The Fletcher School

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Type	Private
Established	1933
Parent institution	Tufts University
Dean	James G. Stavridis
Academic staff	98
Students	700
Location	Medford, Massachusetts, U.S.
Colors	Black and Orange
Affiliations	APSIA
Website	fletcher.tufts.edu

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (also referred to as The Fletcher School) is the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international affairs. Fletcher is regarded as one of the world's foremost graduate schools of international relations. The school’s alumni include hundreds of sitting ambassadors; award-winning journalists and authors; leaders of international peacekeeping, humanitarian and security initiatives; heads of global nonprofit organizations; and executive leadership of some of the world’s largest for-profit companies.

The Fletcher School was founded in 1933 with the bequest of Austin Barclay Fletcher, who left over $3 million to Tufts University upon his death in 1923. A third of these funds were dedicated to a school of law and diplomacy. Fletcher did not have in mind a school "of the usual kind, which prepares men for admission to the bar and for the active practice of law." Instead, Fletcher envisioned "a school to prepare men for the diplomatic service and to teach such matters as come within the scope of foreign relations [which] embraces within it as a fundamental and thorough knowledge of the principles of international law upon which diplomacy is founded, although the profession of a diplomat carries with it also a knowledge of many things of a geographic and economic nature which affect relations between nations."

The school opened in 1933 as a collaborative project between Harvard University and Tufts. One of the first buildings acquired was Goddard Hall which was converted into a library. Tufts assumed exclusive responsibility for the administration of The Fletcher School in 1935, but the school maintains close ties with Harvard. Fletcher students can register for graduate classes at Harvard, and conversely, graduate students at Harvard can register for courses at Fletcher. In addition, the Fletcher School has strong relationships, including joint and dual degree programs, with several other universities around the metro Boston area and throughout the world. The two-year Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) is the Fletcher School’s "flagship" international affairs degree.

The Fletcher School and Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) are the only non-law schools in the US that compete in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.