I am an IR and Environmental Science and Policy (policy tract) double major. I’m starting my sophomore year, but from what I have seen and heard IR is one of the harder majors to complete as it is so interdisciplinary, incorporating government, economics, history, language, and culture which add up to a lot of required credits. It is also one of the more popular majors, despite being so hard. Many people double major with econ since the two are so close (although only 6 credits can count towards both majors at the same time) and some of the smartest people I know are double majoring in a science as well.</p>
<p>The IR Club is a big group (one of the largest on campus) of IR and non-IR majors who’s main function is attending and hosting Model UN Conferences, from Harvard to Montreal to wherever WorldMUN is hosted that particular year. I think this next year is Hong Kong or Taiwan or somewhere else in SE Asia. We have one of the best teams in the world, having received ‘best delegation’ at WorldMUN 4 times in the past decade iirc, and consistently place near the top the other times. We host a MUN for high schools in the fall and middle schools in the spring which help bring in money for the club to keep prices of attending the other conferences reasonable (around $200, and club scholarships are available on a needed basis, includes travel and a dinner at a fancy restaurant too). Everyone can get a chance to go to every conference, although the McGill conference in Montreal is heavily requested, many freshmen are given the opportunity to go to the Harvard national MUN, and only 15 or so of the best delegates (including Freshmen) go to WorldMUN.</p>
<p>The IRC also hosts speakers, parties, and other events for club members and the entire campus. One of my favorite events was when we took submissions of photos from students who had traveled abroad and printed out the best 50 or so with the help of the Muscarelle Museum in large super-high quality format on this thick board type thing and hung them around the Sadler Center and then held a silent auction to raise money for Doctors without Borders.</p>
<p>The IR department also has a research arm called the “Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William and Mary” where I am serving as a Research Assistant this summer. A few of the professors in the Institute recently wrote a book titled “Greening Aid?” where they examine the intersections between the environment and international aid (remember, I’m an Enviro Policy and IR guy - I love this stuff!). The Institute is also working on developing a database of all of the international aid given over the past few decades (called PLAID) which is the largest database of its type in the world - meaning its a treasure trove of research opportunities for all of us RAs. The database will go public when it is completed next year (thanks to a large grant from the Gates and Hewlett foundations), but is currently a private affair which means practically every research project we work on is novel. One professor recently returned from Bonn, Germany where he presented a project that I did some major work on to the climate change negotiations there in preparation for the Copenhagen Agreement (the successor to the Kyoto Protocol) which has to be signed by December.</p>
<p>One other thing you should know is that W&M IR is that it approaches IR from an interdisciplinary perspective, as I have mentioned (e.g. the professor who went to Bonn in a professor of Sociology who concentrates on the effect that the environment has on people) and is not a sub-discipline to Political Science as it is at many other Universities.</p>
<p>Basically, IR rocks, especially at W&M. And W&M rocks, especially with IR.