The State of IR Education

A Foreign Policy conducted survey reveals some interesting statistics on international relations education in America. Here are some of the numbers:

• 69% of international relations professors describe themselves as liberal
• 13% see themselves as conservative
• overwhelmingly opposed the U.S. war in Iraq
• 77% of them support free trade
• 10% believe the United States should beef up its military budget
• No women rank among the top 25 scholars with the greatest impact on the discipline over the past 20 years

I found this very interesting as well:

When professors do reach for the theoretical toolbox, they frequently pull out the classics, notably realism, with its focus on states and power, and liberalism, with its emphasis on economic interdependence and international institutions. Beyond these two schools of thought, however, some interesting results appear. Constructivism, which highlights the power of ideology and beliefs in international politics, is the hot new thing in academic research; more than 80 percent of scholars report that it is on the rise. Nevertheless, it gets little airtime in introductory classes. Marxism, on the other hand, may be on history’s ash heap, but it still finds its way onto the reading list. Indeed, nearly 14 percent of introductory course material is still devoted to Marxist ideas.

I know we must have a number of IR people out there ( ahem , Dr. Dan and bp32), what say you?

Wot! Wot! goes out to Grendel