After receiving $13 million in December from the Department of Defense for two separate ongoing projects, the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation will begin research this summer on technology and security in foreign policy.
The first of the two projects, ‘The Evolving Relationship between Technology and National Security in China,’ will be led by IGCC Director Susan Shirk and senior research fellow Tai Ming Cheung in collaboration with Stanford University’s’ Hoover Institute and the Stockholm Peace Research Institute. The $10 million project will research the rise of industry and defense in China.
‘We’re looking at this in [terms of] whether there are corporations or mutual interest with the U.S.,’ Cheung said. ‘We’re looking at political economy issues, as well as at trade issues, in addition to the hard security assets. There is focus on issues on how innovation is taking place and how organizational developments are taking place.’
The second project, ‘Terrorism, Governance and Development,’ will be carried out by IGCC Research Director Eli Berman in partnership with Princeton University. The project, awarded a total of $3 million, will examine global themes of terrorism growth and common factors worldwide in accelerating the resolution of disputes involving terrorist tactics.
‘These are indicators that we know [are about] simple things, like whether the children have access to schools consistently and safely, whether power and water works, or whether the people take their problems to the people or not, or tax collection,’ Berman said. ‘Basically the set of services that the local governments provide.’
Like Cheung, Berman said that research up to now has been continuous, but that the recent federal award will aid him in training a greater number of graduate students and undertaking more in-depth research projects. His comprehensive study with Princeton University professor Jacob Shapiro will take into account differing roots of terrorism and potential tactics to defeat it.
Over the next five years, the IGCC will use the funds to assemble larger research teams. While the projects are centered at UCSD, various aspects of each are being conducted at facilities across all 10 UC campuses in addition to separate university-run research facilities.
‘One of the key things with what we’re doing in this is that we’re trying to train a new generation of students and academics so they can further their specializations,’ Cheung said. ‘We’re trying to encourage grad students in their early careers to take on fellowships. This is especially aimed at helping fresh young blood in the area.’
While aligned with the Department of Defense, Cheung said the studies are meant for public benefit and are not policy-driven.
‘A lot of what we’re looking at is basic research, so everything is very long term,’ Cheung said. ‘I doubt if there’s any immediate policy implications, but it will help to increase knowledge in terms of training lots of people for these areas, and provide students for the public and government in the future.’
The Department of Defense presented IGCC with the two awards as part of its Minerva Research Initiative, a social-sciences research program at the university. IGCC won two of only seven awards distributed among an applicant pool of over 200 institutions, UCSD spokesman Barry Jagoda said.
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