint partnership between Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and a Washington, D.C.-based think tank will seek to expand opportunities at the school for mid-career professionals.

Earlier this month, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs announced a partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies — a Washington, D.C.-based think tank — to launch an executive master’s degree program in international relations.

An executive master’s program targets students who have at least seven years of experience in the workforce. The program is tailored to part-time students who plan to keep working while taking classes. The EMIR degree, which takes at least 18 months to complete, is a 30 credit hour program.

Robert Bifulco, Maxwell’s associate dean and chair of public administration and international affairs, said the new program targets young professionals working full time in the Washington, D.C. area who can’t attend classes in Syracuse.

EMIR will initially focus on national security and intelligence topics, but the goal is to expand the program into other disciplines of international relations, said Stuart Brown, director of Maxwell’s master of arts in international relations program.

Classes will be primarily offered in Washington, D.C. Some courses, though, will be offered at SU. Maxwell professors and CSIS scholars will teach the classes, Brown said.

The collaboration between Maxwell professors and CSIS scholars will give students a strong foundation in international relations topics, Brown said.

Maxwell will award the EMIR degree, so Maxwell faculty determine what courses are offered, said John Hamre, president and CEO of CSIS. CSIS scholars, though, also suggest interesting courses relevant to international relations, he added.

This is not the first time Maxwell and CSIS have worked together. Hamre said the partnership formed based off of personal and professional relationships between James Steinberg, former dean of Maxwell, and Sean O’Keefe, a Maxwell professor.

Both Maxwell and CSIS will benefit from the EMIR degree program, Hamre said.

“It gives us an opportunity to develop new ideas and new concepts,” Hamre said. “We have developed several … projects based on the preparation we have put in and the collaboration with Maxwell.”

Students in the program will work on research while embedded in CSIS programs, Hamre added.

“It is an opportunity for us to see a quality of students, some of whom we might be able to enlist to become new employees,” Hamre said.

Published on October 23, 2017 at 10:29 pm

Contact Gianna: gnpruden@syr.edu