IOCM students on campus

At a Glance

IOCM students on campus
Image: Rebecca Bück

Our Unique Focus

Why are we offering this Master programme? Because we see a great need for it in three respects.

First, there are no study programmes in Germany and only very few in Europe focusing on international organisations, even though many of you may consider to pursue a career in one of the almost 300 international governmental organisations or the 9000 international non-governmental organisations worldwide. International organisations are active in almost all policy fields. They pervade world politics and are highly relevant in an ever more interconnected world.  

Second, we are broadening the traditional understanding of peace and conflict studies. Our understanding of crises is more complex, including challenges such as refugee flows, pandemics and human rights violations. And our unique focus is on the management of those crises, i.e. how actors try to alleviate their effects when they break out and, even better, prevent them from arising.

Third, our particular focus is on how international organisations manage those conflicts and crises. This is their supreme task. They are crisis managers, be it the World Food Programme fighting famine, the World Meteorological Organisation forecasting and mitigating tornadoes, flash floods and droughts or the OSCE monitoring fragile ceasefires.

Our Top Eight

Here are the top eight reasons for choosing our programme:

  1. You will experience the everyday practices of international organisations and crisis management through study trips, classes held by practitioners and internships.
  2. You will study one semester abroad at one of our high-profile partner universities in Israel, Great Britain, the U.S. and other countries.
  3. You will attend a summer school in Jena or abroad on topics such as peace ethics, post-conflict reconciliation and minority rights, including simulations of real-world negotiations. 
  4. You will learn and practice German or a foreign language of your choice (French, Russian, Chinese or Spanish).
  5. You can choose electives from a wide range of disciplines, such as international law, economics and history.
  6. You will join a group of talented students from all over the world.
  7. You will learn how to live and interact with people from very diverse cultures.
  8. You will not pay any tuition.

Your Profile

Do you have an international outlook, a willingness to serve the public good and an eagerness and capacity to learn? You are able and willing to critically rethink the concepts of crisis, migration and International Organizations? Then this might be your programme of choice for the next two years.

We aim to recruit from all continents to ensure a classroom as international as possible. We are looking for diverse disciplinary backgrounds, though a Bachelor in International Relations or Political Science surely makes things easier. People who do not meet all of our criteria, for example on methods, might be given the chance to catch up.

You will find more detailed information on the application criteria and procedure here.

Your Career Prospects

Find your career prospects here.