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Politics, policy & the world

Humanities & Social Sciences

Shaping public policy and how countries and organisations deal with each other.

This suits you if…

You are good at drafting and compromise, you can find the version of a position that enough parties will live with, and you don't need the good outcome to be attributable to you when it finally arrives.

Look elsewhere if…

You need to win arguments. Or you are an international student aiming at a diplomatic service, which is usually closed to non-citizens. Entry here also runs heavily on credentials, networks and unpaid or low-paid internships, and that gate is worth seeing early.

What the work actually is

What the work is actually like

Reading, briefing and meetings. You digest a large amount of material on a narrow question, write a short note that a busy person can act on, and spend the rest of the time coordinating between organisations that each want something slightly different. Diplomatic and NGO work adds long stretches of relationship-building whose value only shows up years later.

The catch

Progress is glacial and rarely attributable to you: the good outcome, when it comes, belongs to a committee. Entry is heavily credential- and network-driven, unpaid or low-paid internships are common gatekeepers, and diplomatic services are usually closed to non-citizens, which makes this one of the harder areas to enter as an international student.

What people get wrong about it

That it is about arguing persuasively for what is right. Most of the job is drafting, compromise and process: finding the version of a position that enough parties can live with, and people who need to win arguments tend to be unhappy in it.

The jobs inside this area

  • Policy analyst
  • Diplomat
  • International-organisation officer
  • NGO programme manager
  • Public-affairs adviser

A list, not a recommendation. You narrow it, we don’t.

What this kind of work usually offers

Helping people · Working with peopleA generalisation about the sphere, not a promise about a salary. Pay and security vary enormously by country and employer.

How you get there

The one-line version

Politics or international relations. Model UN and debate are the accessible proving ground.

Stage by stage

  1. While you are still at school

    Model UN and debate genuinely mirror the work. Learn a second language properly; in this field it isn't a nice extra, it is often the qualification.

  2. What you study

    Politics, international relations, law or economics. A master's is close to standard for the international institutions, and internships during study are how nearly everyone actually gets in.

  3. How the first years actually go

    Research or programme assistant in an NGO, ministry, think tank or international body: note-taking, background research, event logistics. Substance follows once you are trusted with a file of your own.

Where this work lives, and how you reach it

What you would study for it

Each says what the first year is really made of, and who should study something else instead.

12 countries · 12 cities · 27 institutions named for this field. Each one states its catch as well as its appeal.

  • Kazakhstan

    Named here: Al-Farabi Kazakh National University · KIMEP University

  • Georgia

    Named here: Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University · Free University of Tbilisi

  • Poland

    Named here: University of Warsaw · Jagiellonian University

  • Italy

    Named here: Sapienza University of Rome · University of Bologna

  • Switzerland

    Named here: University of Geneva

  • Netherlands

    Named here: University of Amsterdam · Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  • United Kingdom

    Named here: London School of Economics and Political Science · University College London · University of Oxford · University of Cambridge

  • Türkiye

    Named here: Boğaziçi University · Koç University · Bilkent University

  • Japan

    Named here: The University of Tokyo · Kyoto University · Waseda University

  • China

    Named here: Peking University · Fudan University

  • United States

    Named here: Harvard University · Columbia University

  • Canada

    Named here: University of Toronto · McGill University

Without leaving home

1 of the routes that need no visa and no move lead into this field.

Test it this month

Free, and finishable in a few evenings

Take a live international dispute, write the one-page brief each side would give its own minister, then write the compromise text both could sign. Doing that honestly is the actual skill.