The Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation will begin accepting
applications on January 31, 2012 for the following grants:
2012–2013 IGCC Dissertation Fellowships (download
RFP)
2012-13 IGCC Faculty Grant Competition (download
RFP)
THE IGCC RESEARCH AGENDA
International security in the twenty‐first century has been
transformed from a stark bipolar confrontation of states and their surrogates,
characteristic of the Cold War, to interactions among a wide variety of actors
and institutions. International and regional organizations, state and local
government agencies, nonprofits, and the private sector play unprecedented
roles in shaping security—positively or negatively. Climate change and hunger,
unemployment and migration, financial instability and natural resource
constraints create a rapidly changing strategic environment, challenging old
definitions of what security means, who is or should be involved, and what role
national governments play. Local choices can have international consequences.
For example, nuclear power may offer a way for nations to free themselves from
the tyranny of oil and assist in addressing threats of destabilizing climate
change, but the risks of diversion of nuclear material from civilian to weapons
use remain high and the disaster at Fukushima has given pause to many
governmental nuclear programs. Governments will soon face this more complex
environment with significantly reduced budgets, forcing hard decisions as they
set security priorities.
IGCC seeks to support Ph.D. dissertations and faculty research and
programming on three broad themes closely linked to this new global security
dynamic. Applications must have one of these themes as an integral part of the
project.
Theme One ‐ The Changed Institutional Environment: Although national governments
remain primary players in the security realm, non‐state actors like
corporations and NGOs, and regional and multilateral forums have become
increasingly important in managing international relations and preserving the
peace.
Examples of possible topics under this theme include: privatization of
security, regional multilateral fora, measuring the effectiveness of
international institutions, multilateral versus bilateral arrangements, and
international legal agreements and dispute resolution mechanisms.
Theme Two ‐ Nonconventional Threats: Although traditional military competition
remains, day‐to‐day threats in this new security dynamic generally emanate from a
variety of nontraditional sources such as terrorism and international crime,
bioterrorism and nuclear proliferation, climate change and epidemics that
straddle borders.
Topics under this theme include: international cooperation on health,
terrorism, biosecurity, nonstate actors, global health development, nation
building, democratization, climate change, and transborder environmental
problems.
Theme Three: Nuclear Threats and Public Policy: The continued
interaction between the development of nuclear technology, the global expansion
of nuclear energy, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons makes nuclear
issues a persistent policy concern. The dangers from the proliferation of
nuclear weapons and the potential diversion of fissile materials have
intensified as a result of the potential for nuclear terrorism by non‐state
actors. Meanwhile, existing nuclear weapon states confront conflicting agendas,
on the one hand under pressure on nonproliferation and disarmament, on the
other hand maintaining their deterrent capabilities as safe, secure, reliable,
and credible.
Topics under this theme include: monitoring, verification, and
enforcement of nonproliferation agreements; strengthening or reforming
the international nuclear nonproliferation or safety regimes; understanding the
causes or consequences of proliferation; role of nuclear weapons in
contemporary deterrence and security strategies; and the effects on nuclear
energy demand from externalities such as climate change, resource competition,
natural disasters, or safety and security.
RELEVANCY
The competition is open to all academic disciplines, however, in order
to meet IGCC relevancy criteria,
- the proposed research must fit into one of the three IGCC themes;
and
- the international sources and/or consequences of the phenomenon
studied in the dissertation must be an
integral part of the project.
Multidisciplinary approaches and policy‐relevant work are
encouraged.
To learn
more, download the RFP (links above) and visit the IGCC website at: http://igcc.ucsd.edu
