About IIS

For more than fifty years, the Institute of International Studies (IIS) has contributed to Berkeley's eminence as the world's leading public institution of higher learning by fostering interdisciplinary research and funding in international affairs.  Responding to changes in the international environment and to new trends in the sciences, these efforts have been implemented in a number of ways:

By supporting, intellectually and administratively, Berkeley faculty and students in their efforts to raise extramural funds for their research and administering the activities of these grants.  IIS has been the home of important research projects in demography, international relations, political economy, environmental studies, and foreign policy.  

By providing Institute funds for research through series of annual research and training competition, including dissertation workshops.  IIS has offered Ford, Hewlett, and MacArthur grants and created endowed fellowships such as Sharlin, Bendix, and Simpson, which support graduate student research.  

By providing seed monies for a variety of faculty and student Working Groups (inter-generational learning communities) and graduate training projects; IIS has created interdisciplinary undergraduate majors in Development Studies and Political Economy and area centers on the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

By arranging and facilitating lectures (including the endowed Elberg Lecture), seminars, and colloquia for faculty, students, and the public on the most pressing international issues of the day resulting in major public forums on issues such as:  The Nuclear Threat, Wars in the Middle East, and U.S. Foreign Policy After 9/11, and by sponsoring visits to the campus with leading global leaders such as Brian Urquhart, Ralf Dahrendor, Helmut Schmidt, Antony Zinni and Robert McNamara.  

By publishing papers on international affairs including publications on detente and reform in the Soviet Union, political change in developing societies, environmental politics and climate change, and military alliances.  

By fostering outreach between the University and the Bay Area communities, especially inner-city schools, around international and global concerns with programs such as Connecting Students to the World and Conversations with History.