CMU's Home for Political Science and International Relations
Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology is the academic home of the study of Political Science and International Relations within the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2023, Carnegie Mellon University launched an exciting new academic and research organization, the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST). As a result, what was once known as the Institute for Politics and Strategy (IPS) evolved into CMIST, a university-wide initiative devoted to applying the tools of political science to the wise development, use, and governance of emerging technologies--from artificial intelligence to biotechnology and beyond. We are proud of our mission as social scientists, solving pressing problems and helping to ensure that technology serves humanity.
CMIST hosts rich academic programs where students can wrestle with a wide range of issues, including the relationship between technology and politics, the drivers of war and peace, domestic politics across countries, and the formulation of effective foreign policies.
Our students and faculty do cutting-edge work in security and technology, grand strategy and national security, cybersecurity and international conflict, military strategy and doctrine, the politics of key regions of the world, political economy and global inequality, representation and voting rights, climate change and development, repression and human rights, international law and diplomacy, political psychology and public opinion, and social change and revolution. Our graduates embark on careers in government, law, public policy, intelligence, national defense, consulting, international development, science and technology policy, and more.
At CMIST we address the challenges of new and emerging technologies through a political science lens, focused on maximizing the benefits and reducing the risks to human beings. Taking advantage of the intellectually rich opportunities at Carnegie Mellon University, CMIST draws upon the university’s strengths in computer science and engineering and its distinctive tradition of collaborative, cross-university, cross-disciplinary research, to study the wide-ranging impacts of technological innovations upon human beings at home and abroad.
There is no better place to tackle these questions. Carnegie Mellon University is ranked #1 in the subfields of artificial intelligence, computer engineering, cybersecurity, information systems, and software engineering. It has leading research institutes in fields such as robotics, machine learning, natural language technologies, human-computer interaction, engineering and public policy, and public policy and management--all designed to reach across disciplinary boundaries to address risks and solve key problems. CMIST is where we tie Carnegie Mellon University’s strengths in building new technologies to the crucial questions of strategy, security, ethics, and policy that will shape the future of humanity.