The Department of Political Science and International Relations is one of the oldest academic units of Addis Ababa University. When the University College of Addis Ababa (UCAA) was established in 1952, political science courses were offered by the then Foreign Service Unit. This unit was later renamed Department of Social and Political Sciences. Since 1966, the Department’s nomenclature underwent several changes: until the early 1970s, the department was known as the Department of Political Science and Government (PSG). In 1974, the Department of Public Administration was merged with PSG to form the Department of Government Affairs (GOAF). In 1978, GOSF renamed as, Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) combining the two sub-fields of Political Science and International Relations and Public Administration was included in the program as a minor field of study, and since then the students of the Department have pursued their undergraduate studies by taking major and minor fields of study. The Department launched an MA Program in 2002 in the sub field of International Relations. The Department is preparing to launch a PhD program in Political Science during 2008/09.