Certificate in Global Conflict Studies

While past generations witnessed world wars and other great power struggles, global conflict has evolved to include violent extremism, large-scale displacement, and failed nations. Future leaders must also adapt their concepts and empirical approaches in order to understand the new nature of conflict when proposing solutions for the future.

By focusing on comparative development, political economy, and applied methodology, the Global Conflict Studies Certificate is designed to prepare students for careers in government, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations, or multinational corporations.

Students who complete this certificate will be able to:

  • Develop the ability to discern what makes empirical evidence compelling related to conflict study.
  • Assess key arguments advanced in the arena of conflict and consider, through an evidence-based lens, the relationship of conflict to factors such as economic opportunity, natural resources, foreign aid, military technology, ethnic divisions and identity, etc.
  • Understand the intersection between state-level societal incentives and global governance structures.

The certificate’s curated list of electives is designed to allow students to explore multiple academic approaches to understanding conflict, including from anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology and to become familiar with policy fields related to conflict, including governance, energy and environment, human rights, economic development, and more. In addition, we encourage students pursuing the certificate to participate in events sponsored by The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts.

Application Process

The certificate is open to any University of Chicago graduate student. Harris students should contact their academic advisor to indicate intention to pursue this certificate. If you are a non-Harris student and intend to complete the requirements for the Global Conflict Studies Certificate, please submit the Harris Certificate Application for Non-Harris Students to indicate you are pursuing this certificate. For information on which quarter(s) each course will be offered, see the Harris Courses page and filter by certificate. 

Certificate Requirements & Courses

No certificate course may be taken on a pass/fail basis. Completion of a course cross-listed with the Certificate in International Development may be counted toward both certificates.

The certificate will be awarded to students who complete any three of the qualifying courses; however, the following two courses are recommended as a fundamental sequence of the certificate:

  • PPHA 38740 Conflict and Applied Data Science (previously Conflict: Root Causes, Consequences, and Solutions for the Future)
  • PPHA 35560 Conflict and Humanitarian Intervention: Blurring Humanitarian, Development, and Security Policy

Other qualifying courses:

  • PPHA 37105/PLSC 48700 Crime, Conflict, and the State
  • PPHA 60000-1 Global Conflict and International Development Policy Lab
  • SSAD 47812 Human Rights Policy and Practice
  • ANTH 34721 Humans After Violence 
  • PPHA 32750 Hydropolitics: Water Policy and Conflict
  • PPHA 38752/LAWS 43262 International Human Rights
  • LAWS 53322 International Humanitarian Law
  • PPHA 38790 Introduction to Peacebuilding
  • PPHA 33510 Nuclear Policy
  • PPHA 32740 Order and Violence 
  • PPHA 60000-4 Police Reform Policy Lab (to count this course, students should complete this form)
  • PPHA 38765 The Politics of Authoritarian Regimes 
  • PLSC 48401 Quantitative Security
  • PLSC 40610 Seminar on International Security Affairs 
  • SSAD 46922 Structuring Refuge: U.S. Refugee Policy and Resettlement Practice
  • PPHA 44550 Weak States and International Relations (not offered in 2021-22)
  • PPHA 47420 Women, Peace, and Security (to count this course, students should complete this form)

Certificate in International Policy and Development

The IPD Certificate focuses on two broad kinds of questions:

  1. How to achieve economic and political development? These courses focus on why some people and societies  are poor, unequal, unstable, or unfree, and what circumstances and policies promote wealth, equality, stability, and freedoms.
  2. How to design and implement public policy globally? The courses focus on public policy issues in an international setting across a range of subjects, including: education, health, children, criminal justice, public finance, labor markets, elections, and so forth.

The IPD Certificate is designed to prepare students for careers in government, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, or multinational corporations.

Students who complete this certificate will be able to:

  • Assess key arguments advanced historically and currently in the arena of development.
  • Understand whether and why an intervention is successful or not, whether an intervention is scalable, and how to meaningfully measure outcomes.
  • Seek data-driven solutions to development issues across multiple sectors, including economy, education, governance, energy, security, gender, health, and the environment.

The certificates’s curated list of electives is designed to allow students to explore multiple academic approaches to understanding development, including from economics, political science, statistics, and psychology.  In addition, we encourage students pursuing the certificate to participate in events and programming sponsored by The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts, Harris International Policy and Development, and the International Development Policy Association, a Harris student organization.

Application Process

The certificate is open to any University of Chicago graduate student. Harris students should contact their academic advisor to indicate intention to pursue this certificate. If you are a non-Harris student and intend to complete the requirements for the Global Conflict Studies certificate, please submit the Harris Certificate Application for Non-Harris Students to indicate you are pursuing this certificate. For information on which quarter(s) each course will be offered, see the Harris Courses page and filter by certificate. 

Certificate Requirements & Courses

No certificate course may be taken on a pass/fail basis. Completion of a course cross-listed with the Certificate in Global Conflict Studies may be counted toward both certificates.

The certificate will be awarded to students who complete any three of the qualifying courses; however, the following two courses are recommended as a fundamental sequence of the certificate:

  • PPHA 35550 Economic Development and Policy
  • PPHA 35556 Political Economics of Developing Countries

Other qualifying courses:

  • PPHA 35585 The Chinese Economy
  • PPHA 37040 Economic Growth and Development
  • PPHA 32736 Economics, Politics and African Societies
  • PPHA 35240 Education in Developing Contexts
  • PPHA 36922 Energy in the Developing World
  • PPHA 600000 Global Conflict and International Development Policy Lab
  • PPHA 32760/SSAD 62912 Global Development and Social Welfare
  • PPHA 35540 How to Change the World: Science of Policymaking in International Policy and Development
  • PPHA 35565 Infrastructure and Development 
  • PPHA 39930 International Climate Policy
  • SSAD 63301/63302 International Perspectives on Social Policy and Social Work Practice
  • LAWS 43232/01 Law and Economic Development
  • PPHA 39530 Macroeconomic Policymaking
  • PPHA 32740 Order and Violence
  • PPHA 30810 Political Economy of Natural Resources (not offered in 2021-22)
  • PPHA 39750 Politics and Public Policy in Latin America
  • SSAD 63800 Program Evaluation in International Settings 
  • PPHA 34600 - 2 Program Evaluation: International Development Focus 
  • PPHA 35561 Running Randomized Trials In Low And Middle Income Countries
  • PPHA 35570 Translating Evidence for Policy and Program Design
  • PPHA 47400 Women, Development and Politics

2018 Pearson Global Forum

Pearson Fellows Sarah Claudy (MPP '19) and Haz Yano (MPP '20) attend the 2018 Pearson Global Forum in Chicago, IL.

Anne Ryan / The Pearson Institute