The PhD in International Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University (KSU) is an interdisciplinary program that emphasizes both theory and practice. Our students come from around with world, with a cohort system for the core seminars in the first three semesters of the program providing a common base from which students specialize according to their own academic and professional backgrounds and research interests.

• Overview

  PhD students accepted into the program receive broad interdisciplinary training while also being able to select elective classes in areas of interest.  Graduates will be able to address complex conflicts from a sophisticated theoretical, practical, and methodological knowledge base. Core seminars in the semester of the program include:

  • International relations theories of conflict
  • Economic theories of conflict
  • Socio-cultural approaches to conflict
  • Peace and conflict studies theories and analysis
  • Approaches to knowledge
  • Fundamentals of research design
  • Quantitative methods
  • Qualitative methods

  Students are also required to enroll in a course on professional knowledge for the PhD, an advanced methods course of their choosing, and a dissertation proposal colloquium.

• Vision
  To become a leading PhD program preparing scholar-practitioners for the complex challenges of preventing, managing, and transforming international conflict.
• Purpose

  This full-time, interdisciplinary, in-residence program is designed to meet the global demand for scholar-practitioners capable of addressing a complex array of international conflict and security challenges. Our graduates succeed in a wide range of careers including tenure-track faculty appointments, positions at international organizations around the globe, monitoring and evaluation experts for nongovernmental organizations, government operations, and private sector analysts.

• Program Objectives

  The INCM PhD program is one of a small number of PhD programs in International Conflict Management in North America. Graduates of our program should be able to demonstrate the following:

  Replace 1-8 with the following:

  1. Knowledge of the theoretical and historical foundations of conflict
     management, international relations, economics of conflict, and intercultural dynamics of conflict.
  2. The ability to apply concepts and theories of international conflict management to relevant conflict related problems.
  3. Intercultural competency.
  4. The ability to design and conduct research using quantitative methods.
  5. The ability to independently design and conduct research using qualitative methods.
  6. The ability to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge about conflict to their chosen area of research.
  7. Capacity to critically reflect on the intersections and linkages between theory and practice in conflict management.
• Selected Careers

  Selected Careers after the Ph.D. Program

  Academic Positions

  • Executive Director, Strategic Studies & Partnerships & Associate Professor, University of North Georgia
  • Director, United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise, Salisbury University
  • Director of International Student Services, Dixie State University
  • Ombudsperson, Georgia State University
  • Professor (FH) Vice Director of Studies Sports, Culture & Event Management,
    University of Kufstein, Austria
  • Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, University of West Georgia
  • Assistant Professor of Conflict Engagement, Creighton University, School of Law
  • Lecturer, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
  • Lecturer of Sociology, Georgia State University
  • Instructor Political Science and Public Affairs, Savannah State
  • Instructor, Bethune-Cookman University
  • Full-time Temporary Instructor of Political Science and Public Affairs,
    Savannah State
  • Adjunct Instructor, University of Missouri
  • Part-time Assistant Professor of Political Science, Kennesaw State University

  Research and Administrative Positions

  • Head of Training for Peace Program, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Ghana
  • Deputy Manager, Nepal Telecom, Nepal
  • Data Analyst and Researcher, Montana Office of Public Instruction K20
  • Market Research Analyst, Cisco
  • Senior Data Science Associate, PwC, GSRC
  • Trainer & Clinical Social Worker, UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center
  • Enterprise Risk Management - Operations Analyst, Guidehouse
  • Independent Data Consulting, Center for Disease Control
  • Senior Tax Auditor, Ghana Revenue Authority
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church

Recent News 

• Charity Butcher, Ph.D., Announced as Director of the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development
• The 2023 Helen S. Ridley Scholarship award winner is Reanna Tran.
• Remembering Dr. Helen Swartzfager Ridley
• Kennesaw State professor aims to address post-conflict social trauma in Liberia

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