The Department of International Relations at METU is widely regarded as one of the most prominent International Relations departments in Turkey. Founded in 1984, the department offers a comprehensive and dynamic programme to enable students to understand developments, changes and transformations in the international arena and their institutional, historical and current dimensions. The department, whose students are selected from among those who have received the highest scores in the central university entrance exam and whose graduates have gone on to successful careers in many different sectors, has a faculty of leading academics. In postgraduate studies, METU's International Relations Department, which opened its master programme in 1987 and its doctoral programme in 1997, is one of the most prestigious institutions in Turkey.

Our department has 20 full-time lecturers, who work in a wide variety of academic areas, conducting both conceptual and empirical research and publishing in English and in Turkish in internationally recognised journals and with internationally renowned publishing houses. A secure environment for independent academic research, the department supports its members in their research in a wide range of fields in the social sciences and provides a dynamic environment, responding to changing academic needs and contributing to the development of social sciences both in Turkey and abroad. The department also has 10 research assistants enrolled either in Masters or PhD. programmes. The lecturers in the department also contribute extensively to the many interdisciplinary Masters and PhD. programmes which the university offers and which make METU one of the most important centres for interdisciplinary graduate studies in Turkey.

The department offers both compulsory and free elective courses on subjects such as international relations theory, international politics, international political economy, world history and international law, which are regarded as fundamental areas of the international relations discipline, as well as on international security, international organisations, Turkish foreign policy, American foreign policy, German foreign policy, British foreign policy, non-state actors, foreign policy analysis, research methods, European Union institutions and law, Middle Eastern politics, Balkan politics, Eurasian studies, peace and conflict studies. The department, which organises panels and conferences with leading academics both from Turkey and abroad, officials of international organisations and foreign diplomatic personnel in Turkey, provides a lively intellectual environment.