The Master of Arts in Political Science program provides an advanced education for an academic and/or professional career. The program is designed to meet the needs of governmental- and non-governmental institutions, the private sector and research and educational institutions in Cambodia and overseas. The program is based on national and international standards of the Cambodian National Qualifications Framework of Higher Education (CNQF 2014) and guidelines of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoeYS), Department of Higher Education (DHE 2018).

The MA program offers advanced courses in the discipline of political science. MA students are mentored in their study by a multicultural academic team of faculty members, visiting professors and practitioners in the field. Professors come from Cambodia, the Philippines, Europe and the United States. Since 2003, the MA program has greatly facilitated our student’s academic and professional careers in various occupations in Cambodia and overseas.

Master of Arts in Political Science

*NOTE: Courses in bold letters are new FSSIR courses and explained in the course description

Course Description

MGT 505         Fundamentals of Management

This course will provide students with the fundamental principles and skills needed for the field of Management. It refreshes students in the process of accumulating managerial responsibility at their workplace with updated theories and managerial cases. The course also discusses various topics related to management theory, history of management, organizational culture, planning and practical applications for managers who work in small and large organizations. Finally, it enables students to learn how to use management and leadership skills in a decision making process.

NATS 510        Global Environment Awareness

This course introduces students to concepts and theories related to world environment. It discusses a natural process of an ecological system, economic and social development in equilibrium to environmental conditions. Importantly, it brings updates about human activities and environmental pollution causing major problems from draught, inundation, desertification, contaminated soil, air and water to ozone depletion. The course also raises awareness of essence in environmental preservation through various debates about climate change, natural resource protection and conservation and sustainable development from an environmental perspective.

ECON 515       Fundamentals of Economics

This course, in its traditional sense, does not deal with economic issues. It focuses on the principles of economics necessitated for practical applications in the economics. The course also provides basic knowledge in Microeconomics and Macroeconomics used as economic tools of analysis. This is to be accomplished by raising certain key problems or issues relevant to the economics principles, teaching the tools necessary for analysis, and finally applying these tools to analyze the problems.

STAT 520        Fundamentals of Statistics

This course is designed for students who have never taken statistics before. It starts with the introduction of the elementary concept of statistics and descriptive statistics and ends with inferential statistics. By the completion of the course, students will learn how to present qualitative and quantitative data from using graphs to summary values. They also learn basic probability theory in order to understand the concept of inferential statistics. The students need to have an increased understanding of inferences, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing along with practices through the final step of the course, as these are vital for them to resume their studies in the field of academic research from Research Methodology course necessitating a requisite of Fundamentals of Statistics.

RESR 525        Research Methodology

This course targets at offering skills and techniques in research to the course followers. The major themes with regard to the course include problem statement development, hypothesis formulation and the practical aspects of research methods to attain the intended and desired research outcomes. It, of course, looks into research proposal, a research scheme and literature review. Essentially, it discusses the citation of documents or the ways to tell the sources of information, surveys, interviews and questionnaires. Moreover, it introduces a comparative aspect of research methods from social discipline to science and business on the basis of the use of the distinctive use of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Ultimately, the course members are expected to be able to develop their own themes and conduct the research for the class, together with the presentation of the written report from research findings.

POL 520          Contemporary Political Theory and Ideology

Participants are familiarized with the major classical (Hobbes, Rousseau, John Locke) and contemporary political theories (Democracy Theory, Social Justice Theory, Critical Theory) and link those to the major classical (Liberalism, Communism, Nationalism and Fascism) and contemporary political ideologies (Post-Modernism, Feminism, Islamism and others) as they have emerged in the 19th and 20th century.

IR 525             Research Methods and Analysis in International Relations

The course introduces into major research methods in international relations. This includes quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods in social science relevant for the study of international relations. Participants are familiarized with research designs and contemporary research methods popular in international relations.

MGT 530         Governance, Management and Leadership Dynamics

This is an upper level course of management and leadership which looks at how managers and leaders behave and make a decision to deal with an organizational change and a crisis situation. Students will be expected to actively participate in the debate on studies relevant to the themes such as advanced management skills, leadership dynamics and leadership styles. The subtheme on Effective Governance is also introduced for the course followers in order for them to increase an understanding about responsibility, decision making and accountability in the field of management and leadership. A combination of readings and class discussions with hands-on exercises will familiarize students with the variety of approaches one might take to management and leadership. To advance the students’ knowledge in the discipline, case studies on corporations, business firms and public institutions are incorporated into the course.

POL 530          Comparative Political Systems

Participants are familiarized with the theory of political system, political transition theory and theories of political conflict and change. Foundations of politics will be explained including the political processes, political structures and policies. Elements of political systems including government systems, election systems, party systems and the process functions of political systems including political participation, political communication and political recruitment will be explained. Political processes are reflected in terms of their importance for political stability and as causes for political conflict and change.

IR 533              Global Problems and Policies

The course provides a global perspective on international relations by examining the contemporary process of globalization, global problems and policies. The course will first introduce into the process of globalization, which will be explained as a process of political, economic and social globalization. International security, economic development, the global environment and humanitarianism are identified as major global problems challenging the international community. Global policies have been developed to respond to those global problems and will be discussed with comprehensive examples.

POL 540          Seminar in Comparative Politics

The course is an interdisciplinary seminar with Political Science MA students elaborating on comparative politics questions from a political science and international relations perspective. Participants are familiarized with major political systems in Asia and the West in comparative perspective including past and present authoritarian, totalitarian or semi-democratic and democratic political systems. The course aims to deepen participants understanding of types of political systems (classifications), respective political processes (political continuity and change) and structures (government systems, party systems, etc.) and elaborates on political change, political transitions and conflict in these political systems.

POL 550          Theories of Political Transition and Political Change

The course elaborates on theories of political transition and change and aims to strengthen participants analytical skills in regard to cause-effect relations/correlations in political processes discussing questions like:  Why political systems change while others not? How political change occurs and how political transitions take place? 

IR 556             International Political Economy

The course introduces to international political economy by examining the contemporary international economic system including the trading- and currency system, by elaborating on classical and contemporary theories of international political economy including liberalism, mercantilism and neo-Marxism, and by providing an overview of the historical evolution of the international economic system (focus on the post-World War II developments) and contemporary international economic problems. Objective of the course is to provide participants a better understanding of the economic dimension of development and the role which the international economic system plays for economic development.

IR 589             Seminar in War and Peace

The course examines first sources of war and conflict, historically and at the present. A comparative register of such conflicts is established. The course then examines various forms of peace and the degree to which peace can be established after conflict, or how a lasting peace can be built in order to prevent conflicts from breaking out in the first place. The theoretical framework for the seminar is peace and conflict studies. As a seminar, the course relies heavily on student research and reports in the context of pro-active analytical work by the students.

POL 597          Comprehensive Examination

                        Complete two courses prior to written and oral comprehensive exams

POL 598          Project Report

POL 599          Thesis