Department of International Relations and European Studies

The Department of International Relations and European Studies (IRES) is a center of excellence for education, training and research.

IRES integrates international relations scholarship with regional expertise in both the Eastern and Western parts of the enlarged European Union together with the wider European neighborhood. The department's devotion to the time-honored traditional canons of international relations theory and to the two major sub-disciplines of security studies and international political economy forms the foundation of the program content, complemented by a necessarily multi-disciplinary approach to EU integration and expansion and the EU's relations with the former Soviet Union. This highly competitive program provides an enriching environment that generates research on relevant topics in a globalizing world. An interdisciplinary faculty (including scholars from international relations, history, law, economics and political science) and a broad scope of course offerings attract top-level graduate students from around the world.The student/faculty ratio for the Department of International Relations and European Studies is 7:1.

Interest in, and respect for, cultural, national and religious diversity are highly valued at IRES; which has one of the most diverse faculty and student populations at CEU. We encourage our students to think of IR scholarship as an historically and culturally contingent practice and to enter the classroom prepared to contribute to an ongoing conversation about international relations and public policy. Above all, IRES is committed to educating a new generation of professionals in the region who will help ensure the peace and stability of Europe in the 21st century.