Program overview
Area and Country Studies is an interdisciplinary field. Simply put, it involves studying everything about a specific country or region—from history, politics, and economy to culture, society, and language. Instead of broadly studying "international relations," you focus on a concrete area, such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, or Europe, becoming a "walking encyclopedia" of that place. Core courses include regional comprehensive studies, comparative political economy, cross-cultural communication, and fieldwork methods. Chinese universities have unique advantages here: for example, Peking University, Fudan University, and Yunnan University leverage geographic and language resources to offer in-depth courses on countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. If you're curious about a particular country and enjoy field research, learning local languages, and interacting with people from different cultures, this major is a great fit.