With its international focus and applied learning model, faculty at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies have always updated their courses constantly. Now programs are evolving to reflect geopolitical shifts and AI.
To learn more, we spoke with Dr. Katharine Petrich, assistant professor of nonproliferation and terrorism studies.
Why did the Institute launch new master’s degrees in Threat Intelligence and in Global Governance?
Our new degreesrespond to the fact that global power is no longer just in the hands of states. Non-state actors, corporations, tech firms, even troll farms—they’re all shaping international outcomes now. What’s great about Middlebury is that internationalism isn’t just a theme we visit during a module at the end of the semester—it’s integrated throughout.
Threat intelligence equips students to analyze that whole ecosystem—not just governments, but big tech, oil and gas, and disinformation networks. Global governance helps students understand how international norms and systems are shifting in response. These aren’t hypothetical shifts. They’re here—and we’re preparing students to meet them.
How are faculty updating their curriculum and how they teach in light of AI and shifting geopolitics?
AI is a force multiplier. It’s not optional—we have to engage with it, both for its benefits and its risks. My biggest concern for students is over-reliance. We have good evidence that leaning too hard on AI can dull critical thinking. So we’re working with students to understand when to use it, when not to, and how to evaluate its outputs.
While undergraduate programs are about wide exposure, a good master’s program is where you go deep and prepare to launch your professional career. You should come away with deep content knowledge and both hard and soft skills. You may need to understand SQL or be able to wrangle data in Excel—but also know how to read between the lines of a prime minister’s public statement or assess a social media post for credibility. Ideally, you’ll get to practice all those things with us—and mess them up safely!—before you hit a real job.
Which skills are becoming more important for graduates?
Information literacy. Research used to mean heading to the library, where everything was reliable. Now, students are flooded with sources and need to quickly assess what’s credible. Filtering and making sense of digital data is critical.
With AI, it’s not just number-crunching. It’s understanding what the output means and whether it’s even real. Can you recognize hallu? Can you triangulate what the model gives you with other sources?
That kind of analytical bridgework—translating technical outputs into meaningful decisions—is increasingly at the heart of what we teach.
What advice do you have for people launching their careers in this uncertain time?
As someone who graduated into two recessions, the advice I wish I’d received earlier is: focus less on job titles and more on job functions. What do you actually want to do each day? Travel? Write? Meet with policymakers? Field work? Start there.
The world isn’t going back to an isolationist past. Maybe you dreamed of working for the federal government or a think tank, and find yourself at a maritime shipping company instead. You’re still negotiating across cultures. The skills of diplomacy, bridge-building and analysis all still apply.
“Focus less on job titles and more on what you actually want to do every day.”
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies
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