As Sciences Po's graduate school for international affairs, PSIA was in 2024 jointly ranked second best programme globally for politics, along with the University of Oxford.[7][8]
PSIA's current dean is Arancha Gonzalez, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, succeeding Enrico Letta, former Prime Minister of Italy, who held the position from 2015 to 2021.
History
The Paris School of International Affairs was established in 2010 in the context of the previous Sciences Po Director Richard Descoings' reforms to expand and internationalize Sciences Po and to diversify its student body. These reforms were effectively seen by the international media as a bold move away from the traditional grandes écoles French system.[9][10] As many Masters programs have been transformed into entire schools within Sciences Po, PSIA replaced Sciences Po's former master d'Affaires internationales.[11] PSIA's original precursor is the section internationale (international section) created as early as 1872 by the Ecole libre des sciences politiques (Free school of political sciences) and which welcomed more than 30% of foreign students.[12]
In January 2010 Ghassan Salamé was appointed the first dean of PSIA. In September of the same year, the school had a first intake of 500 graduate students. Within one year, international applications doubled and PSIA now has an enrollment of 1300 students from over 100 countries.[12]
On 20 April 2015 it was announced that Enrico Letta, former Prime Minister of Italy, would succeed Ghassan Salamé as Dean starting in September 2015. [13]
On 18 February 2022 it was announced that Arancha Gonzalez, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, would become Dean of PSIA starting 1 March 2022. She is the first woman to hold this position.[14]
Governance
PSIA is governed by two bodies. While a 'Strategy Committee' decides the school's strategic orientation, a scientific committee, composed of PSIA faculty, is in charge of curriculum affairs.
As of 2024, members of PSIA's governing bodies include:
Among PSIA's scholars, practitioners, and leaders in international affairs, are:
Rony Brauman, former President of Médecins Sans Frontières. He is currently Director of Research at the Doctors Without Borders Foundation and also an associate professor at Sciences Po.
Mamadou Diouf, Leitman Professor of African Studies at Columbia University, specialist in urban, political, social, and intellectual history of colonial and postcolonial Africa
Fawaz Gerges, network news analyst, and also Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations
Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School and former Vice President at the World Bank
Miguel Angel Moratinos, Foreign Minister of Spain and previously the EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, as well as formerly the Ambassador of Spain to Israel
David Rieff, policy analyst, senior fellow at the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research
Ghassan Salamé, Dean of PSIA, former Senior Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General (2003–2006) and Political Advisor to the UN Mission in Iraq (2003)
