Structure Your Experience to Match Your Career Goals

The IPCR program uniquely provides students with both a solid foundation at the intersection of international peace and conflict resolution and development. The program provides opportunities to put theory into practical application through project-based learning, internships, and field experiences.

Full-time or Part-time Options

You will enroll in a two-year (full-time) or four-year (part-time) master’s degree program, which includes an applied, professional internship and practical international field experiences. The program is cohort-based—you will begin together in the fall and, if you are attending full-time, complete your degree after the second spring semester.

Foundation Courses

In our foundation courses, you are engaged in deep discussions on theories of war, conflict, and peace, in small, intimate courses with your cohort. Over the course of your program, you will take required courses in:

• Theories of peace and conflict resolution.
• Practices of conflict transformation including mediation, negotiation, and facilitation.
• Conflict assessment.
• A Case in Conflict course which includes a subsidized cohort field study.
• Capstone Project course where you'll complete a practical, applied project that prepares you for a career in the field.

Required Internship

With the help of our expert advisors, practitioners, scholars, and alumni, you choose your own internship. It is conducted either in the U.S. or overseas, in the summer or during the final fall year alongside the Capstone Project. The internship is a key field opportunity to develop your professional skills, networks, and job prospects.

Field Experiences and Internships

You will engage in significant “ real world” experience through internships, project-based learning, and global fieldwork through our Global Field Study courses. In IPCR, we believe it’s essential to be global citizens living and engaging in meaningful cross-cultural exchanges to be effective peacebuilders.

Project-based Learning

Our scholars are also practitioners, connecting their research with real-world applications. Our courses reflect that through the incorporation of project-based learning. In many courses, you will work independently and in small groups on developing practical solutions to real-world problems.

Curriculum

First Term

• IP 501 Introduction to Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• IP 508 A Case in Conflict

Second Term

• IP 504 Foundations of Conflict Analysis
• IP 533 Conflict Transformation

Third Term

• IP 583 Internship
• IP 598 Capstone

Elective Courses

• IP 511 Introduction to International Law
• IP 515 Mediation and Conflict Coaching
• IP 521 International Organizations in Dispute Resolution
• IP 522 Conflict Resolution in Deeply Divided Societies
• IP 524 Conflict Management
• IP 525 Post-Conflict Reconstruction
• IP 530 Social Life of War: Political, Cultural and Identity Processes in Global Conflict
• IP 535 Economics, the Environment and Development
• IP 537 Restorative Justice
• IP 542 International Health and Human Rights
• IP 543 Peace Perspectives of World Religions
• IP 565 Natural Resources Wars
• IP 570 International Human Rights

Bringing It All Together

All students conduct a Thesis and Capstone Project during the final semester of the program. The Capstone Project gives you the opportunity to integrate your theory and coursework with your internships and field experiences in a professional project. The project typically takes the form of a policy analysis, a stakeholder assessment, or a program plan, although an individually designed project that reflects your specific career objective(s) is possible as well. Capstone students meet in a weekly seminar class where faculty provide feedback and support.

You will complete an internship of your choosing directly related to your academic and professional interests. Your internship will help you develop critical professional skills and contacts, enabling you to successfully transition to the professional world upon graduation.

You may conduct internships in the U.S. or overseas and work alongside program faculty in applied research topics. You may also appeal to your advisor and the program director for special permission to intern in other global locations.

Academic Policies and Procedures

A student accepted into the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program is expected to abide by the regulations set forth by Arcadia University.

The University reserves the right to dismiss a student at any time for unsatisfactory academic performance or for conduct detrimental to the University or to the welfare of other students.

In order for students to remain in good academic standing, they must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 throughout the first year of the program. A cumulative grade point average of 3.0 is required to be eligible to participate in the second year of the program. A grade below “C” may not be applied toward a degree. If a grade below “C” is received, the student must petition to retake the course.

Conflict Resolution Careers

A master's degree in conflict resolution will help make you competitive in jobs in every sector: public, private, or not-for-profit. “ Over the past two decades, the field of international peace and conflict resolution has grown substantially” with increased funding for peace and conflict resolution work by various U.S. government agencies, foundations, and international NGOs (ACT 2005). All of these jobs are growing at an average or faster-than-average rate according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Most IPCR-degreed professionals will not necessarily land jobs that are “ conflict resolution” jobs, but rather jobs in education, business, government, development, or health fields doing conflict resolution work. More than 50% of our alumni work in NGOs, another 20% in government, 20% in education-related fields, and the remaining 10% in the private sector. IPCR faculty, staff, and alumni work together to help graduates successfully navigate professional placement and development.

Strategic Peacebuilding Paths

To give you a sense of the entirety of the field of peacebuilding, JP Lederach and Kate Mansfield created the graphic at right. It illustrates the components and subcomponents of the field of peacebuilding and how they relate to each other.

For IPCR students and professionals, this image shows the three core areas of the field:

• Efforts to prevent, respond to, and transform violent conflict;
• Efforts to promote justice and healing; and
• Efforts to promote structural and institutional change.