Carnegie Corporation of New York today announced a $2 million award to the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. The award supports research and scholarship that advance understanding of important global issues and recognizes the Elliott School’s emergence as a leading professional school of international affairs.
The grant was awarded as part of Carnegie Corporation’s focus on exploring U.S. relations with pivotal powers in a changing global environment. It will support three major research programs within the Elliott School, each of which capitalizes on the Washington, D.C.-based institution’s unique capacity to apply theory to real-world policy questions. Two programs, the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) and the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia), are both discipline-based international networks of scholars and experts. The third program is the Worldviews of Aspiring Powers Project (APP), which focuses on identifying and tracking internal foreign policy debates in China, Japan, India, Russia and South Korea. The APP is part of the Elliott School’s Rising Powers Initiative.
“The Elliott School’s mission of sponsoring scholarship and research that enrich our understanding of international problems, along with its focus on promoting policy-relevant research on some of the most critical security challenges affecting U.S. relations with pivotal powers, is profoundly important in today’s global society,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “We are proud to support this institution, which works toward one of Andrew Carnegie’s most cherished goals: the advancement of international peace.”
In the January/February 2012 issue of Foreign Policy, the Elliott School of International Affairs was ranked among the top ten schools for international affairs by the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey.
"We are delighted and grateful that Carnegie Corporation is once again recognizing and supporting the unique contribution of the Elliott School to the study of, and response to, global security challenges," said George Washington University President Steven Knapp.
The Corporation’s $2 million grant is the single largest grant the foundation has awarded to the Elliott School, bringing to $5.3 million Carnegie Corporation’s total support since 1990.
The grant will enable the Elliott School to expand POMEPS, a collaborative international network of scholars designed to enhance the broader Middle East’s political science field. POMEPS was launched in 2010 with Corporation funds under the leadership of Marc Lynch, director of the Elliott School’s Institute for Middle East Studies.
In addition, the award supports PONARS Eurasia, an international network of academics that promotes policy engagement and scholarly work on issues of security and politics across Russia, the Caucusus, Central Asia, and East Europe. PONARS Eurasia publishes more than 50 policy memos a year, as well as working papers and online commentary, and it convenes a major annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., and workshops in the Eurasian region.
Finally, the Corporation’s award supports the second phase of the Aspiring Powers Project. The first phase of the APP—also supported by the Corporation—produced a collection of scholarly essays co-authored by experts from the United States and Asia titled Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012), as well as production of policy briefs that are disseminated to policy analysts, government officials, academics and journalists. The second phase will produce follow-up studies, additional policy briefs and a second edited volume which focuses on domestic debates around energy security.
Through grantmaking and other activities, Carnegie Corporation’s investments aim to bring independent expertise to bear on critical security challenges that affect U.S. relations with pivotal powers and create opportunities for engagement between experts and officials from major countries on such issues.
About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to “promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.”
About The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs is one of the world’s leading schools of international affairs and the largest school of international affairs in the United States. Located in the heart of Washington, D.C., its mission is to educate the next generation of international leaders, conduct research that advances understanding of important global issues and engage the policy community in the United States and around the world.
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