International Relations Minor

Minor Requirements

20 semester hours

Minors must have 16 distinct units.   

Students may minor in both International Relations and Political Science. Students who do so may only double-count one of the lower division courses and none of the upper division courses towards the minor.

Course List

Code	Title	Semester Hours
Lower Division Requirements
POLS 1400	Comparative Politics	4
POLS 1600	International Relations	4
Subtotal		8
Upper Division Requirements
Select one POLS Elective in International Relations or Comparative Politics		4
Select two electives 1		8
Subtotal		12
Total Semester Hours		20

¹

courses with an international focus from POLS, ECON, SOCL, HIST, or EVST, or advanced methods course; see approved courses in Note 1

AP Scores

Students will receive credit for POLS 1200 or POLS 1400 if they receive a 5 on the related AP exam as follows:

Comparative Government and Politics -> POLS 1400
OR
United States Government and Politics -> POLS 1200

Please note that if a student has a 5 for both exams, the department will only apply a maximum of one of those AP credits to replace one of our required lower-division major / minor requirements.

Additional Requirements

1. An average grade of C (2.0) must be obtained in courses included in the major.
2. Lower Division requirements must be met before pursuing upper division requirements.
3. Students must take 2 semesters of the same second language or demonstrate proficiency [see Note 2], or engage in an international experience through study abroad [see Note 3].

Notes

Note 1:

In Politics: any upper division comparative politics or international relations course (taught by Drs. Cherif, Finkel, Fisk, Magni, Park, and Ramos). Other POLS courses with significant global perspectives or international politics course content may count towards the minor at the discretion of the faculty director, and in consultation with the professor.

In Economics:

Course List

Code	Title	Semester Hours
ECON 3410	World Economic History	4
ECON 3720	International Finance Theory	4
ECON 3750	Global Poverty	4
ECON 4740	Economic Development	4

In History: HIST 3XXX and 4XXX except 33XX, 34XX, 43XX and 44XX; these include

Course List

Code	Title	Semester Hours
HIST 3600	Conflict and Genocide in Africa	4
HIST 3702	Women in Colonial Latin America	4
HIST 3704	Latin American Revolutions in Film	4
HIST 4010	Pirates and Piracy	4
HIST 4200	Early Modern Europe	4
HIST 4205	Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century	4
HIST 4206	20th-Century Europe	4
HIST 4215	European Imperialism	4
HIST 4225	Gender and Sexuality in European History	4
HIST 4250	Modern Britain and the British Empire	4
HIST 4272	20th-Century Eastern Europe	4
HIST 4281	Modern Russia, 1825-1991	4
HIST 4282	Ethnicity and Empire in Russia	4
HIST 4402	Politics and Culture of the Cold War, 1917-1989	4
HIST 4510	Star, Cross, and Crescent	4
HIST 4520	The Ottoman Empire	4
HIST 4540	The Palestine/Israel Conflict	4
HIST 4640	Colonial Africa, 1860-1980	4
HIST 4820	Modern China	4
HIST 4830	Women in East Asian History	4

In Sociology:

Course List

Code	Title	Semester Hours
SOCL 3370	Sociology of Globalization	4
SOCL 3371	Gender and Global Migration	4
SOCL 3998	Special Studies	1-4

Any other non-POLS courses must be approved by the faculty director prior to course enrollment.

Note 2:

Language proficiency will be assessed via the Modern Languages’ online placement tests. In the event the test is not offered, the student must go to a language department in a university that does offer that language and have an instructor there assess proficiency and provide a letter as evidence. Although Level 2 proficiency is the required minimum for the minor, we strongly encourage students to continue to more advanced levels.

Note 3:

The study abroad experience must be an LMU or LMU-approved semester or summer program, including the Washington Center. A summer program must be at least 6 semester hours. Ideally, this requirement should enhance a student’s language skills and cultural awareness that he, she or they is/are focused on at LMU. Only one course from study abroad may count towards the minor, in consultation with the faculty director. The IR director may approve an internationally-oriented internship in lieu of studying abroad on a case-by-case basis.