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Founded in 1994 in Paris, France, the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy (referred to locally as AGS) offers postgraduate degrees in international relations and diplomacy, professional training, and European Masters and LL.M. degrees in partnership with French universities.

Its campus is located in Paris in the Alliance Française Building, on the left bank of the Seine River, between Montparnasse and the traditional student area of the Latin Quarter.

The American Graduate School is a not-for-profit organization.

It is an affiliated campus of Arcadia University, Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA.

Its M.A. degree is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

AGSIRD is a member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Washington, D.C. and designated by the French Ministry of Education as an Etablissement Privé d'Enseignement Supérieur Libre.

The program

AGSIRD is based on the American system of graduate education. It also uses the resources of Paris where there are nearly 200 diplomatic missions and more than twice that number of governmental and non-governmental international organisations (OECD, UNESCO, etc.).

The program focuses on the interaction of nation-states (international relations) and also gives major attention to the private sector which national governments have less ability to control (trans-national relations).

AGS students study major theories of international relations, macroeconomics and microeconomics, rules of international law, and the practices of diplomacy, along with other core subjects such as: international organisations, global communication, international development…

Elective topics include geopolitics, global conflict, area studies (Middle-East, Africa, Latin America, etc.), gender and environmental issues.

Classes are taught in English.

International relations studies lead to careers in government civil service, politics, international business, international organisations, journalism, research and education.

History

The American Graduate School of International Relations was established by John Lee, an American born in Minnesota and long-time resident in France as a university professor of international relations. Together with a former US diplomat and another professor, he decided to found a school addressing the new needs of graduate students who would study international relations in the era after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Partners

AGS conducts cooperative programs with two French universities: the Université de Paris Sud XI, and the Law School of the Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France, whereby students may earn an American M.A. and a European Master's degree or LL.M. in two or three years.

The faculty

The faculty of the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy are international. Its members come from the United States and other countries such as India, Venezuela, Great-Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Iran, Lebanon and Israel.

The student body

40 to 50 nationalities are represented in the student body and alumni of AGSIRD.

External links

• Official website
• “Expanding Horizons”, Arcadia, the Magazine of Arcadia University,[1]
• Al Jazeerah report on the first international conference organized by AGSIRD [2]