Is Georgetown or Carnegie Mellon better for studying international relations?

For a student whose primary goal is undergraduate international relations, especially security policy, Georgetown is typically the more direct fit. Its Walsh School of Foreign Service is built around global affairs, with majors such as International Politics and Science, Technology, and International Affairs, and Washington, DC provides unusually close access to government agencies, embassies, think tanks, and policy internships. Georgetown also has a deeply established foreign-policy culture on campus, so many classmates, courses, speakers, and student organizations will be centered on international questions.

Georgetown suits students who want to study technology policy through an international-relations lens: for example, how AI, cyber conflict, export controls, climate technology, or emerging technologies shape diplomacy and national security. The STIA major is especially relevant because it combines scientific and technical literacy with political, economic, and international analysis. A student hoping to pursue work in diplomacy, national security, intelligence, international organizations, or foreign-policy research would find a particularly natural undergraduate pathway there.

Carnegie Mellon is compelling for a different kind of student: someone who wants serious technical training to sit at the center of their policy education. Its International Relations and Politics program, Institute for Politics and Strategy, Heinz College policy resources, and major strengths in computer science, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and engineering can create a powerful foundation for technology-security work. It can be an excellent place for a student who wants to understand the technical substance behind cyber policy, AI governance, or digital privacy rather than primarily studying those issues through diplomacy and political science.

For the interests you named, Georgetown has the clearer overall undergraduate IR environment, while Carnegie Mellon may be more appealing if you would prioritize computing, quantitative work, or engineering alongside policy. The deciding question is whether you want international relations to be the center of your education, as it likely would be at Georgetown, or technology to be the center with policy as an applied focus, which Carnegie Mellon supports especially well.