French and International Relations
French and international relations is a combination designed for students who want to engage seriously with the global political order while also developing a deep command of French, a language of enormous international reach and cultural significance. International relations equips you with the analytical frameworks to understand how states, international institutions, and non-state actors interact, compete, and cooperate, drawing on political science, history, economics, and international law to make sense of a complex and contested world. French gives you access to the Francophone world across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, and to a cultural, literary, and intellectual heritage of exceptional richness.
At St Andrews this four-year MA (Hons) programme develops your French language and communications skills to a high level of proficiency through engagement with French and Francophone language, literature, and culture. Alongside this, you will study the theory and history of international relations, from realism and liberalism to constructivism and postcolonial approaches, and you will examine major issues in contemporary global politics including security, development, multilateralism, and human rights. The programme includes a year abroad, giving you sustained immersion in a French-speaking country that transforms your linguistic fluency and cultural understanding.
Graduates from French and international relations programmes are well placed for careers in diplomacy and the foreign service, international organisations including the European Union and the United Nations, journalism and broadcasting with an international focus, humanitarian and development work, think tanks, and the civil service. French is an official language of the UN and many international bodies, making it particularly valuable for careers in international institutions. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in international relations, European studies, French, or related fields, developing specialist expertise for research or high-level professional roles.