Institute of World Politics

The Institute welcomes applicants who demonstrate a serious interest in the study of national security and international affairs but do not need a certificate or degree. Students have the option of enrolling in individual courses for credit or as auditors (non-credit).

Majors offered:
M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs
M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs
M.A. in Strategic Intelligence Studies
Executive M.A. in National Security Affairs
M.A. in Strategic and International Studies (Professional)
M.A. in Statecraft and Strategy (Online)
Professional M.A. in Statecraft and Strategy (Online)

Certificate program:
American Foreign Policy
Comparative Political Culture
Conflict Prevention
Corporate Statecraft
Counterintelligence
Counterterrorism
Cyber Statecraft
Economic Statecraft
Homeland Security
Intelligence
International Politics
National Security Affairs
Nonviolent Conflict
Peace Building, Stabilization, and Humanitarian Affairs
Public Diplomacy and Strategic Influence
Strategic Communication
Strategic Soft Power
Statecraft (Online)

IWP's curriculum is designed to prepare students to be effective leaders in statecraft, national security, and foreign policy. It includes the study of all the instruments of power and how these instruments are integrated at the level of grand strategy.

These include: the arts of war, peacemaking, and diplomacy; public diplomacy; strategic influence and political action; economic strategy; intelligence and counterintelligence; cyber strategy; the exercise of intangible instruments of power such as moral leadership, will-power, courage, rhetoric, etc.; and the integration of such elements into overall national strategy.

The curriculum has six major components, including the study of: the various elements of statecraft, history and culture, American political philosophy, the Western moral tradition, economics, and moral leadership.


Almost all of our faculty members are scholar-practitioners with both academic credentials and high-level experience in the subjects they teach.

These include ambassadors, senior intelligence officials, military officers, presidential advisers, and senior congressional staff members. Many courses have occasional guest lecturers, many of whom are prominent figures in government and the broader policy community. Several of the faculty occupy senior positions in government but continue to teach at the Institute as well.

The Institute offers more hours of contact between students and professors than most other schools in related fields. Its relatively small size enables professors and students to get to know each other better and to have more in-depth discussions, enhancing the learning experience and permitting students a greater opportunity to inspire their professors to write them more credible recommendations and make enthusiastic efforts to help them find professional opportunities.


The Institute's student body includes recent graduates of colleges and universities from the United States and around the world and a mix of mid-career professionals from government, the armed forces, industry, and foreign embassies and governments, whose various perspectives enrich the classroom experience.

IWP has special relationships with several U.S. government agencies and the U.S. Armed Forces, which send their personnel to the Institute for study in degree programs, certificate programs, fellowships, and internships. The U.S. Naval War College has approved all of the Institute's courses as eligible electives for its students. IWP is the only academic institution outside the U.S. Army War College that has been authorized to teach strategy to the Army's corps of strategists. The U.S. Army has also qualified IWP as one of only a few academic institutions eligible to host colonel-ranked officers as Senior War College Fellows, where a tour at IWP substitutes for attending the Army War College.

At IWP, your tuition is not going towards the upkeep of a gym, pool, sports program, or other expensive programs that are unrelated to your graduate studies and career development. This keeps the cost of your graduate degree while still offering a top tier education! Contact us for more information.

Our location in Washington, D.C. — just blocks from the White House and minutes from the Pentagon, State Department, and other related agencies — enables the Institute to maintain an extensive network of current and former senior government officials, and corporate and NGO executives, who serve on our faculty, as guest lecturers, and employers of our graduates.

Students may also take classes at our campus in Reston, Virginia, a convenient location just off the Dulles Toll Road with free parking for students.