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Mission To educate professionals from around the world and to prepare them for positions of leadership and influence in the national and international arena. To increase understanding of international problems and concerns through teaching, research, and publications. To serve local, national, and international communities in their search to develop relationships of mutual benefit, security, and justice in an increasingly interdependent world.
Established 1933
Official name The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
Motto Preparing Leaders with a Global Perspective
University Tufts University
School type Private
Dean Stephen W. Bosworth
Location Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Enrollment 350 graduate students

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, also called simply The Fletcher School, is the oldest graduate school of international relations in the United States. It is one of the eight schools and colleges that comprise Tufts University. The Fletcher School, along with the School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering occupies the university's main campus in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts. In 2004, the school enrolled approximately 400 full-time students (excluding Ph.D. candidates not enrolled in courses) and employed 31 tenured or tenure-track faculty. Dean Stephen W. Bosworth is the dean of The Fletcher School.

History

The Fletcher School was founded in 1933 at the bequest of Austin Barclay Fletcher who left over $3 million to Tufts University upon his death in 1923. A third of this was to go to a school of law and diplomacy "to prepare men for the diplomatic service and to teach such matters as come within the scope of foreign relations." The school opened in 1933 as a collaborative project between Harvard University and Tufts University. Tufts University would later assume sole responsibility for administrating the school but the Fletcher School has continued to cooperate closely with other universities. In addition to the various joint programs offered, Fletcher students can also take classes at MIT and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as well as Harvard Business School.

The Fletcher School is one of only two non-law schools in the US that compete in the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Despite not being a law school, Fletcher is seeded first in the Northeast and most recently in 2006 won the regional competition, beating schools such as Harvard, Cornell and Syracuse.

Degree programs

The Fletcher School offers multi-disciplinary instruction leading to the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD), and Doctor of Philosophy. In 2000, the school launched the Global Master of Arts Program (GMAP), a year-long combined residency and Internet-mediated master's degree program for mid-career professionals. In 2008, the school will introduce a Master of Science in International Management. The school does not award undergraduate degrees.

The vast majority of the students are enrolled in the MALD program, a two-year program that culminates with a thesis. Students concentrate in two out of twenty fields of studies. They can choose between functional fields of study such as:Public International Law, International Organizations, International Business and Economic Law, Law and Development, International Information and Communication, International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, International Trade and Commercial Policies, International Monetary Theory and Policy. Development Economics, International Environment and Resource Policy, Political Systems and Theories, International Security Studies, International Political Economy and International Business Economics as well as regional fields of study like the United States, Europe, Pacific Asia and Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization. Students can also design their own fields of study. Each field consists of three or four different courses. All students have to pass a total of 16 courses in addition to passing foreign language requirements.

Ph.D. students have to complete three fields of study in addition to writing a dissertation.

The MA program is primarily for mid-career professionals. It is a one year-program and students are expected to pass eight courses and write a master's thesis

The Fletcher School currently has formal joint degree programs with the other Tufts schools including Arts and Sciences, Engineering, the School of Medicine and Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Beyond Tufts, the school also maintains joint degree programs with Harvard Law School, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, the Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Institut supérieur des affaires (graduate school of management) at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales in France.

The school is home to various research programs, institutes, and centers dealing with human rights and conflict resolution, international business relations, international security studies, human security, international environmental affairs, media and communication, and technology.

Organization and faculty

The Fletcher School is under supervision of a dean, appointed by the president and the provost, with the approval of the Trustees of Tufts College (the university's governing board). The dean has responsibility for the overall administration of the school, including faculty appointments, curriculum, admissions and financial aid, student affairs, development, and facilities. Unlike other graduate schools of international relations at other universities, the Fletcher School has a separate faculty, its own budget, and its own set of faculty bylaws. There are, however, a few professors who hold joint appointments with departments in the School of Arts and Sciences. Furthermore, Fletcher professors occasionally offer courses in the College of Liberal Arts or allow undergraduates to enroll in the graduate classes. The undergraduate international relations program, the largest major in the College of Liberal Arts, has its offices in the Cabot Intercultural Center, the main building of the Fletcher School complex.

The full-time Fletcher faculty comprise economists, international lawyers, historians, and political scientists who hold the academic ranks of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, and lecturer. All faculty members hold terminal degrees in their respective fields (Ph. D's in the case of historians, political sciences, and economists; and JD's and LLMs in the case of lawyers).

Programs & Research Centers

Some prominent alumni

External links

Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs | Tufts University

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

 

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