AUR’s multidisciplinary Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution program explores how we approach, mediate, and resolve conflict both globally and in individual cultures. Our graduates analyze the background context and causes of conflict and develop ways of addressing it.
The Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution: Human Security in the Mediterranean and Beyond program provides the opportunity for students to understand peace and conflict in the interpersonal, institutional, societal, and global contexts and to engage with the subjects of intercultural dialogue, politics, religion, and nationalism as both causes of conflict and factors in peacebuilding.
This unique program provides students with an understanding of the political economy of peace and war, negotiation and conflict management, democracy and government, humanitarian crises, and international law and how these forces play their parts in conflict resolution. It is the ideal program for those seeking to enter a career in international relations, humanitarian aid, foreign policy making, or any area of peacebuilding.
What makes AUR's Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution program unique?
Location & focus
Rome and the Mediterranean are central to the program, with their historical significance and prominence in contemporary international affairs and conflicts. The proximity of other centers and areas relevant to contemporary global affairs in peace and conflict – the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe – is an additional advantage to our location.
Professional networks
Rome is home to a diverse range of multinational political, humanitarian, religious, and research institutions with which the university and its faculty have deep academic & professional connections, e.g., The Agency for Peacebuilding, which holds the annual international Peacebuilding Forum in Bologna. AUR Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution students are regular attendees.
Faculty expertise
AUR's Peace Studies faculty are highly experienced academic and professional practitioners who have worked in international crisis management, humanitarian protection, and peacebuilding initiatives across the world. Many have occupied high-profile roles within academic research and advisory boards for NGOs and governmental organizations within Europe & the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States.
Quick Podcasts from Professor Antonio Marchesi, Director of the Peace Studies program.
Career destinations
Career choices may include: Civil Service (working within various government ministries, including the foreign office, and international development offices), International Institutions (such as the UN Peacebuilding Commission, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and regional bodies such as the European Union, African Union, Organization of American States), NGOs (local and international) working on peacebuilding initiatives, and Academic/Research Institutes/Think-Tanks.
Monse A., 2018.
Director of Corporate Partnerships, CARE
Andrea A., 2020
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú
Avi L., 2021
Workforce Development Specialist, WDC
Meet Grace, an AUR Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution student.
In 2021, Grace was one of our favorite Peace Studies students. Her path to AUR is one that we recognize - students who have studied abroad as an undergraduate and make the decision to join an overseas Graduate school because they see the outstanding value that living and learning in another country and another culture, with classmates from across the globe, can make to their perspective and understanding of their subject, and to their future life & career prospects.
Program Information
The 15-month M.A. program consists of 10 core courses held on campus over two semesters, followed by a thesis.
Program objectives
AUR’s M.A. program in ‘Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution: Human Security in the Mediterranean and Beyond’ addresses the critical societal need to understand the causes of conflict and how to overcome or prevent these through dialogue, negotiation, and resolution.
The program's mission is to educate future professionals, scholars, and activists who can knowledgeably and professionally contribute to peace-building initiatives and conflict management in all sectors of our global society.
Thesis
In order to complete the MA degree in Peace Studies & Conflcit Resolution, students are required either to write an MA thesis or to carry out an internship and subsequently compose a project report or a policy paper displaying the experience, knowledge, and data collected during that internship.
The thesis or internship (plus report) will expand students’ knowledge on a particular subject and will prepare them for future professional work and/or further research. Successful completion of the thesis/internship contributes six credits to the overall degree.
Learning outcomes
- Students will gain the capacity to analyze contemporary conflicts with reference to current research and theories of conflict and peace-building.
- Students will gain the capacity to understand the root causes and dynamics of peace and conflict and to address disputes in order to achieve sustainable peace through negotiation.
- Students will develop practical skills for employment in the areas of peace and conflict, including conflict resolution, research and analysis skills, management, and fundraising.
A Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution field trip to the Balkans
The M.A. Program in Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution recently organized a field trip to the Balkans, the scene of one of Europe's most difficult recent periods of conflict. During the trip, the students and professors visited Sarajevo and Belgrade, where they met with significant local and international figures active in politics, NGOs, academia, and the media, including the Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the EU to the Republic of Serbia and the Chief of the NATO mission to Serbia
Student Ivana Kohut stated, "We were able to see how a lot of what we were discussing in class came together beyond the classroom. For instance, we got to see how international law can work on paper but not necessarily in practice; we got to see how humanitarian aid is often politicized (a neat continuation of themes that we have been discussing this past year), and we were able to engage with the complexities of religion and ethnicity in this particular conflict and understand how much of the 'the public' perception of these conflicts is socially constructed. It was an invaluable insight into the world we all wish to be working in.
