The International Relations major provides a solid foundation in international relations, U.S. foreign policy, economics, geography, and a foreign language competency. The electives are designed to allow students to integrate other interests with their focus on international relations.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Major in International Relations (B.A.) | ||
| ECO 201 | Principles of Economics | 4 |
| GEO 120 | Introduction to Geography | 3 |
| POS 202U | Introduction to International Relations | 3 |
| POS 205 | Introduction to Comparative Politics | 3 |
| POS 211 | The Political Quest | 3 |
| POS 250 | Political Science Practicum 2 | 1 |
| POS/HIS/PHI 491 | Applied Humanities Seminar | 4 |
| Choose one of the following from Business and Economics courses: | 3 | |
| Global Marketing 5 | ||
| Intermediate Microeconomics | ||
| Intermediate Macroeconomics | ||
| Choose from the following Political Science/History courses: | 9 | |
| Revolution and Political Development 3 | ||
| The Cold War 3 | ||
| Human Rights in International History 3 | ||
| African Politics 3 | ||
| Modern Middle East 3 | ||
| Political Parties 3 | ||
| American Foreign Relations 3 | ||
| Globalization and International Institutions 3 | ||
| The Politics of Terrorism and Counterterrorism 3 | ||
| Contemporary Democracies 3 | ||
| Choose from the following courses: 1 | 15 | |
| Biblical and Theological Studies | ||
| Introduction to Religious Studies | ||
| Religions of India, China and Japan | ||
| Christianity and the World's Religions | ||
| Christian Social Ethics | ||
| Post-Reformation to Contemporary Theology in Trans-Atlantic Perspective | ||
| Christian Theology in Africa, Asia, and Latin America | ||
| General Studies | ||
| Christian Responses to Genocide | ||
| Christian Theology in Africa, Asia, and Latin America | ||
| History | ||
| History of China, Japan, and Korea | ||
| History of Islam | ||
| World War I | ||
| World War II | ||
| Revolution and Political Development 3 | ||
| The Cold War 3 | ||
| History and the Human Environment | ||
| Human Rights in International History 3 | ||
| Muslim Women in History | ||
| African Politics 3 | ||
| Modern Europe | ||
| Modern Middle East 3 | ||
| Philosophy | ||
| The Modern Mind | ||
| History of Philosophy II | ||
| Political Science | ||
| Political Psychology | ||
| Topics in Political Science | ||
| Psychology | ||
| Social Psychology 4 | ||
| Cross-Cultural Psychology | ||
| World Languages and Cultures | ||
One world language course at the intermediate level or above | ||
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Major | 48 | |
| General Education | 46-47 | |
| Electives | 27-28 | |
| Total Credits | 122 | |
| 1 | At least 3 credits must be outside the departments of political science, business and economics, and history as well as classes cross-listed with those departments. At least 9 credits must be at the 300 level or above. |
| 2 | Students must receive departmental approval for at least 3 credits of study in an off-campus program that contributes to their educational goals. Departmental approval will also enroll a student in a 1 credit post-experience seminar where they will present on their off-campus work. |
| 3 | Students can only receive credit for this course toward their degree once. |
| 4 | PSY 100 is a prerequisite for this course. |
| 5 | BUS 220 is a prerequisite for this course. |
Courses whose number is followed by a letter fulfill a General Education requirement.
Students may not declare a B.A. in Political Science and B.A. in International Relations.
Overview
The Ministry Scholars program is Bethel University's bachelors to master's degree program that reduces cost and time-to-completion by streamlining undergraduate and graduate education. Graduates receive a bachelor's degree from Bethel University's College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and a master's from Bethel Seminary. This program is well suited for a variety of majors who want to become equipped to lead churches, parachurch organizations, and other ministries. It is also a good fit for ministry-minded students who want to pursue bi-vocational ministry or work outside of professional ministry. Students learn from successful ministry leaders and experts in Biblical and Theological Studies, Spiritual and Personal Formation, and Transformational Leadership. This program offers supplemental training resources, developmental activities, and discipleship opportunities to prepare ministry-minded students for effective ministry leadership. Students also gain valuable field experience in local churches and ministry settings.
The objectives of the program are that graduates will demonstrate age-appropriate growth and ultimately ministry leadership preparedness in the following domains:
- Spiritual life: Students will grow spiritually, deepening their love for, commitment to, and dependence on God, and develop an instinct to trust in God and to connect intimately with God.
- Discernment of call: They will clarify and reaffirm their sense of calling to vocational ministry and what that looks like in a changing world.
- Emotional maturity: They will become emotionally mature adults, possessing the ability to sense and manage emotions, to see others’ perspectives, to sympathize and empathize, to follow and lead as appropriate and to foster healthy relationships.
- Cultural competence: They will become culturally aware, gaining a perspective that all cultures possess strengths and vulnerabilities, an ability to work across cultural lines and an appreciation that diverse teams are stronger teams.
- Bible knowledge: They will gain a clear understanding of the Bible’s content and a deep and abiding passion for the truth of the Gospel.
- Spiritual wisdom: They will grow in wisdom, possessing a capacity to apply the Bible so that others are inspired by their teaching and preaching to live out biblical truth and experience human flourishing.
- Intellectual virtues: They will develop virtues such as critical thinking, respect for data, intellectual humility, and thirst for learning, combined with the skill to interpret and teach the Bible accurately.
- Leadership capacity: They will learn to follow leaders and to lead followers—enlisting people, building teams, leading change and achieving results.
- Godly character: They will become virtuous people—individuals who love others, speak truth, live humbly, sacrifice their own interests, live justly, express joy and show compassion.
What is Bethel looking for in a Ministry Scholar?
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Ability to maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA (cumulative college grade point average or unweighted high school GPA if the student has less than one year of college experience) throughout the duration of the Ministry Scholars program while enrolled at CAS and Seminary.
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Ability to provide a pastoral and ministry leader reference that speaks to the student’s character and call to ministry.
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Commitment to prioritizing activities, discipleship opportunities, and retreats offered to Ministry Scholars, designed to enable the individual to develop a strong sense of community.
Click here for more information on the Ministry Scholars program at Bethel University
ECO 201 • Principles of Economics 4 Credits
Economic reasoning and concepts. Includes an examination of the role of a price system in allocating resources and income, government policies for dealing with unemployment and inflation, and moral questions raised by the free enterprise system.
Offered: Fall, Spring.
ECO 202 • Principles of Microeconomics 2 Credits
Students are encouraged to learn how to think in a manner consistent with the existence of scarcity. Designed to be purposefully different than most courses students take, this is a course in analysis and critical analysis. Therefore students are required to think critically and independently.
Offered: By arrangement and only to fulfill the Microeconomics portion of ECO 201.
ECO 203 • Principles of Macroeconomics 2 Credits
Study of the branch of economics that focuses on the larger economy's performance on the basis of economic growth, business cycles, unemployment, and inflation, and discusses ways to improve on this performance.
Offered: By arrangement and only to fulfill the Macroeconomics portion of ECO 201.
ECO 301 • Intermediate Microeconomics 3 Credits
Models of consumption, production, and pricing in competitive and noncompetitive markets.
Prerequisites: ECO 201. Offered: Fall, Spring.
ECO 302 • Intermediate Macroeconomics 3 Credits
Models of real output and monetary behavior. Policies affecting unemployment, inflation, and economic growth.
Prerequisites: ECO 201. Offered: Fall, Spring.
POS 100 • American Politics and Government 3 Credits
Structure and workings of major parts of the United States national government, such as the Constitution, the presidency, Congress, the courts, the electoral process, and others. How these institutions help Americans deal with significant current issues.
Offered: Fall, Spring.
POS 202U • Introduction to International Relations 3 Credits
How governments interact to further their different political, military, and economic interests; basic factors affecting international cooperation and conflict; topics such as summit meetings, terrorism, arms control, and food and energy resources distribution; one or more international crisis simulation exercises.
Prerequisites: Second-semester freshman standing or higher; GES 130 (may be taken concurrently) or GES 244 (may be taken concurrently). Offered: Fall, Spring.
POS 205 • Introduction to Comparative Politics 3 Credits
An introduction to the subfield of Comparative Politics with special emphasis on the nature, history, and development of political regimes. Systems to be covered include Western democracies, communist and post-communist states, military dictatorships, and politically developing states.
Offered: Fall.
POS 211 • The Political Quest 3 Credits
Major problems of politics and international relations, such as the proper goals of political life, the nature of justice, and the role of the state. Methods of inquiry. Development of the student’s personal political stance and its relation to his or her maturing faith.
Prerequisites: One political science course. Offered: Fall, odd # years, Spring.
POS 216L • American Constitutional History 3 Credits
Examination of the origins and development of American constitutional ideas and institutions from the colonial period to the present. Particular attention paid to the historical connections between major constitutional cases and broader social, political, economic, and cultural trends.
Prerequisites: GES 130; GES 160 (may be taken concurrently) or GES 244 (may be taken concurrently). Offered: Interim or Spring. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in history.
POS 221L • American Political Ideologies 3 Credits
Major modern American ideologies. Anarchism, conservatism, democratic liberalism, fascism, gender and ethnic, liberation theology, and socialism politics. Christian interfaces with various political theories.
Prerequisites: GES 130; GES 160 (may be taken concurrently) or GES 244 (may be taken concurrently). Offered: Spring.
POS 230L • Politics and Religion in the United States 3 Credits
Examines the historical and contemporary relationship between religion and politics in the United States. Divisions and political affiliations of various religious communities are considered alongside discussion of secularism, pluralism, and civil religion in America.
Prerequisites: [GES 130; GES 160] or GES 244 (may be taken concurrently). Offered: Occasionally. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in religious studies.
POS 241L • Revolution and Political Development 3 Credits
Theory and process of modernization, with special emphasis on the Anglo-American historical experience; examinations of U.S. efforts to promote democracy internationally in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East since World War II.
Prerequisites: GES 130; GES 160 (may be taken concurrently) or GES 244 (may be taken concurrently). Offered: Interim. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in history.
POS 250 • Political Science Practicum 1 Credit
In consultation with the Political Science department, students select an off campus program of academic study. Students create a presentation to share their experiences in a colloquium with other international relations, political science, and business and political science majors. Integrates off campus experiences with curricular learning experiences.
Prerequisites: One POS course; Consent of the Political Science department; Major in international relations, business and political sciences, or political science, or minor in political science. Special Notes: Graded on an S/U basis. Offered: Fall, Spring.
POS 252L • History and Politics of Sports 3 Credits
The history of sports in the modern era, with particular attention paid to sports' connections to international politics and public policy and to sports as a mirror for the history of race, gender, education, business, labor, and religion in the United States.
Prerequisites: GES 130 and GES 160 or GES 244. Offered: Spring, even # years. Special Notes: This course carries cross-credit in history.
POS 304 • Political Parties 3 Credits
Examines the role of political parties and elections in democratic political systems, focusing on the electoral process, political parties, and citizen participation. Uses the American case as the first large-scale democratic system to examine a number of other electoral systems from the developed and developing worlds.
Prerequisites: Sophomores with consent of instructor. Offered: Occasionally. Special Notes: POS 100 is a recommended prerequisite.
POS 305G • The Cold War 3 Credits
The Cold War as an event in international history, studied from the perspective of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Europe, and the Third World. Introduces students to ongoing historical debates and to the sources historians use in those debates (including declassified documents available online).
Prerequisites: [GES 130; GES 160; Contemporary Western Life and Thought (L) course; World Cultures (U) course] or [GES 244; World Cultures (U) course]. Offered: Fall, even # years. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in history.
POS 306 • Public Administration 3 Credits
How public policy is put into effect through the administrative agencies of government and the problems in management of such agencies and their relations with the public.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Offered: Spring. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in business. POS 100 is a recommended prerequisite.
POS 310 • American Foreign Relations 3 Credits
Development of United States foreign policy since the Nixon administration, with particular attention paid to contemporary issues, long-range historical trends, and the ways in which foreign policy is formulated and carried out.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing with consent of instructor. Offered: Fall, even # years. Special Notes: POS 100 and POS 202U are recommended prerequisites.
POS 313G • Globalization and International Institutions 3 Credits
Examination of the processes, institutions, relationships, and dynamic trends in the international system. Attention is given to the creation or maintenance of international economic systems and international organizations as they address emerging or enduring problems of world politics. Key international institutions.
Prerequisites: [GES 130; GES 160; Contemporary Western Life and Thought (L) course; World Cultures (U) course] or [GES 244; World Cultures (U) course]. Offered: Spring, even # years. Special Notes: POS 202U is a recommended prerequisite.
POS 315 • The Politics of Terrorism and Counterterrorism 3 Credits
Analyzes terror and terrorism both historically and contemporaneously through study of the political psychology of terrorists and terrorist groups, the tactics of terror, and the complex relationship between terror and states. Special attention paid to the motivations for terror and the effect of religion on terrorism as a political strategy.
Prerequisites: POS 202U. Offered: Spring, odd # years.
POS 317 • Political Psychology 3 Credits
Political psychology is concerned with the causes, dynamics, and consequences of human thinking and action in the context of politics. This field survey covers the psychology of decision making, political attitude formation, public opinion, personality and emotions, intergroup relations, ideology, and the role of mass media in politics.
Prerequisites: One political science course. Offered: Fall, odd # years. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in psychology.
POS 321 • Contemporary Democracies 3 Credits
The meaning of democracy in theory and practice throughout history and in the modern political systems of Great Britain, Japan, and Mexico. Independent research in other democratic systems.
Offered: Spring, odd # years. Special Notes: POS 100 or POS 211 are recommended prerequisites.
POS 324G • Human Rights in International History 3 Credits
International and comparative exploration of how human rights have been defined, violated, and protected. Historical topics (e.g., abolition of the slave trade, social reform and Christian missions, genocides of the 20th century) as well as contemporary issues. Includes a service-learning project.
Prerequisites: [GES 130; GES 160; Contemporary Western Life and Thought (L) course; World Cultures (U) course] or [GES 244; World Cultures (U) course]. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in history. Offered: Fall, odd # years.
POS 325 • Political Communication 3 Credits
Analysis of the theoretical background behind political communication from a public speaking and media perspective. Attention to decision-making skills required in political campaigns. Discussion of advanced persuasive campaign theory.
Prerequisites: COM 110, POS 100, or Consent of instructor. Offered: Occasionally interim. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in communication studies.
POS 329 • African Politics 3 Credits
Consideration of political development in Africa from the pre-colonial era through the present, focusing on changes in political regimes through time, the nature of economic struggles, and sources of violent conflict.
Offered: Spring, even # years. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in history, POS 202U and POS 205 are recommended prerequisites.
POS 340 • American Political Institutions 3 Credits
Examination of the U.S. Congress, Supreme Court, and presidency, with attention to the effects of institutions on the democratic and policy processes. Consideration of political science research on political institutions and contemporary issues facing them.
Prerequisites: POS 100 or Consent of instructor. Offered: Spring, odd # years.
POS 342 • American Public Policy 3 Credits
Examination of public policy-the result of government action-through consideration of the policy process, policy design, and current status of American public policy. Special attention devoted to social policy with student investigation and research in public policy.
Prerequisites: POS 100 or Consent of instructor. Offered: Spring, even # years.
POS 345 • Modern Political Thought 3 Credits
In-depth examination of selected political thinkers such as Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Nietzsche, Kuyper, Rawls, and Taylor. Concentrates on primary sources.
Prerequisites: One course in political science, philosophy, Western history, or Consent of instructor. Offered: Fall, even # years. Special Notes: Carries cross credit in history and philosophy.
POS 356 • Modern Middle East 4 Credits
Political, social, religious, economic, and cultural history of the Middle East since 1800. Particular attention is paid to colonialism, globalization, war, gender roles, revolution, and reform. Controversies such as the Arab/Israeli conflict, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and the U.S. war on terror are discussed.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. Offered: Fall. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in history.
POS 360 • Classical Political Thought 3 Credits
In-depth examination of selected political thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. Concentrates on primary sources.
Prerequisites: One course in political science, philosophy, or history. Offered: Fall, odd # years. Special Notes: Carries cross-credit in philosophy and history.
POS 410 • Topics in Political Science 3 Credits
Intensive study of a specialized topic in political science. The topic to be studied and the subfield of the course are announced prior to the relevant registration period.
Prerequisites: Junior standing and Two courses in political science. Repeatable course: Students may repeat the course for credit provided a different topic is covered. Offered: Occasionally.
POS 481 • Internship in Political Science 1-4 Credits
An off-campus working experience in a government agency or political organization under appropriate supervision. Placement is individually arranged with the Political Science department.
Prerequisites: Consent of department chairperson. Offered: Fall, Spring.
POS 491 • Applied Humanities Seminar 4 Credits
An interdisciplinary, experiential capstone course in which students draw on their studies in history, philosophy, political science, or the digital humanities in order to study a major challenge in contemporary society, analyzing causes, effects, and exisiting responses, and then work together to propose new responses to it.
Prerequisites: Senior standing and Major in one of the following programs: history, philosophy, political science, digital humanities, international relations, business political science, or social studies education 5-12. Offered: Fall, Spring.