Institute of Graduate Studies and Research

International Relations (PhD)

Duration 5 Years

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About
Curriculum
Entry Requirements
Fees & Scholarships

About the Program

Our Ph.D. program aims to teach students the analysis and exploration of the changing structure of international relations in a theoretical and comprehensive manner. Ph.D. students are provided with the necessary tools enabling them to develop analytical and critical skills. Essential aims of our program are; ensuring careers in public and private institutions, and supporting the academic and scientific studies on international relations in our university and in North Cyprus. Our program adopts a comprehensive approach and includes debates on theoretical issues. The curriculum is regularly updated and adapted to the changing structure of global international relations education system to fulfil the expectations and requirements of our university.

Education Opportunities

Ph.D. in International Relations program is comprised of advanced elective courses for graduate students to specialize in. The courses are given in advanced fields such as international relations theory, security issues, political economy, Middle East, political philosophy, comparative cultural analysis, conflict and conflict studies, and the like. Upon successful completion of the courses, students take a "scientific qualification examination". This examination consists of two steps: Written and oral. The written exam consists of three different areas from the field of international relations and the oral exam reassesses students’ analytical performance in those areas. Those who succeed in the exam proceed to the Ph.D. thesis writing stage and after the approval of the thesis proposal, they attend the Ph.D. supervision juries at the end of each semester. In accordance with the regulations of our university; students, prior to their thesis defense jury, have to publish an article, related to their thesis topic, in a journal indexed in SSCI, AHCI, SCI or SCI expanded.

Career Areas

The Department of International Relations aims to train students to not only become experts in their chosen field, but also be able to work with an international vision. In short, using their ability and background students will be able to put their theoretical and professional knowledge into practice in organizations such as:
International and National Organizations (United Nations, European Union, IMF, etc.);
Public Institutions;
Multinational Companies;
Visual and Printed Press;
Non- Profit Organizations;
Universities;
Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
International relations branches of national, international and global institutions also employ our graduates.

Contact

Institute of Graduate Studies and Research
Graduate Sciences and Education Center, GE106
Tel: +90 392 671 1111 Extension: 2776
Institute E-mail: ciu-institute@ciu.edu.tr

Compulsory Courses

First Semester

ELECTIVE I

Course code

INRE6X1

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

ELECTIVE II

Course code

INRE6X2

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

ELECTIVE III

Course code

INRE6X3

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

ELECTIVE IV

Course code

INRE6X4

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

ELECTIVE V

Course code

INRE6X5

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

ELECTIVE VI

Course code

INRE6X6

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

Second Semester

THESIS

Course code

INRE600

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

160

Supervised independent research on a topic agreed between the student and the supervisor (a faculty member) and approved by the Administrative Committee of the Institute. It is evaluated by a jury of three faculty members and two from other universities.

QUALIFICATION EXAM

Course code

INRE650

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

SEMINAR

Course code

INRE690

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

Seminar presentation and group discussions on selected topics related to the International Relations.

Philosophy of Science

Course code

PHIL601

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course will follow three main paths: Firstly it will introduce philosophy to doctoral students. The meaning of philosophy, its scope, its sub-branches and its different schools will be the subject topic of the first weeks. Then the course will focus on the relation of philosophy with the sources of knowledge and different sciences. Here, Rationalism, Empiricism and Intuitionism will be covered during the following weeks. In the remaining weeks the course will concentrate on philosophy of science and scientific ethics. Logical positivism, paradigm changes, falsificationism, the questions of “what is science”, “what is pseudo-science?”, “what is the relation between theory and reality?” are amongst topics that will be covered. Finally, the course will concentrate on ethical theories and will particularly cover scientific ethics.

Elective Courses

ETHNIC CONFLICT

Course code

INRE624

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The course is designed in five different parts to examine and explore ethnic conflicts. The first part explores different theories that explain ethnic conflict while the second part presents different case studies to inform students on the variety of issues, identities as well as differences and similarities of each unique case. Part three examines the gender dimension of ethnic division in various places. Part four and five discuss managing ethnic conflicts and examine questions for post-conflict construction of ethnically divided societies. Case studies will be examined and analyzed in light of theories that are discussed earlier in the semester. This practice will help us to apply theories and critically examine how efficiently they provide explanations for actual conflicts.

FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS

Course code

INRE602

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course provides the students of International Relations a research facility that enhances their analytical and reasoning skills in understanding the key concepts and ideas about foreign policy-making in a systematic and theoretical way. By emphasizing all the perspectives and approaches on Foreign Policy Analysis, the course aims to provide the conceptual debates on different foreign policies of selected countries as a field of study. In this respect, the course on foreign policy analysis is primarily centered on the processes, effects, causes, and outputs of foreign policy decision-making both in a comparative and case-specific manner.

MIDDLE EAST IN WORLD AFFAIRS

Course code

INRE604

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The main objective of this course is to analyze the political, socio-cultural and economic structures of the Middle Eastern countries in order to compare and conceptualize the internal and external political making in the region. Within this framework, the course will focus on issue-areas and specific country models to examine nation-building processes, politics of identity, regional ideologies, minorities, processes of democratization in a regional context. Finally, the lectures will put an emphasis on the issue of predicaments and problems pertaining to these processes of nation and state-building in the Middle East realm.

ADVANCED THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Course code

INRE601

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The fundamental objective of this course is to provide the students of International Relations the necessary conceptual and methodological tools to analyze the current international system. The theoretical debates like realism-globalism, critical international theory, constructivism, post-modernism, post-colonial discourse, and normative theories are the main approaches under consideration. In this respect, the course is aimed to examine the theories and how they approach the concepts of international organizations, foreign policy, and the international system.

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Course code

INRE610

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course will aim to examine the role of international organizations in a globalizing world. It focuses on the roles of state and non-state international/ transnational actors in global governance and attempts to analyze various examples of international organizations from a historical, conceptual and theoretical point of view.

SELECTED ISSUES IN POLITICS OF CYPRUS

Course code

INRE666

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The course offers a critical examination of the current politico-economic landscape in the island within a broader historical context. It covers major economic, social and political turning points that took place since the end of the 19th century. The major focal point is the Cyprus conflict, its historical evolution, and the role of international as well as local actors involved to resolve (or to perpetuate) it. This requires a multidisciplinary approach and use of different theoretical frameworks, which includes but not limited to nationalism, conflict resolution, international law, geopolitics, and post-colonialism. By the end of the semester the students are expected to write a literature review on a specific dimension of Cyprus politics of their choice, which will provide a basis for an original research.

ISSUES IN EURO - MED POLITICS

Course code

INRE635

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course aims to develop the theoretical and empirical background of the students about the political, cultural, economic and security affairs of the countries which are members of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Thus and so the project of Euro-Mediterranean Partnership will be analyzed within the framework of both traditional and critical theories by referring to the three constitutive phases (security and political cooperation, economic cooperation and cultural dialogue) as well as by assessing certain case studies.

PHILOSOPHY AND GLOBALIZATION

Course code

INRE621

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The present PhD course has the aim to shed a light on the mutual critical relation between the philosophy and the globalization. The course will focus on today's and 20th century’s contemporary philosophers. In this respect we will cover the philosophies of Giorgio Agamben, Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Slavoj Zizek, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière who all have at least an IDEA to argue against the currents of economic and political globalization. Whilst the globalization is mostly accepted as a channel for emancipation and freedom for the world societies, those philosophers find out the fragile imbalances within the global mechanisms and analyze through concepts the repressive core of the economic and political globalizations.

THEORIES AND ISSUES IN GLOBAL SECURITY

Course code

INRE603

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course analyzes the issues and problems of international security from both traditional and new theoretical approaches. Therefore, it refers both traditional military power-centric security conceptualization and also alternative approaches that focus on the economic, political, societal and environmental dimensions of global security. The explanatory power of these theoretical approaches will be assessed through case studies on the specific country analyses, security complexes in different parts of the world and the core issues in the security communities.

ACTUALITIES IN INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC LAW

Course code

INRE612

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course is designed for PhD students and examines a number of topics of current, specific, most important, and acute problems of international law. Issues include general principles of law; diplomatic protection; question of the protection and inviolability of diplomatic agents and other persons entitled to special protection under international law; issues relating to international terrorism; implementing principles of human rights and protecting the environment, the issues related to the climate change and global warming will covered in this course. The readings for the course are largely recently-published or unpublished articles or book chapters. The students will prepare a project about a current issue of the public international law as an evaluation process.

CRITICAL THEORY

Course code

COMM610

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course is designed to study, in the context of ground texts; what is critical theory and how it is being analyzed in today’s world by different approaches. In that respect, the texts those philosophers will be examined especially Marx, Kant and Hedel, Lukacs, Nietzsche, Fromm, Marcuse, Freud, Adorno and Habermas.

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND PROPAGANDA

Course code

COMM614

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The main subjects of this course are political communication activities, elections campaigns and positions of women, young, old people, workers and lobours in campaigns different social institutions such as political parties, lobby groups, trade unions, trade associations, federations and confederations, non – governmental organizations. In addition to that the course will focus on effective propaganda techniques to be able to affect choice of voter by analyzing previous election campaign strategies of parties.

THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Course code

INRE501

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

COMPARING WORLD POLITICAL CULTURES

Course code

INRE622

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This PhD course aims to analyze different Political Cultures in the world in a comparative perspective. Why some societies are more rebellious than others? Why some are more submissive and loyal to their State? What is the essence of culture and where is it related to political participation? What is what we call “A democratic culture?” Is there a relation between the education and the political participation? All those questions will be dealt with during the course sessions in order to find out the differences and similarities of world political cultures. Theories of Democracy and Political Culture will shed light on the comparative analysis.

GLOBAL MEDIA AND CONFLICT

Course code

INRE626

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

Having based on the scholarly studies on media and international conflict, this course intends to provide the participants with the ability to develop an internal coherent scientific perspective supported by appropriate theories and methodologies in order to comprehend and explain media representation of global, regional, national and local conflicts. Within this context, topics of this course include theories of media representation, theories of international conflict, methods of analyzing mediated conflicts, the role and position of media institutions and professionals in representation, construction, deconstruction, reconstruction, and resolution of various types of conflicts as well as post-conflict situations.

GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Course code

INRE634

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

PROBLEMS IN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Course code

INRE503

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

Philosophy of Science

Course code

PHIL601

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

DOCUMENTARY FILM AND TELEVISION

Course code

COMM622

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course will consider the history, theory and aesthetics of the documentary, both on film and on television. We will examine the tools and techniques available to documentary filmmakers, and consider the different ways in which they have been used to represent reality. The course will also address the political dimensions of documentary production, including propaganda, and will ask whether objectivity is possible within the form. Key productions for discussion will include: Nanook of the North (1922), The War Game (1965), High School (1968), Hearts and Minds (1974), The Thin Blue Line (1988) and The Death of Yugoslavia (1995).

ISSUES IN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Course code

INRE502

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course attempts to analyze major issues of European Integration within a theoretical framework. The course begins with an analysis of the major theories of European Integration such as functionalism, neo-functionalism and federalism. On the basis of this theoretical framework, the course will focus on the two main issues of European Integration, which are named ‘supranationalism versus intergovernmentalism’ and ‘widening versus depending’. In the context of this course, the impacts of decisions on the integration processes taken in summits such as Maastricht and Copenhagen will also be examined and discussed. The students will prepare a project about the current issues of the European Union at the end of the semester.

INTRODUCTION TO WORLD POLITICS

Course code

INRE104

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Course code

INRE525

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

Global political economy course deals with the issues of world economy and world politics by starting with the analysis of the emergence and evolution of the “world system” from the fifteenth century till the current phase of globalization. The course specifically examines the subjects like industrial and financial economic development, periodically emerging economic crises, development and undevelopment problems and economic integration of the global system. The current issue of the global terrorism will also be handled in relation with underdevelopment, and global migration trends.

INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

Course code

INRE101

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND GLOBALIZATION

Course code

INRE548

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course examines the role of international organizations in an age of globalization. It also studies the role of state and non-state actors within the context of global governance. The course attempts to analyze the changing dynamics of the international system and the emergence of new actors via discussing current regional and international political, economic, socio-cultural and humanitarian issues pertaining contemporary world affairs. The changing dynamics of globalization, the inequalities created in the world scale and the effect of recent migration trends to international organizations will be covered during the course.

MEDIA HISTORY:TEXTS AND CONTEXTS

Course code

COMM532

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course will examine the history of media and mass communication since the emergence of the printing press. The course will be organised as a survey of key moments in the international development of the media, but students will also examine key theoretical writings related to media history. Major topics to be addressed will include: the role played by technology in communication, the convergence between different forms of media, the connection between media and national culture, and the role of the media in the process of globalization.

POLITICS OF PEACE AND CONFLICT IN DEEPLY DIVIDED SOCIETIES

Course code

INRE562

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course explores the politics of deeply divided societies and focuses upon the ways through which such societies manage their divisions and sustain peaceful politics. Politics of deeply divided societies is characterized by instability and the persistence of conflict. Some deeply divided societies, however, maintain peaceful politics through power-sharing between groups. The course surveys the literatures on ethnic conflict, third party peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding as well as the power-sharing theory to answer the following questions: What makes the politics of deeply divided societies fractious and unstable? What are the main approaches to manage conflict in such societies? What roles can third party actors assume in bringing about peaceful settlements?

THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Course code

INRE501

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course provides an analysis of the major theoretical debates of International Relations discipline, including Idealism-Realism, Realism-Pluralism and recent debates in critical International Relations approaches. The course also addresses the level of analysis problem as well as the central assumptions and key concepts of various theories of International Relations; namely postmodernism, normative theory and constructivism, with special emphasis on the basic concepts, and current critique of realism and neo-realism. Theoretical framework of the International Relations discipline will be defined and analyzed in the context of the course. The new theories will also be examined in detail and discussed.

MIDDLE EAST IN WORLD AFFAIRS

Course code

INRE556

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This Course offers the students of IR a contemporary history and politics of the Middle-Eastern states. This course will examine the nationalist ideologies, processes of nation-building and political change with a particular emphasis on the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle-East. This course will provide an academic background on the Middle East politics through referring basically to issues of legitimacy and stability, leadership, political elites, ideologies and social movements. The topics which will be covered include the Palestinian Question, the Arab-Israeli conflict, intra-Arab rivalries and the role of the military in politics.

THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION

Course code

COMM505

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course is designed to introduce students the individual and social functions of communication along different theoretical approaches with political, social and economic process. The course is also focused historical development of communication researches and fundamental approaches, main communication theories, linguistic and semiological approaches, political, economical and cultural approaches and reformist theories.

CURRENT WORLD EVENTS

Course code

INRE534

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The main purpose of this course is to examine emerging issues of the international system within the framework of traditional and critical theories. Within this context, on one hand, state-centric security conceptualization will be discussed,, on the other hand, it will be aimed to add a new perspective with alternative convergences that focus on economic, political, cultural, humanitarian, social and environmental areas. Within the framework of the lecture, in addition to all of those theoretical approaches, current events and problems will be explained with examples. Furthermore, the security structures in the world’s different regions and the main subjects of the security communities will be evaluated.

RESEARCH METHODS

Course code

BUSN515

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

Research

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATE

Course code

INRE636

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Course code

BUSN532

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course is concerned with helping managers identify, select and implement strategies that would make their organizations more competitive in the marketplace. These strategies encompass decisions such as which "products" their firm offers and chooses not to offer, by the markets it seeks to serve and not serve, by the competitors it chooses to compete with and to avoid, and the level of vertical and horizontal integration it considers as optimal for all of its stakeholders. Specific ways to compete in the chosen "markets" will usually be characterized by one or more functional strategies such as product line strategy, positioning strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy, segmentation strategy, manufacturing strategy, information technology strategy, and global strategy. The intent of this course is to provide decision makers with concepts, methods and procedures by which they can improve the quality of their strategic (marketing management) decision-making.

DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Course code

INRE560

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course is aimed to examine and explore the processes of democratization and civil society movements in the Middle East with an analytical and critical methodology. Specifically, socio-cultural, economic, and political structures and the interplay of the factors and actors within these structures will be the main areas throughout the discussions in this graduate course. In addition, ideological, religious and social dimensions of the democratization and political liberalization processes of the Middle Eastern region will be analyzed and compared with specific countries and cases.

ISSUES IN EURO-MEDITERRANEAN POLITICS

Course code

INRE535

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course aims to develop theoretical and empirical background of the students in relation to the political, cultural, economic and security affairs of the countries which are members of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Thus and so the project of Euro-Mediterranean Partnership will be analyzed within the framework of both traditional and critical theories by referring to the three constitutive phases (security and political cooperation, economic cooperation and cultural dialogue) as well as by assessing certain case studies. The relations between the EU and the Euromed States will also be highlighted.

USES OF MEDIA IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Course code

COMM504

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course is designed to study, the political communication, the political parties as an institutional brand and institutional communication management, the political candidate as an individual brand, political campaign planning, media planning in political campaign, news media and public relations.

CASES IN BUSINESS ETHICS

Course code

BUSN618

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

THE POLITICS OF MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Course code

COMM623

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course will investigate a range of media texts and discourses in order to understand the ways in which systems of representation are produced, circulated and interpreted by audiences. Focusing largely on visual media, the course will examine questions of knowledge, truth, power and pleasure in relation to representations of masculinity, femininity, sexuality, whiteness and racial ‘otherness’. The course will be organized around writings by major theorists including Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Marcel Foucault, Laura Mulvey and Richard Dyer.

FILM AESTHETICS

Course code

COMM513

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

This course aims to develop the skills and knowledge necessary for analyzing film as an art and an aesthetic category. The course focuses on film theories and film criticism and gives special attention to detailed film analyses. Within this context it examines and analyzes the film styles of “auteur” filmmakers and compares their cinematographic styles with those of mainstream filmmakers.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Course code

BUSN538

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE AND CRITICAL EVALUATION

Course code

BUSN519

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

The main focus of this course is to crystallize the students’ capability of accessing, reading and understanding the evidence that is revealed through social sciences literature to guide inquiry; the use of measurement or manipulation; and an assessment of relationships under controlled, objective, and systematic conditions. The abundance of information made readily available by internet created important problems like selecting and assessing. Hence the aim is to increase awareness and furnish the students with the basic tools of critical evaluation to detect those fine nuances between what is right and what is not, the ability to capture the meaning of several, often contradictory signals and stimuli, to interpret them in holistic and integrative manner, to learn from them, and to act on them.

MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING AND GAME THEORY

Course code

BUSN629

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS I

Course code

INRE201

Credit

Theoretical

Practical

Ects

TRNC
International

Students who are interested in pursuing advanced graduate studies leading to a master’s, doctoral degree or professional doctorate degree for the Fall and Spring semesters every year. Applicants can directly apply online to our graduate programs using the application portal.

TRNC Applicants- Required documents:

Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Diploma
Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree transcripts for each completed academic term/year.
Documents to prove English proficiency for English language departments,
Scanned copy of passport or identity card.

Click for detailed admission requirements information.

Students who are interested in pursuing advanced graduate studies leading to a master’s, doctoral degree, or professional doctorate degree for the Fall and Spring semesters every year. Applicants can directly apply online to our graduate programs using the application portal.

International Applicants- Required documents:

A valid Bachelor’s Degree and transcripts for each completed academic term/year.
A valid Master’s Degree and transcripts for each completed academic term/year.
Evidence of English Language competence: TOEFL (65 IBT) or IELTS (5.5). Students without these documents will take the CIU English proficiency exam on campus following arrival.
Scanned copy of international passport/birth certificate
CV
Ph.D. research proposal
Fully completed and signed CIU Rules and Regulations document (which can be downloaded during the online application)

Click for detailed admission requirements information.

Scholarships
Fees

Cyprus International University provides academic scholarships for its students as an incentive for success, with most students benefiting from 50%, 75% or 100% scholarships or discounted tuition fees. Click for more information.

Tuition Fees are determined at the beginning of each academic year. Candidate students who are entitled to enroll in CIU can learn their fees in line with the Tuition Fee Calculation system.