Category: Featured News, News

Title: SFS Launches Asia Pacific Program and Opens New Location in Indonesia

“Georgetown SFS Asia Pacific opens at a crucial juncture for students and practitioners of international relations. A global order defined by post-war international institutions and legal conventions is entering much choppier waters. Georgetown SFS’s presence—in Washington, in Doha and now in Jakarta— creates a global network that will give our students a front row seat to study and shape how geopolitics, social movements and new leadership are defining the emerging global order,” says SFS Dean Joel S. Hellman.

Professor Yuhki Tajima stands in front of a window in GSAP buildingYuhki Tajima, associate professor in the School of Foreign Service, will lead Georgetown Asia Pacific as its first Rector. Tajima is a political economist with expertise in Southeast Asia, and was formerly director of the Asian Studies Program.

“With its focus on the Global South and the Asia Pacific region, Georgetown Asia Pacific opens up an opportunity to offer students a truly global approach to an international affairs education, drawing both North-South and East-West linkages. Letting students learn about the region of study from within the region will let them gain a close, hands-on understanding from all angles of how policy makers address challenges of the Global South in the Asia Pacific,” says Tajima.

Executive Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Affairs (Asia Pacific)

The initiative will begin with a new one-year Executive Master’s Degree in Diplomacy and International Affairs (EMDIA) intended for mid-career professionals from the Asia Pacific region. The degree will accelerate careers and provide students with the expertise to tackle the most pressing global and regional challenges. The first 26 students began classes in Jakarta this week. They will spend one semester each in Jakarta and on Georgetown’s main campus in Washington, DC, in addition to a weeklong module in Doha. EMDIA Asia Pacific covers topics of international relations, economic diplomacy, energy and environment and skills such as international negotiations and leadership. The launch of EMDIA Asia Pacific follows Georgetown’s successful pilot of the first iteration of the degree in Qatar, which began in 2021.

A second cohort of the EMDIA Program is planned to begin in the fall of 2025. The priority deadline for the fall 2025 intake is January 31, 2025, and the regular deadline is April 1, 2025. Learn more on the EMDIA Asia Pacific web page.

Asia Pacific Policy Labs

This semester, Georgetown Asia Pacific is also launching an innovative new experiential learning opportunity for existing students in SFS graduate programs, called Asia Pacific Policy Labs. These labs provide an immersive environment that bridges the gap between academic theory and real-world practice centered around field-based research on problems best understood from the experience of the Asia Pacific region. Through these labs, SFS students will learn from innovators and changemakers in the Asia Pacific region on such pressing issues as climate change, natural resource development, poverty reduction, geopolitics, and geo-economics. The labs are intended to bring new insights from the Global South into conventional international affairs training with a focus on real-world impact.

The application deadline for the Policy Labs for the fall 2025 term for students in SFS’s 2-year master’s degree programs is March 15, 2025. Learn more on the Asia Pacific Policy Labs web page.