<p>Hey Everyone,</p>
<p>First off, this board has been a wonderful find. I've spent probably more time than I should have in the last few days perusing through it.</p>
<p>Anyway, I wanted to see if anyone had any insight on graduate programs specifically centered on the IR half of international business relationship management and/or negotiations. </p>
<p>My background in broad strokes:
State University BA in International Relations, focused on International Business and East Asia & BA in Japanese Language. Cumulative GPA ~ 3.5</p>
<p>Combined 7.5 years abroad and counting.
-3.5 as a young child in Japan
-1 Study abroad, Japan
-1.5 teacher, South Korea
-1.5 professional (Intl Relations for small publishing firm), Japan</p>
<p>Languages:
English (native), Japanese (Advanced/Business level), Korean (novice)</p>
<p>Long term professional goals:
Serve as an intermediary between western and east Asian firms (Korean & Japanese), helping to smooth cultural or language barriers (negotiation/relationship management)
Perhaps in IT/Technology sector. </p>
<p>I've looked at top MBA programs (too finance/strategy based) and top IR programs (too policy/diplomacy based). </p>
<p>If anyone has done, or known anyone that has done, something similar to this route. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance.
Cheers,</p>
<p>UCSD has a somewhat hyprid IR / business program
irps.ucsd.edu</p>
<p>or you can also try the Thunderbird Global Management program. They have the top international MBA program in the country</p>
<p>The two are pretty different subjects, quite frankly. I think the only medium you’ll find between the two would be focusing in international economics, but even then it’s not a complete hybrid.</p>
<p>Zerolife:
Thanks for the reply. Yes, the UCSD program I was aware of and it seems like a pretty good fit, especially with the Asian-centered focus. Thunderbird’s program also looks good. I didn’t know about that one before, thanks.
flyers29:
I’m assuming you are talking about relationship management and negotiation being quite different. I guess they could be, one way I could make it clearer is saying I want to focus on ‘cross cultural communication theory & practice’ and negotiation. Maybe that fits better?</p>
<p>Based on your interests and plans, I’d go for an MBA. I think you’ll find that IR programs with a focus on “cross-cultural communication” might be too fluffy for you (there’s a lot of “how do we understand people from cultures other than our own?” - “well, we have to make sure we are aware of cultural differences…” - um, duh), and I think the MBA would give you more applicable skills.</p>
<p>Chrono–I was referring to MBA vs IR as being very different subjects. I personally don’t know that much about cross cultural communication from a theoretical perspective, though I’m inclined to agree with what kigali said.</p>
<p>It does appear that IR schools have concentrations that are much more business focused. For expample GU/MSFS has an “International Commerce and Business” concentration. The concentration is then divided into 3 subcategories: Finance and Consulting, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, and Business, Government & Societal Relations. Students can also cross-enroll at GU’s business school to take MBA classes.</p>
<p>Also, have you thought about doing a duel-degree program MA/MBA. Most IR schools have them.</p>