MISSION

The Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies (IPS) is a highly analytical interdisciplinary program focusing on international policy analysis. Its goal is to provide students with in-depth exposure to a range of issues that they will face in the 21st century in international business and public policy, and to develop a foundation of skills and knowledge to address those issues. The program allows students to focus on: the international economic system, developing and transition societies, security issues, or the world environment.

PROGRAM INFORMATION

The program trains the next generation of policy analysts, who will go on to influence policy making in trade, foreign affairs, security, and economic development. IPS students are broadly trained in both analytical and policy skills as well as the substantive issues that face the world today. IPS invites students at all points in their career to attend the program and mid-career professionals find it an ideal place to engage with other professionals while furthering their own education. IPS is able to expose its graduates to excellent research in a wide variety of fields. Students leave the program with a deepened and sophisticated understanding of the world and go on to careers in all aspects of international policymaking. In addition to class offerings, students are exposed to the range of expertise in Stanford’s internationally oriented institutions, including the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research.

A course of study in the Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies means working with the caliber and range of students that are drawn to an institution such as Stanford. The enrollment in the IPS Program historically has included students from a wide array of nations who already have attended some of the finest educational institutions throughout the world. The program especially encourages applications from mid-career professionals, who typically constitute about half of an entering class.

The Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies is a graduate-level program and grants the Master of Arts degree. The program is more than 15 years old and has steadily grown in the size of the faculty, the number of students, and the scope of the program.