MGL is based on following two principles:

Firstly, the program is to pursue academic research that balances global and regional perspectives in addressing the range of historical, political, economic, business management, industrial, social and cultural issues arising among and across the nations of the Asia-Pacific region.

Secondly, its principle is cultivating future leaders, who can contribute broadly to United Nations based global governance and ASEAN centered regional governance in Southeast Asia, East Asia (ASEAN+3) and Asia Pacific. Solving various issues emerging out of the contemporary global society requires historical and cultural understandings of the region combined with analytical skills from the disciplines of international relations, political science, and international development. To this end, MGL is one of the few educational programs in the world that offers an interdisciplinary program to provide students with graduate-level education in Global Leadership with three social science dimension of Politics/ Security, Economy and International studies.