Coursework for the IDCM minor totals 16 credits. A total of 6 credits can overlap with your major. See additional program details here.
Gateway Course (3 credits): GVPT354
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This course serves as the gateway course for the International Development and Conflict Management minor program. We have two principal goals in the course: 1) to explore themes and challenges related to conflict, peace, poverty, and development, and 2) to develop practical, industry-appropriate tools, skills, and capacities that create advantages for you on the job market. The course is intended as an introduction to critical themes that serve as the foundation for other courses in the IDCM minor. It should inspire new ideas and hard thinking around the best ways for advancing global peace and development.
The course is divided into two sections. In the first part of the course, students interrogate the concepts of conflict and peace, study conflict through several stages of its lifecycle, and deliberate on conflict resolution strategies and the place for humanitarian intervention. The second part of the course focuses on economic development. Students evaluate and compare the prevailing definitions of “development” and review the debates on what works (and what it means to “work”). We analyze the consequences and opportunities that particular development strategies and activities present. A principal theme of both sections of the course is the impact on people’s lives around the world, in terms of their rights, their interests, their wellbeing, and their value. The expectation is that, by the end of the course, students have a better understanding of patterns in conflict, peace, and development and some tools for analyzing and addressing common challenges in these areas.
Through lectures, large and small group discussions and activities, insights from practitioners, and practical assignments, students have the opportunity to think creatively about how to address some of the greatest challenges facing the human family today. The course requires active and thoughtful participation on the part of all students, as well as a professional-style commitment to the course and its requirements. Assignments take the form of professional, industry-appropriate memos, briefs, proposals, and analyses.
Conflict Management Capstone Course (3 credits): GVPT355
Content pending.
International Development Capstone Course (3 credits): GVPT356
Content pending.
Research Methods Course (3 credits)
Students are required to take one three-credit, 200 or higher-level research methods class. The course can be drawn from any discipline. Examples of courses used by students in the past include: BIOM301; BMGT230; BMGT230B; COMM400; ECON321; EDHD306; EDMS451; GVPT422; PSYC200; SOCY201.
Note: This list is not exhaustive. If you have taken or plan to take a course that you believe would satisfy the requirement, please send an inquiry to midcminfo [at] umd.edu (). Enrollment in any research methods course used to satisfy the MIDCM requirement is subject to applicable restrictions from the offering department.
Very frequently, students in the IDCM minor use the research methods course requirement for their major to satisfy this requirement, as one of the two courses they are entitled to double-count.
Global Perspectives Course (3 credits)
IDCM students are required to take one, 3-credit elective course from the umbrella of Global Studies courses – see the table below. The courses included on this list address themes from different global studies perspectives. Please consult Testudo for the latest information on course availability. Spots in all these courses are managed by the associated programs (not by the IDCM staff), and they may be limited in number. If options are not available, please contact the IDCM staff at midcminfo [at] umd.edu regarding alternative solutions.
Note: We strive to accommodate study abroad courses as the Global Perspectives course requirement if an appropriate match can be found. We also count courses from the Global Fellows program and courses listed as Global Classrooms. Because the IDCM minor is housed in the GVPT department, GVPT courses are not eligible to count as the Global Perspective course for the minor.
