Survey finds international affairs school’s programs and faculty members top-ranked.
The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs’ programs and faculty are among the best in the nation and world, according to a new survey released by an international relations institute at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Researchers with the Teaching, Research and International Policy (TRIP) project conducted the survey, which included responses from 1,582 international relations faculty members. Results were published in the magazine Foreign Policy.
In a ranking of scholars who have produced the most interesting scholarship in the past five years, Professors Martha Finnemore and Michael Barnett were listed No. 1 and No. 11 out of 20, respectively. The pair was also ranked as two of 20 scholars who respondents said produced the best work in the field of international relations in the past 20 years. Dr. Finnemore was also No. 13 out of 20 in a ranking of those who have had the greatest influence on the field of international relations in the last 20 years.
Respondents also listed colleges or universities with the best international relations programs. GW’s master’s program ranked No. 7 in the world, up from No. 8 in the 2009 survey. Although Foreign Policy didn’t have any influence on the rankings, it noted in text accompanying the rankings students’ ability to increase their marketable skills in the Master of International Policy and Practice program.
The Elliott School’s undergraduate program ranked No. 9 in the U.S. It boasts professors who can “show you how Washington’s foreign-policy machinery really works,” Foreign Policy wrote.
Only six other universities—Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Georgetown, the University of Chicago and American—made both the undergraduate and master’s lists.
GW’s doctoral program in political science, offered through the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, ranked No. 15 in the world. And GW also ranked No. 9 in a list that examined which schools best trained students for jobs in the U.S. government. That ranking didn’t differentiate between undergraduate and graduate programs.
“GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs is proud to be among the elite international affairs schools in the world, as featured in the latest TRIP survey,” said Elliott School Dean Michael E. Brown. “We owe this ranking to our extraordinary faculty—including Martha Finnemore and Michael Barnett, who were cited in the survey for their superb scholarship—as well as our world-class undergraduate and master’s programs. The Elliott School is educating the next generation of international leaders, conducting cutting-edge research on critical global problems and making a real difference in the world.”