About IGCC

1981

When the UC contract to manage Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories was up for review in 1981, controversy erupted among the UC faculty about the University’s links with the nuclear weapons laboratories. California Governor Jerry Brown, Jr. and UC President David Saxon agreed that the University should consider establishing an organized unit to study questions of peace and security in addition to work being done in the labs.

1982

A Special Committee on Global Security and Cooperation recommended in March 1982, that the Institute on Global Conflict & Cooperation (IGCC) be formed. In defining IGCC’s research focus, the committee stated that:

“The focus of the Institute’s research program should be the study of global situations sufficiently severe so as to threaten their escalation into large-scale war, especially, but not exclusively, nuclear war.”

1983

Dr. Herbert York was appointed IGCC’s first director in July 1983, and served until 1989. A renowned physicist, Manhattan Project participant, and first director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1952‒1958), York was instrumental in launching IGCC’s Public Policy and Nuclear Threats program. York was the first chancellor of UC San Diego (1961‒1964); and interim chancellor (1970‒1972). He advised five presidents on science and technology issues, and was the first chief scientist, Advanced Research Projects Agency (later DARPA) and first director of Defense Research and Engineering (under Eisenhower) (1958–61).

1984

IGCC establishes the University of California Dissertation Fellowship, IGCC’s oldest program designed to bolster the capabilities of the next generation of engaged scholars and peacemakers. The competitive fellowship provides grants and mentorship to UC doctoral students whose research closely tracks to IGCC’s mission to build a more peaceful world. A powerful tool for intercampus bridge building, exchange, mentorship, and interdisciplinary collaboration, IGCC has provided more than $6 million to nearly 600 UC doctoral students.

1989

John Ruggie was appointed director of IGCC. A deeply engaged scholar-practitioner, while director of IGCC, Ruggie put global climate change and environmental policy on IGCC’s long-term agenda and led path-breaking research on multilateralism as an organizing principle for security and economics.

1991

Susan Shirk became director of IGCC in 1991. An influential voice on U.S.-China relations and Chinese politics, Shirk served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs from 1997-2000, with responsibility for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia. She is currently the chair of the 21st Century China Center and a research professor at the School Global Policy & Strategy at UC San Diego

1993

In 1993, IGCC director Susan Shirk founded the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), a Track 1.5 forum of academics, policy experts, and military and foreign ministry officials from China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, which has been meeting annually for the past 30 years. NEACD is the only ongoing channel of informal communication among the six countries and the precedent for the Six Party Talks on the North Korea’s nuclear program that met between 2003 and 2009.

1997

Stephan Haggard was appointed interim director of IGCC in 1997. Steph is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies, director of the Korea-Pacific Program, and distinguished professor of political science at the School of Global Policy & Strategy at UC San Diego.

1999

Peter Cowhey became director of IGCC in 1999. The dean and Qualcomm chair emeritus at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, Cowhey served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations in positions involving international economic and technology policies.

2003

IGCC hosts the inaugural Public Policy and Nuclear Threats summer boot camp in-residence, which gives students and early career professionals the knowledge and analytic tools to contribute to the debate on future U.S. nuclear policy.

2012

Tai Ming Cheung joined IGCC as director in 2012. A professor at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and expert in Asian security and Chinese security and technology, Cheung was based in Asia from the mid-1980s to 2002 covering political, economic, and strategic developments in greater China.

2020

IGCC assumes leadership of the University of California Conference on International Cooperation (UCCIC), an annual forum founded in 2016 to connect junior and senior scholars of international relations across the UC system.

2021

IGCC, together with the Center for Global Security Research at the Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the National Security and International Studies Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), launches the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Technology and International Security. Based in Washington, D.C., the fellowship supports postdoctoral fellows whose research generates new theoretical and empirical insights into the relationship between technology, national security, and the global security environment.