Graduate students are able to participate in several centers and special programs that involve members of the faculty. These programs frequently involve both teaching and research activities and provide opportunities for valuable multidisciplinary experiences.
CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
The Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) is a research unit focusing on the analysis and resolution of protracted international and regional conflicts, and related issues of political, economic and social development.
CIDCM provides opportunities through its internship and assistantship programs for graduate students to gain experience and technical skills in data generation, research and analysis, teaching, and research management.
A major concern of the Center since its founding in 1981 has been with understanding the key role of ethnic minorities and other non-state identity groups as participants in protracted social conflicts.
The Minorities at Risk Project, directed by Professor Ted Robert Gurr, is currently completing a global survey, providing coded profiles of the almost 300 major ethnic groups, and data on their current concerns and involvment in conflict since 1945. Based on the data, Prof. Gurr is also developing indices of ethno-political conflict that can be used in building conflict early warning instruments.
The Global Event Data System (GEDS) Project, directed by Dr. John Davies, is being developed to track the daily interactions of these groups as well as those of the nation-states and major international organizations, providing both descriptive and quantitative analytic data useful for research, early earning systems, conflict and crisis managment and other policy applications. GEDS also provides the basis for updating the Conflict and Peace Data Bank (COPDAB), developed by Professor Edward Azar and maintained at the center.
Professor Edy Kaufman conducts research and applied work on issues of peace, conflict, political development, and human rights, particularly in the Middle East and Latin America.
Professor Suheil Bushrui has been appointed to the new Baha'i Chair for World Peace at the Center, and will be focusing his research on the link between cultural and spiritual values and peace. Professor Bushrui is also developing a curriculum for Peace Studies in Arabic and English which may be used in both elementary and seconary schools.
Dr. Abdel Omran is directing a program in population, health and development, with particular emphasis on demographic and epidemiological transitions in different societies in relation to development and cultural values.
Other current projects at CIDCM include:
The Center also sponsors public lectures, seminars, and policy round-table discussions on a variety of contemporary issues and hosts resident and visiting scholars and fellows from the United States and other parts of the world.
Professor Ernest Wilson is Director of the Center.
PROJECT ICONS The International Communication and Negotiation Simulations (ICONS) Project is an interdisciplinary effort that uses computer simulation techniques to teach international negotiation and intercultural communication. ICONS focuses on the ways foreign policies are developed and negotiated, and its aim is to help students better understand the interdependence of international issues and the complexities of intercultural communication.
Participants assume the roles of foreign policy makers and negotiate through teleconferencing on behalf of the nations they represent, grappling with such problems as the international debt crisis, human rights violations, north-south relations and development issues, arms control, the balance of trade, and global environmental concerns.
ICONS was pioneered at UMCP by Professor Jonathan Wilkenfeld of the Department of Government and Politics. Begun as a tool to enable students to grasp the complexities of international relations, ICONS has now grown to include nearly 2,000 students each year at universities and high schools throughout the United States, and in Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Participants learn not only what is involved in making decisions for a government, but more importantly, what it feels like to be a decision maker for a foreign government with a very different set of cultural perspectives and problems. As they attempt to implement policy initiatives and resolve international disputes, students confront practical foreign policy problems in a context that provides an authenticity of experience unobtainable in other education settings.
A typical simulation, which lasts four weeks, is launched by a scenario that outlines the state of the simulated world and identifies areas for negotiation. Both U.S. and foreign teams are linked to host computers at the University of Maryland. Using specially designed software, called POLNET II, the computers act as a message handling system for the approximately 2,000-3,000 messages that are exchanged during a simulation exercise.
For graduate students who become involved in the project, ICONS provides the opportunity to create scenarios, use simulation as a teaching tool, and monitor the computer-assisted negotiations.
Professor Jonathan Wilkenfeld is the Director of Project ICONS.
MARYLAND COLLECTIVE CHOICE CENTER
The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, through the Departments of Economics and Government and Politics, has established the Maryland Collective Choice Center. The Center coordinates and sponsors both educational and research efforts in the field of collective choice. These efforts include seminars, conferences, workshops and courses at the Ph.D. level. The field of collective choice, called formal theory in Government and Politics, uses theories of individual rational choice behavior to study non-market phenomena (see the description of the field of formal theory above).
As a part of the program, some funds are available to support occasional graduate students interested in studying formal theory. Students apply for support when they are in residence.
Other funds are disbursed to defray some of the research expenditures and travel expenditures associated with the presentation of findings at professional meetings. Typically, advanced formal theory students receive financial backing for their dissertation research.
Professor Mancur Olson of the Department of Economics is the Director of the Center. Professor Joe Oppenheimer is the Associate Director. The following faculty are members of the Center:
From the Department of Government and Politics: David Lalman, Joe Oppenheimer, Karol Soltan, Piotr Swistak.
From the Department of Economics: Peter Coughlin, Peter Murrell, Mancur Olson, Thomas Schelling.
CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES AT MARYLAND
The Center for International Security Studies at Maryland, established in 1987, provides university-wide opportunities for research, training, andpublication in the field of international security studies. The Center works with many colleges and departments throughout the University to provide conferences, guest lectures, and special seminars on topics that relate to the complex challenges of achieving peace and security in the 1990s.
CISSM provides valuable career and training opportunities through its assistantship and internship programs. It offers a limited number of fellowships and assistantships to students nominated by the department. As research and teaching assistants, students may gain a variety of career related skills. These include data collection and analysis, editing, teaching, conference planning, and program development.
In matters of curriculum development, CISSM has fostered the establishment of courses relating to: Economic Analysis and International Security; Alliance Relations; Science, Technology and National Security; and Ethics and National Security Policy. In all, there are more than fifty security-related courses offered in nine major departments at the University.
Each year, CISSM invites a multinational group of junior and senior scholars to College Park to work with the Center's faculty, staff and students on a variety of individual and collaborative projects. The Center maintains an archive of selected historical materials in international security affairs.
Current collaborative projects include Conventional Arms Control in Europe, Economics and National Security, the Nuclear History Program, and Women In International Security.
CISSM is a non-degree granting program. It is in a position, however, to advise students on how to develop a balanced and comprehensive program in international security studies.
Professors I.M. Destler, George H. Quester, and Michael Nacht are directors of the program. THE FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN LITTORAL: THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF EURASIA INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PROJECT
Under the sponsorship of UMCP and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The John Hopkins University (SAIS), a major project on the international politics of Russia and its neigboring states began in 1992 - "the Future of the Russian Littoral: The International Politics of Eurasia into the Twenty First Century Project." The objectives of this project are to promote vital scholarly research and to contribute to the training of the nascent foreign policy elites emerging in the newly independent states. The project, by focusing on the interaction between the internal affairs and foreign policies of the NIS, analyzes the relations among Russia, other newly independent states, and major neighboring countries. It investigates how the international politics of Eurasia are being affected by the revival of Christianity and Islam, the emergence of new sociopolitical groupings, struggles over marketization and privitization, attempts to divide the Red Army into national forces, and efforts to work out and implement new foreign policy priorities. These issues are examined in a series of 30 study groups over a four year period.
As a result of this project, a number of visiting scholars on the campus has greatly increased over the past two years, providing numerous opportunities for students to interact with these scholars from the NIS. Dr. Karen Dawisha is co-Principal Investigator of the new project. Other faculty from the campus and from other local institutions participate in the project.
HOPKINS/UMCP DEMOCRATIZATION PROJECT
UMCP and the John Hopkins University's School of Advances International Studies (SAIS) have received initial funding of $100,000 from the U.S. Department of State for a research project on the political development of the 27 countries of the former Soviet bloc. Principal investigators of the project are UMCP Professor of Government and Politics Karen Dawisha and SAIS Professor Bruce Parrott. The project grows out of the UMCP/SAIS Russian Littoral Project, intitiated three years ago. The Democratization Project is expected to run from September 1994 through the Fall 1996.
The aim of the new project is to assess for democratization in the new countries of the former Soviet bloc by examining the organized political activities of "civil society." Attention will center on the emergence or nonemergence of political party systems. Attention will also be devoted to the political role of other types of associations, such as economic interest groups, regional groupings, clans and criminal organizations, especially where political or socio-economic barriers have prevented the emergence of competitive political parties.
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF POST-COMMUNIST SOCIETIES
The Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies (CSPCS) is a joint program of the Budapest Economics University, University of Cluj, and the University of Maryland at College Park. CSPCS was established in May, 1990, under the terms of an agreement negotiated by the Presidents of both universities, the Director of the Center in the United States, the head of the Department of Economics at the University of Warsaw, and the head of the Institute of Sociology in Warsaw.
The purpose of CSPCS is to serve as a focal point for collaborative research, business and public policy activities, linking American and East European leadership groups in efforts to analyze and assess problems being confronted in the transition to democracy.
CSPCS conducts research on developments in post-communist societies, and organizes seminars and workshops in the United States and Central Europe.
Professor Bartlomiej Kaminski is director of the Center and Professors Karol Soltan and Vladimir Tismaneanu are associate directors.
COMMITTEE ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE GOOD SOCIETY
The national offices of the Committee on the Political Economy of the Good Society "PEGS" is located in the Department and Professor Stephen Elkin is Chair of the Executive Board. PEGS is an ideologically diverse non-profit organization that seeks to promote and coordinate inquiry and discussion regarding alternative political-economic theories and new institutional designs. By encouraging the development of practical visions of the good society, PEGS is attempting to create the theoretical foundations necessary for the eventual restructuring of political-economic systems and the institutions to promote and protect the values of liberty, democracy, equality and environmental sustainability.
The PEGS newsletter is published with the assistance of graduate students interested in political economy. In addition PEGS conducts colloquia on relevant topics for faculty and students on the campus.
Students interested in the activities of PEGS should contact Professor Stephen Elkin in the Department.
PUBLIC SERVICE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
The Public Service Fellowship Program combines academic studies with work experiences in the public sector. Most Fellows spend the Fall semester on campus in course work and undertake the work experience off campus in the Spring semester. In some cases the work experience can be spread over the Fall and Spring semesters.
Most Fellows will be placed with agencies of the Maryland State government. Others may be assigned to local of regional organizations, including governmental agencies, interest groups, and political parties, as opportunities arise. Fellows recieve the same stipend and tuition remission as graduate teaching assistants.
Professor Vincent Marando serves as the director of the program.
Students interested in applying for the Public Service Fellowship Program should complete the regular application form as well as a special application. Applications must be recieved by February 1. For application materials or for additional information, please contact the Director of Graduate Studies.
THE HARRISON PROGRAM ON THE FUTURE GLOBAL AGENDA
The Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, endowed with a gift from Horace Harrison, Professor Emertius in the Department of Government and Politics, has been established to address the many policy issues raised by the rapid acceleration of various forces of change. The program's mandate is to develop futures-oriented research and educational programs in order to formulate policy alternatives and institutional designs to increase our capabilities of dealing with these growing global issues.
Four main research interests have been identified: the sociopolitical impacts of demographic shifts; the human impact of ecological change; technology and the transglobalization of markets; and institutional design.
Research into demographic shifts involves assessing the socio- political and environmental impact of future population growth, graying, migration, and differential growth.
Research into environmental change explores the enviromental impact of new economic growth, the nature of ecological security, and the impact of new environmental imperatives on traditional concepts of politcal stability, sovereignty and international law.
Transglobalization research focuses on the diffusion of technology and its impact on transnational economic activity, including changes in the global flow of developmental capital, problems of sustainable development, trade and technology transfer.
Research into institutional design explores questions about the kinds of institutions that might best foster and preserve democratic values and stability in the turbulent environment created by the future ecological, technological and demographic change
The program's interdisciplinary teaching and research efforts include the following issue areas:
Professor Dennis Pirages is Director of the Program and Professor Ken Conca is Associate Director.