Core Courses

Declared IR majors will complete 30 units worth of core courses from those listed below. Check the Stanford ExploreCourses for course availability.

1) International Politics (5 units)

  • INTNLREL 101: Introduction to International Relations 

2) Comparative Governance (5 units)

Choose ONE of the following courses:

  • INTNLREL 102: History of the International System (HISTORY 102)
  • INTNLREL 114D: Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (POLISCI 114D)

3) American Foreign Policy (5 units)

Choose ONE of the following courses:

  • INTNLREL 110C: America and the World Economy (POLISCI 110C, POLISCI 110X)
  • INTNLREL 110D: War and Peace in American Foreign Policy (AMSTUD 110D, POLISCI 110D, POLISCI 110Y)
  • INTNLREL 154: The Cold War: An International History (HISTORY 266C)
  • INTNLREL 168: America as a World Power in the Modern Era (HISTORY 152K, INTNLREL 168W)
  • INTNLREL 168A: American Interventions, 1898-Present (HISTORY 259E)
  • INTNLREL 173: Presidents and Foreign Policy in Modern History (HISTORY 261G)
  • INTNLREL 174: Diplomacy on the Ground: Case Studies in the Challenges of Representing Your Country (HISTORY 252B)

4) Introductory Economics (5 units)

Choose ONE of the following:

  • ECON 1: Principles of Economics
  • ECON 50: Economic Analysis I
  • ECON 51: Economic Analysis II
  • ECON 52: Economic Analysis III

5) Applied Economics (5 units)

Choose ONE of the approved upper-division economics courses. 

6) Skills Class (5 units)

Choose ONE of the following courses:

  • ECON 102A: Introduction to Statistical Methods (Postcalculus) for Social Scientists
  • POLISCI 150A: Data Science for Politics 
  • STATS 60: Introduction to Statistical Methods: Precalculus (PSYCH 10, STATS 160)
  • CS 109: Introduction to Probability for Computer Scientists