About Us
The Department of International Relations at The Islamia University of Bahawalpur was established in 2009 to build serious scholarly capacity in the study of world politics, foreign policy, and security in southern Punjab.
Since then, the Department has grown into a full-spectrum teaching and research unit offering programs from undergraduate through doctoral level. At the BS level, it offers BS International Relations and BS Defense and Diplomatic Studies. At the MPhil level, it offers MPhil International Relations and MPhil Defense and Diplomatic Studies. At the doctoral level, it offers PhD in International Relations.
The Department is served by highly qualified faculty, including foreign-qualified scholars whose training and research experience span the core fields of the discipline: international relations theory, security and strategic studies, foreign policy analysis, international law and organization, diplomatic history, and international political economy. Faculty engages both the enduring questions of the field and the contemporary issues shaping the international system.
Teaching in the Department combines conceptual grounding in international relations theory with sustained attention to contemporary policy debate. Students are trained to read critically, argue from evidence, and write with precision through seminars, simulation exercises, research supervision, and a curriculum reviewed against national accreditation requirements and international disciplinary standards.
The Department understands its work as a public responsibility. It aims to produce graduates who can analyze the international environment rigorously, represent Pakistan's interests competently, and contribute to informed public debate on questions of war, peace, diplomacy, and development.
Mission Statement
To advance rigorous teaching and research in International Relations, and to prepare graduates who can analyze global affairs critically and serve Pakistan and the international community with competence and integrity.
The mission of the Department of International Relations is to:
- Deliver a rigorous, research-led curriculum in International Relations and Defense and Diplomatic Studies that meets national accreditation standards and reflects contemporary international scholarship.
- Develop in students the analytical, research, and communication skills required for careers in diplomacy, public service, research, media, and academia.
- Produce original research across the core fields of the discipline that informs policy debate at national, regional, and international levels.
- Foster an academic culture grounded in intellectual honesty, open enquiry, and respect for diverse perspectives.
- Serve the wider community through public lectures, policy engagement, and collaboration with research institutions, government bodies, and civil society.
Vision Statement
The Department of International Relations aspires to be a nationally recognized center of excellence in the study of world politics a department whose teaching, research, and public engagement meet the standards expected of leading International Relations departments internationally. We envision an academic environment in which rigorous disciplinary training is the norm rather than the exception: where students encounter the full range of theoretical traditions and methodological approaches that define the field, where faculty pursue original research that is published, cited, and debated beyond the campus, and where the distance between the classroom and the questions actually confronting policymakers is kept deliberately short. Our ambition is not simply to deliver degrees, but to build a durable intellectual community in southern Punjab capable of contributing to the discipline on its own terms.
We further envision a department whose graduates carry that training into positions of genuine significance in diplomacy and the civil services, in research and policy institutions, in international organizations, in media, and in universities at home and abroad. We seek to equip them not only with knowledge of the international system, but with the habits of mind the discipline demands: skepticism toward easy explanations, respect for evidence, comfort with complexity, and the capacity to hold a position and revise it when the argument requires. In doing so, the Department aims to serve the University, the region, and Pakistan strengthening informed public debate on foreign policy and security, and preparing a generation able to represent the country competently and think about the wider world with clarity, independence, and integrity.
