Dear Students,
Welcome to the Department of Political Science and International Relations.
Around 2400 years ago, Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle reflected his ideas about the relationship between human and politics with his words “man is a political animal.” This idea does not only emphasize the characteristic of politics as immanent in human nature, but also identifies that the history of politics has progressed concurrently with the history of humanity. When we look at the historical interactions between states and societies, we see that the roots of international relations as a political act are as old as wars and trade.
Though the world today is quite different than that of Aristotle’s, politics and international relations remain to lie at the core of human existence to the extent that national and international political developments influence and shape every aspect of our lives. Therefore, understanding and becoming a part of social and political reality requires a multidisciplinary training that paves the way for critical thinking. Indeed, finding solutions to problems and analysing political and social relations in a globalizing and constantly changing world can only be possible through such intellectual process. In a world that the disciplines of political science and international relations are widening towards various new fields, developing skills on multi-dimensional thinking and analysis requires us to construct a multi-disciplinary perspective that pushes students to accumulate knowledge not only on basic/classical subjects, but also on many others such as international trade, ethics, human rights, migration, identity politics, and environmental issues.
We believe that this understanding, which is fulfilled with the interactive training strategy in line with the educational principles of TED University, is crucial for the future success of our students. With this approach, we shaped our educational paradigm in a way that overcomes the educational model which gives a passive role to the students, and instead located the students’ active participation at the centre. We think that this educational paradigm will not only better prepare you for your future career, but also enable you to become creative and critical in every aspect of your lives.
Aylin Özman