Initiative for Global Security

The Initiative for Global Security Faculty Coordinator: Daryl Press

Staff Coordinator: Thomas Candon

The Initiative for Global Security at the Dickey Center advances Dartmouth's contributions to international security through research designed to improve policymaking, promoting direct engagement with foreign policy-makers, and inspiring students to explore careers in international affairs. The Initiative pursues this mission with two guiding intentions: to generate and disseminate new knowledge of critical importance to global peace, and to prepare the next generation of leaders to create policy impact in a complex security environment, marked by a return to great power competition, civil wars, and novel emerging threats. The Initiative oversees several programmatic areas. The problems of peace and war demand multifaceted solutions that require the study of such diverse fields as government, history, literature, languages, sociology, environmental studies, geography, anthropology, psychology, and economics.

The Jean Monnet Fund for War and Peace Studies, which is part of the Dickey Center’s endowment, was established in 1985 by John C. Baker and Elizabeth Baker to honor the Dartmouth trustees who had the vision in 1961 to award Jean Monnet an honorary degree. It was also to honor the three founders of War and Peace Studies at Dartmouth College: Leonard Reiser, Elise Boulding, and Peter Bien.

The Initiative administers a War and Peace Fellows program for students and presents a series of public speakers, hosts simulations, coordinates trips to Washington, DC, and internationally, and organizes other events. The faculty coordinator for the Fellowship program is Professor of Government Benjamin Valentino.

In 2021, the U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security Postdoctoral Fellowship program was named in honor of E. John Rosenwald, Jr. '52 TU'53 for his contributions to Dartmouth and the Fellowship program. The Fellows are selected to spend a minimum of ten months and up to one year in-residence at Dartmouth on research and writing about international issues related to one of the Dickey Center's research areas: environment, health, human development, gender, and security. The program hosts 5-7 Fellows annually and has over 70 alumni.

The Initiative also: provides support to the Political Violence FieldLab, overseen by the James Wright Chair in Transnational Studies and Associate Professor of Government Jason Lyall; provides funding for internships focused on peace and security and for faculty research grants; hosts an annual security conference in Washington, DC, and brings distinguished visiting practitioners to campus for extended periods of time. In the 2022-23 year, the Initiative is launched a Visiting Scholars program, which welcomes accomplished faculty, whose research focuses on issues of international security, for periods ranging from a few weeks to a full academic year.