Department of Applied International Analysis

Department of Applied International Analysis was established within the School of Political Affairs and World Politics in February 2006 in order to broaden and deepen the scope of disciplines related to international relations and world politics. Its efforts are aimed at preparing highly skilled specialists capable of working in government agencies, research institutions, consulting firms, international organizations, multinational companies and media. Hence, the Department seeks to develop and adopt innovative teaching methods and courses to improve training of experts in international affairs providing them with useful and effective techniques of high-quality analytical work and appropriate prognostic competences. The Department’s faculty relies not only on their rich teaching experience but also on the results of their long-term practical activity in structures of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Russian Security Council and other government agencies and public and private organizations as well as in institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Professors of the Department are actively involved in BA and MA programmes (47 academic disciplines), including Russian-English Master’s Degree programmes «Governance and Global Affairs» and «Politics and Economics in Eurasia». They also fulfil the duties of supervisors and thesis advisors on the following subjects:
1. theory and practice of political analysis;
2. major trends of the world development;
3. competitive environment of modern world politics;
4. role of great powers in world politics and foreign policy of states (in the context of the global system of international relations and its regional subsystems);
5. Russia in world politics and U.S.-Russian relations;
6. struggle for the development and exploitation of common and «new» spaces of world politics (the Arctic, Antarctica, space, Internet and cyberspace, high technologies);
7. scientific support of the foreign policy of countries and the activity of research centres;
8. role of economic factors in the activity of states and world politics;
9. energy factor in world politics;
10. political dimension of international migration;
11. advanced IT and their role in the spheres of diplomacy and foreign policy.

Educational activities of the Department of Applied International Analysis
The academic and methodological activity of the Department accomplishes the twofold objective: advances the theoretical cause of the school of structural analysis and broadens its practice-oriented component. Seminars encourage students to act as independent experts and prepare analytical materials (analytical essays) using computer technologies and suggesting scenario analysis of different situations.

The Department effectuates the four-stage cycle of studies, which shapes specialization of a highly-qualified expert in international affairs:

1. The first stage implies equipping students with basic skills of working with all kinds of materials, making assessment of various sources of information, and preparing analytical papers containing prognosis and recommendations. These competences are elaborated at the courses of the BA programme: «Introduction to Applied Analysis of Foreign Policy Situations» (Professor T.Shakleina, Assistant Professor I.Istomin, Professor E. Nikitenko, Lecturer A.Dundich), «Fundamentals of System Approach» (Associate Professor A.Baykov), «World Politics and World Order» (Professor T.Shakleina), «Russia in Global Politics» (Associate Professor I.Bolgova, Associate Professor A.Baykov, Associate Professor V.Morozov, Lecturer A.Dundich, Lecturer E.Yamburenko).

2. At the second stage students obtain additional competences in the field of strategic analysis and planning, and profound skills of structural analysis, methods of quantitative analysis, ability to present research results using advanced electronic means of data processing. These skills are cultivated in the framework of MA programmes’ disciplines: «Megatrends and Global Problems» (Associate Professor A.Baykov, Associate Professor I.Bolgova, Professor E.Nikitenko), «Great Powers and Regional Subsystems in Contemporary World Politics» (Professor T.Shakleina, Lecturer A.Dundich, Lecturer E.Yamburenko), «Analysis of International Situations» (Assistant Professor I.Istomin), «Foreign Policy Analysis» (Assistant Professor I.Istomin), «Workshop on Analysis of International Situations» (Assistant Professor I.Istomin), «Modern IT in Diplomatic Practice» (Professor A.Smirnov), «Methodology of International Relations Scientific Discourse» (Associate Professor A.Khudaikulova), «Methodology of Scientific Discourse of the History of International Relations» (Associate Professor I.Bolgova), «Methodology of Diplomatic Scientific Discourse» (Associate Professor I.Bolgova), «Quantitative Analysis of International Situations» (Professor E. Nikitenko), «Strategic Intelligence» (Associate Professor A.Bezrukov).

3. At the third stage students conduct expert research and test their knowledge and skills, while participating in contests and projects organized by MGIMO and the Department of Applied International Analysis, including those arranged in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian Security Council, the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), leading institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other both Russian and foreign universities (Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, etc.).

4. The fourth stage provides students with opportunities to proceed with improving their professional skills and participate in the development of analytical methods in the course of PhD studies and regular situational analyses of the most important problems of contemporary international relations.

Along with basic courses designed to form a set of analytical and prognostic competences, as well as comprehensive knowledge of world politics, the Department annually introduces new disciplines reflecting trends of international relations. These are the following courses: «Anthropology of International Relations» (Associate Professor A.Khudaikulova); «Global Energy and Alternative Energy Sources» (Professor I.Tomberg); «Modern US-Russian Relations» (Professor F.Voytolovskiy); «Political Aspects of International Migration» (Professor S.Ryazantsev); «Innovations and National Innovation Systems» (Associate Professor I.Danilin); «Innovation Markets and Innovation Strategies of Big Business» (Associate Professor I.Danilin); «International Competition in the Sphere of Technology Exchange» (Associate Professor I.Danilin); «Empiric Strategies of Interaction between Government and Business» (Associate Professor A.Baykov); «Financial Regulation in Global Politics» (Associate Professor V.Shapovalov); «Methods of Country Risk Assessment for Business» (Associate Professor V.Shapovalov); «Energy Corporations in World and National Politics» (Associate Professor I.Bolgova); «Major Negotiated Complexes of the 21st Century: Space, Disarmament, Ecology» (Associate Professor A.Fenenko). Another complex course is conducted for PhD students: «Trends of Contemporary International Relations» (Professor T.Shakleina, Professor E.Nikitenko, Associate Professor I.Bolgova).

To develop new approaches to teaching and research the Department of Applied International Analysis regularly arranges interdisciplinary and inter-institutional methodological seminars on world politics.

The Department organizes annual contests of analytical papers among students of the Master’s Degree Programme in International Relations. Both Russian and foreign students are allowed to participate in them and compete for a winner diploma, which is ranked high by many different agencies and business structures as their future employers.

The History of the Department of Applies International Analysis
The first Head of the Department of Applied International Analysis was a MGIMO graduate, Distinguished Scholar of the Russian Federation, State Prize Winner (2011), the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Eugene Tarle Award Winner for the Outstanding Contribution in the field of the History of International Relations, Doctor of Political Science, Professor A.Bogaturov. He is a scholar of world reputation who founded the first journal of international relations theory in Russia «Mejdunarodnye protsessy» [International Processes] (which is included in the list of the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles and SCOPUS). Since 2007 the Department has been headed by the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Eugene Tarle Award Winner, Doctor of Political Science, Professor T.Shakleina. She came to MGIMO from a widely known Russian think tank — the Institute for the USA and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where she headed the Department of Foreign Policy Research (see information about Professor T.Shakleina).

Professor T.Shakleina is one of the leading Russian specialists in the U.S. and Russian foreign policy, U.S.Russian relations and think tank activities in the United States and Russia. She is the author of more than 200 publications, including those in foreign languages. Since 2006 her personal data has been incorporated into the American edition «Marquis Who’s Who in the World». Being one of the prominent political scientists, Professor T.Shakleina was granted many honorary awards: the Badge of Honor of the Security Council of the Russian Federation for the successful realization of joint analytical work, the Medal «For the development of Russian thought», the Badge of Merit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Badge of Merit of MGIMO — University.

At different times, many eminent scholars of international relations and world politics and their students, including MGIMO graduates, worked and some still work at the Department of Applied International Analysis. Among them: Professor M.Khrustalev (till 2010) and Professor A.Bogaturov (till 2012); Professor E.Batalov (till 2016); Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, President of the National Institute of Global Security Studies, Professor A.Smirnov; Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Center of Social Demography and Economic Sociology of the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor S.Ryazantsev; retired Major General, Professor of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) E.Nikitenko; adviser to the President of JSC Rosneft, former Harvard University Professor, Associate Professor A.Bezrukov; Director of the Centre of Energy and Transport Research of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor I.Tomberg; Deputy Director of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor F.Voytolovskiy; Head of the Innovation Policy Sector of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Associate Professor I. Danilin; MGIMO Vice-Rector for Graduate and International Programmes, Editor-in-Chief of the journal «Mejdunarodnye protsessy» [International Processes], Associate Professor A.Baykov; Adviser to the Rector of MGIMO — University, Associate Professor A.Khudaikulova; Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal «Vostochnaya Evropa. Perspektivy» [Eastern Europe. Prospects], Associate Professor I.Bolgova; Associate Professor V.Shapovalov; Associate Professor A.Sushentsov; Executive Secretary of the journal «Mejdunarodnye protsessy» [International Processes], Associate Professor I.Istomin; Lecturers A.Stikhin, A.Dundich and E.Yamburenko.

The Department’s faculty actively interacts with agencies involved in the elaboration of the Russian foreign policy (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Security Council of the Russian Federation, the Presidential Executive Office, the State Duma, the Russian Council on International Relations, etc.). This includes preparation of analytical materials, conduct of interdisciplinary research, arrangement of seminars and round-tables, as well as consulting.

In 2008 the Department of Applied International Analysis established the tradition of annually conducting in-depth research of the most important and urgent international problems. On the basis of its results the Department publishes a series «Situatsionnye analizy» [Situational Analyses]. These annual works grew into a true series (Editions 1-5, 2011-2016), which received a high appraisal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Committees on Foreign Affairs of the Russian State Duma and the Federation Council. Today «Situatsionnye analizy» [Situational Analyses] are also used as university textbooks.

International Contacts and Ties
The Department maintains extensive scientific contacts with foreign universities: Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, George Washington University, University of San Diego, St. Edward’s University (Austin, USA) and others. The Department regularly organizes teleconferences with Georgetown University and St.Edward’s University as well as international conferences.

The Department’s faculty is well-known in Russia and abroad. Its lecturers and professors take part in numerous international conferences and other events held in the USA, European countries, China, India, Russia and CIS countries. They are members of the American International Studies Association, participate in the ISA conventions, annually presenting reports on various issues of international and US-Russian relations.

Staff