Since the
1950s the Foundation has provided more than $500
million—approximately one-twelfth of its total grant making
in this period—to encourage independent analysis and informed
public discussion of international affairs. Currently the
International Affairs program supports work in seven fields:
international peace, security, and arms control; the global
economy; U.S. foreign policy; international refugees and migration;
international relations, particularly in developing countries;
international organizations and law; and neglected fields of
foreign area studies. A central aim of the program is to develop a
network of analysts in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and
developing countries who can view international issues from a mix
of global, national, and disciplinary perspectives.
INTERNATIONAL PEACE, SECURITY, AND ARMS
CONTROL
For many
years the Foundation has enabled some two dozen major, independent
institutions, both in the United States and abroad, to do research,
policy analysis, and advanced training in the field of security and
arms control. Grantees include Harvard and Stanford universities,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Brookings Institution,
the Rand Corporation, the International Institute for Strategic
Studies (London), the French Institute of International Relations,
the Australian National University, and the Research Institute for
Peace and Security (Tokyo).
The
Institute for East-West Security Studies, a relatively new
institution serving the international security and arms control
community, received supplemental support for its European program.
Established in New York in 1982, the institute enables foreign and
security policy specialists from North America and Western and
Eastern Europe to undertake collaborative work on such issues as
the effective control of chemical weapons and the implications of
space-based missile defense for
nato and the Warsaw
Pact. Perhaps the institute's most important contribution is the
ongoing dialogue and debate it promotes among mid-level officials
and researchers from the East and West. Such discussions foster a
shared vocabulary of strategic ideas, a greater understanding of
other nations' security interests, and lasting international
contacts.
The
International Institute for Strategic Studies
(iiss) in London
received continued general-support funds. On November 1, 1985,
iiss also began
receiving income from a capital fund that the Foundation helped
establish with a $2.5 million grant in 1981. A unique information
center and forum for discussion and debate that the Foundation
helped establish in 1958,
iiss publishes
reliable data about military and strategic affairs. Its annual
Military Balance is a standard reference volume assessing
the military power and defense expenditures of countries throughout
the world. iiss
researchers have recently analyzed such topics as U.S.-West
European relations, military competition in space, and Latin
American perceptions of Soviet policy in that region.
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The
Foundation's work in international security and arms control
focuses not only on technical military and diplomatic questions,
but also on the political, economic, historical, social,
psychological, and organizational aspects of how states pursue
their security interests and resolve conflicts. To help young
strategists broaden their perspective beyond U.S. policy choices,
the Foundation renewed support to two fellowship programs. The
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are the focus of a program
administered by Columbia University, where Ph.D. candidates and
postdoctoral scholars combine security studies with advanced
training in the language and history of these countries and in
their contemporary political, social, and economic developments. A
similar fellowship program administered by Harvard