Department of International Relations

The Department of International Relations was established in 1956 and is the only one of its kind in eastern India. The Department of International Relations is located at the main campus of the Jadavpur University and is housed in the ground, first and fourth floors of the PG Arts building. The Department imparts knowledge on the varied aspects of national and international politics giving primary emphasis on contemporary issues relating to political, strategic and economic matters. There are at present 19 faculty members. Faculty members of the department are engaged in teaching at the Undergraduate,Postgraduate and M.Phil. levels, as well as in research in different aspects of international relations. At present, five options are offered on Area Studies which are included as special papers in the Postgraduate course. The department promotes research in such areas as internal and external security concerns of India and South Asia, bilateral relations, foreign policy, problems of ethnicity, society and the role of military in South Asia, human rights, environmental issues and the concept of gender in international relations. The Department also has a Centre for Refugee Studies.

B.A. and M.A. degrees are offered in Political Science and International Relations respectively. The Department offers three optional language courses at the Postgraduate level. The M.Phil. degree is also offered in International Relations. The intake of students in the department at the Under-graduate, Post-graduate and M.Phil. level is 135, 130 and 30 respectively. The students are admitted to the Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses on merit only. There is an admission test for the M.Phil. course.

The departmental library has a collection of about 4,000 books on relevant issues and is a regular subscriber of nearly 56 journals of national and international repute. The department also has a newspaper clipping section (Tarak Nath Das Research Centre), the only one of its kind in Eastern India with nearly 2,5000 files dealing with specialised topics of national and international importance.