in collaboration with “JICA Program with Universities for Development Studies (JProUD)* ”

This is a new two-year master’s program to educate future top leaders from Japan, Asia and Africa (and perhaps Latin America) about Japan’s experience in economic and societal development since the Meiji restoration, and its logical underpinnings.

1. The logic and lessons (both positive and negative) from Japanese experiences will help future leaders from abroad when they have to think about their strategy for development back home.

2. The same logic and lessons will also benefit future Japanese leaders if only to understand their own history and to become able to explain Japan better outside the country.... [-]

Globalization has created a need for highly skilled professionals capable of working in a global environment. This Master’s programme explores state-society relations and economic development in modern Asia, predominantly South Asia and the Middle East, through comparative and international political economy, economic development theory, and comparative anthropological sociology. Its approach is grounded in the context of retrospective genesis methodology of Asian Studies.

The programme provides students with a range of skills required to understand the processes that are taking place in contemporary Asia. The programme is distinguished by its inter-disciplinary approach, which enables students to supplement area studies with courses on international trade, investment, and business, thus providing them with necessary tools to analyze economic, political and cultural issues relevant to Asian countries. A number of courses will focus specifically on relations between the Russian Federation and countries in the region. The programme's academic content is complemented by research projects and opportunities for language training.... [-]

The HSE University - St. Petersburg Master's Programme in "Comparative Politics of Eurasia" responds to the growing strategic importance of the wider Eurasian region, including the former Soviet Union and the countries of East Asia, as well as the associated need for both national and international expertise in the comparative politics of this vital region. The programme provides for a discipline-based professional training in Comparative Politics complemented with an advanced, specialist understanding of the unique and challenging political and social environment of the Eurasian region.

The programme curriculum is developed around a core conceptual training in comparative political science and a comprehensive empirical training in contemporary methods of social science research. Alongside this core, the programme offers an exciting range of elective courses in two broad groups. The first group, augmenting the core training in comparative political science covers politics and society in contemporary Russia; the social and political transformations of Central Asia, China and Vietnam; and the political economy of post-communist development. A second, the more multi-disciplinary grouping of courses includes those that cover: the international relations of Russia, Central Asia, China and Vietnam; Russia’s energy policies and dilemmas; and Russia’s geopolitical standing in the context of the wider Arctic region.... [-]

The MA programme has the distinction of being the only one given in English for Asian Studies in Russia, using written materials in the languages of the area as the basic research resource.

What are the benefits of the programme?

As will be seen, the programme is transparently formulated to allow our students to enhance their career prospects internationally in academics, diplomacy, non-governmental and governmental corporations. Our partners – with either formal contracts allowing credit exchange or informal relationships developed over the decades – receive our students with great anticipation, knowing our reputation and glad to have such dedicated academics contributing to international research.... [-]

Asia is the area of human activity for a long history, and full of diversity of culture, religion and philosophy. In recent years, as a result of economic development, Asia has received more attention by the world. Meanwhile, accompanying with the economic development which results in politic change and democratization in Asia, even the issues of the development of constitutionalism, human rights, security protection, and economic integration, etc., Asia has becoming the focus of global concern. In the vast areas of Asia, East Asia is the place of our life and co-existence and prosperity. The most important adjacent neighbors of Taiwan were Japan to the north, South-East Asian countries to the south. There are close relationship among those areas. It is necessary to understand and study both two neighbors.... [-]

IMARES is the oldest of the international MA programs currently offered by the European University at Saint Petersburg and has been available to students since 1998. Like its core subject of study - the post-Soviet space - IMARES has changed and developed over the past 18 years. The program not only examines the past but also interprets the most up to date events unfolding in this fascinating region. By combining analyses of past and present, our students gain a deep understanding of the political, economic, social, and cultural dynamics of the post-Soviet space.

In its various forms (the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet space), Eurasia has been the scene of some of the world’s most spectacular dramas during the last three centuries, including the rise and fall of empires and the successes and stagnations of strikingly different political and economic systems. It has followed a path from one of the world’s largest empires to the birth of nation-states. It has been the battleground for the Napoleonic War, Civil War, and the horrors of two World Wars. During a turbulent history, the people of Eurasia experienced the contrasting forces of the autocratic monarchy, socialism and fragile democracy, atheism and religious fundamentalism, and multiculturalism and ethnic conflict. Russia, Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Russia’s western neighbors have been testing the ground for political and economic theories, which left legacies that are still felt today. IMARES enables students to learn about the geopolitical space,... [-]

The curriculum reflects the People’s Republic’s increasing global influence – from its importance in the world economy to its foreign policy and presence in international organisations – and the rapid domestic political, economic and social changes associated with China’s recent development, throughout the two year programme students can test their insights on the challenges to the Chinese state and society in the 21st century by interacting with Chinese and non-Chinese scholars, decision makers and opinion leaders. Upon completion of the study programme, the graduates will be able to contextualise China’s ascent in the broader global context and to link this issue to debates about international relations and theories of development.... [-]