Social Science Research Council

ORIGINS

Since 1984, the SSRC's work in international security has responded to rapid, unprecedented change around the world by generating new, practical knowledge and theory. The International Peace and Security Program (IPS), funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, achieved the primary goal of broadening security studies to a broad, interdisciplinary focus. In the sixteen years of its existence (from 1984 to 2000), the program sponsored over 230 Fellows and transformed the academic field. IPS Fellows have gone on to do influential work at the cutting edges of peace and security studies, and a number of former SSRC-MacArthur Fellows have taken a leading role in shaping policy and practice in arms control, humanitarian intervention, post-conflict reconstruction, environmental protection, sustainable development, governance, and other areas.

IPS's successor is the Program on Global Security and Cooperation (GSC), launched in 2000 at a preparatory conference in Cairo. Made possible by a three-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation, GSC emerged as a response to the security challenges of the 21st century and the need for further internationalization of the security field. With an emphasis on human security, GSC has nurtured innovative research and collaboration across world regions and between academics and practitioners. Over three years, fellowships and collaborative research grants were awarded to 53 international scholars and practitioners who convened at annual Fellows' and Grantees' conferences. The Fellows also acted as editorial teams working with GSC staff to produce the electronic newsletter GSC Quarterly. An international advisory committee of renowned scholars provided invaluable intellectual input, ensured a truly global dimension of the program, and conducted their own field building activities.

These fellowship programs ended with the 2003 awards made in Spring 2003.

The fellowship program, the last cohort of which will conclude their work in the latter part of 2004, is just one of the many projects and initiatives undertaken since the GSC program was launched in 2000. Over time we have succeeded in diversifying not only our repertoire of activities and themes, but also our donor base. We have mounted a number of networking activities and provided platforms for joint work that bring together scholars and practitioners working on a diverse array of security issues. The Workshop Series on International Law and International Relations, to be concluded with a published volume, aims to forge collaboration between the two fields, both in theory and practice. Four case-study workshops sought to clarify how law and political processes intersect to influence the possibilities for international cooperation. The project, (Il)licit Flows and Criminality, worked towards a systematic comparative understanding of transnational flows that escape the control, or lie beyond the purview, of states. It will likewise culminate with a volume expected in the later half of 2004. Both projects were made possible by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

In cooperation with the Italian Social Science Council (CSS), GSC awarded eight short-term fellowships in December 2002 for study of ethnic conflict in the Balkans, a program funded by the U.S. State Department's program on Cultural Exchange. From February 2002 to July 2003, the GSC program periodically convened a group of policy professionals, NGO activists, journalists, and academics in a Roundtable on War on Terrorism in Washington that provided briefings by experts with in-depth knowledge and new perspectives on the multifaceted dimensions of the "war on terrorism." In summer 2003, the GSC program also commissioned, upon request from the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID), a research design to evaluate the performance of USAID's Democracy and Governance programs.


TODAY

The range of our current projects and activities is indeed diverse. Our on-going concern with the origins of conflict is reflected in a new Project on Globalization & Conflict that seeks to examine how large-scale structural forces (such as changes in the global economy) alter the conditions of war and peace. Our contribution to the debate about globalization's effects is two-fold: exploration of this complex and underspecified relationship by leading experts on the topic, and new grants for empirical research on globalization and conflict, with emphases on natural resources and state capacities to control violence.

Politically motivated violence, although itself not a novel phenomenon, has recently gained new urgency as a foreign policy issue across the globe. In partnership with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, the GSC program launched a Project on Political Violence in June 2002. Through a combination of detailed case-based analysis and a comparative framework, this project will provide a deeper understanding of the duration of militant groups, and will formulate realistic policy recommendations for the peaceful resolution of conflict. Supported initially by the Hewlett Foundation, and in its current phase by a generous grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the initiative continues through 2004 and 2005.

The domestic implications of the US-led "war on terror" on civil liberties are being taken up in new research work that focuses on reframing the challenge of migration and security. We are concerned with facilitating a constructive dialogue between representatives of the most affected group—Muslim immigrant communities—and the U.S. homeland security authorities. This inquiry, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, seeks to make a significant contribution to the important debate about the proper balance between human rights and the Government's security obligations. The project is expected to conclude in 2006.

Following the developments in the aftermath of September 11th and the war on Iraq, new priorities in security studies have reshaped GSC activities to take up the threats and challenges raised by weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and homeland security priorities, in addition to the other program elements. There is clearly a need to reassess and respond to WMDs and the weakness of the old arms-control regime to cope with new threats and to develop innovative alternatives. The program has aimed to change the discourse about arms control and new forms of restraint. In the spring of 2003, we launched a series of inquiries into particularly troubling regional threats—the Persian Gulf, South Asia and the Korean Peninsula. GSC is building thematic, interdisciplinary research networks to frame research questions and organize new empirical work.


FUTURE INITIATIVES

Currently under development is a new initiative that will focus on the dynamics of social movements in responding to hegemony. In a series of three workshops funded by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, we will examine the international security dimensions of how social movements form and act to restrain hegemonic power globally. The research work will be organized into three related lines of inquiry—past, present and future—all built around a central question: how do social movements challenge hegemonic power and alter the "rules of the game" in global governance?

In cooperation with the United Nations University, we will also take up more broadly the issue of multilateralism in contemporary international relations. This project will explore the relationship between the distribution of power—in all its dimensions, hard and soft—at the international level and the effectiveness of, and prospects for, multilateralism. It will consider whether multilateralism can offer a viable basis for international order when power is preeminently concentrated in a unipolar system. In addition, the project will contemplate whether existing multilateral values and institutions are able to cope with emerging threats and challenges and how to re-envision multilateral arrangements in a number of policy areas. Lastly, we will examine whether the basis of multilateralism—sovereign equality—and decision making procedures need to be reassessed.

To ensure timely and enduring use of all the new knowledge generated within the program, we will undertake a number of public initiatives, including policy briefs and seminars, conferences, articles in the popular press, and an archive of useful research (much of which will come from past IPS and GSC Fellows and from the new epistemic networks). These efforts should result in relevant social science research made available effectively to a variety of academic, policy and public constituencies in the United States and abroad.

New program emphases, in combination with long-standing interests, will open the door to a broad range of new activities and research outputs that will enrich our knowledge of global security and cooperation and inform public debate on these pressing issues.