Recent events have demonstrated the degree to which military issues affect social groups, global politics, and the world economy. Understanding the ways in which armies are raised and funded, the reasons troops serve, the conditions military personnel and civilians endure during wartime, and the multifaceted and evolving ways in which nations conceive of the military apparatus has direct bearing on future policy decisions.

The MA in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in war and the military in society emphasizes scholarship that examines issues of international security and conflict in the past, present, and future. It equips students with the skills to understand the interconnected nature of those elements and to examine critically the ways in which they have changed and continue to change over time.