Overview

The MA in Human Security and Peacebuilding is a two-year interdisciplinary program that provides students with a theoretical understanding of the relationship between human insecurity, intrastate conflict and peacebuilding, and an appreciation of the skills required for effective field operations aimed at rebuilding civil society and creating sustainable peace in highly unstable environments. It is a program that responds to the increasing demand for leadership in humanitarian intervention, social reconstruction and conflict management.

Program Philosophy

The mission of the program is to develop the reflective practitioner who understands the multiple forces at work in interstate conflict situations and who can operate effectively in highly unstable environments to implement programs aimed at rebuilding civil society. The program aims to:

• deal with the changing nature of conflict since the end of the cold war;
• provide a broad conceptual understanding of human security as defined by the UNDP;
• examine inequality, poverty, injustice and oppression of one group by another as fundamental sources of human insecurity;
• investigate how issues of language, ethnicity, culture, religion, environmental quality, human rights, economic structures, the distribution of wealth, and the role of government in civil society relate to human security;
• provide a broad conceptual understanding of peacebuilding and the various approaches, techniques and conditions associated with it;
• explain the role of civil society and its relationship to government as well as the role and responsibility of government in a democratic society;
• provide a broad understanding of peacekeeping, the military, and its role in peacebuilding and the creation of conditions necessary for rebuilding civil society and creating conditions necessary for sustainable peace;
• provide a broad working understanding of major international organizations involved in peacebuilding;
• prepare graduates for involvement in unstable political, social, and economic environments such as those found in pre and post-conflict situations;
• provide a broad understanding and exposure to the skills and knowledge required to manage intergroup conflict situations in culturally diverse situations; 
• create an academic climate that is interdisciplinary, innovative, interactive, competency-based, and student-centered.