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University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation

Dissertation Fellowship

Each year IGCC provides funding for graduate students from all ten UC campuses, including one specially designated Herb York IGCC Fellowship. IGCC seeks to support dissertations around research topics that closely track to current global security priorities. The proposed dissertation research must have one of the following themes as an integral part of the project.

Decisions on awards will be made in mid-May and applicants will be notified of their status in early June.

Climate Change and Security
Global climate change will challenge international governance systems, and disrupt every aspect of life from borders to trade to essential resources. IGCC will accept proposals on a range of themes, including the impacts of climate change on migration and displacement, trade, global value chains, energy security, food and water, infrastructure, political violence, state fragility, militaries and defense strategy, and international governance.

Future of Democracy
Democracy is under attack at the local, national, and international levels. In this category, we will accept proposals on: challenges to democratic representation; challenges to elections; inclusive democracy; technology and democracy; the rise of authoritarian states; state repression; protest movements; and human rights.

Geoeconomics, Innovation, and National Security
The economic dimensions of geostrategic and geopolitical cooperation and competition are becoming increasingly important. Proposals will be accepted on: the economic sources of national security; security dimensions of industrial policy and trade relations; economic statecraft; economic instruments promoting national interests; the effects of economic actions by other entities on a country’s geopolitical goals; and the use of economic instruments to produce beneficial geopolitical results.

Indo-Pacific and the Rise of China
Issues emanating from the Indo-Pacific region—including the implications of North Korea’s nuclear program, shifts in global supply chains, and China’s rise as a great power—have implications for global security. Proposals will be accepted on: the implications of China’s rise and shifting geopolitical dynamics in Asia for the economic competitiveness and national security of the United States and the rest of the world.

International Security
The international security landscape is rapidly changing. Old definitions of what international security means, and what role states play, are evolving, while challenges proliferate beyond traditional domains. We will accept proposals on a diverse range of traditional, as well as emerging, international security issues.

Regional and Major Power Relations and Institutions
Despite the emergence of new threats from non-state actors, the risk of interstate conflict remains substantial. Topics in this category may include: building multilateral institutions; role of rising powers; public versus public/private partnerships in governance; regional threat environment’s influence on nuclear proliferation; why some ethnic and religious conflicts become international wars; great power competition; and the rise of China.

Global Health Threats and Cooperation
Global pandemics have consequences for economies and for security, as well as for the well being of billions of people. Topics in this category may include: emerging transnational health threats; incentives, policies, and technologies that foster international agreements on health protection as well as strategies to adapt to emerging global threats; security implications of global health threats.

Nazim Uras Demir

FEATURED FELLOW

Nazim Uras Demir

Dissertation Fellow
UC Urvine


Nazim Uras Demir is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California Irvine’s Department of Political Science. Uras’s dissertation explores the influence of contemporary asymmetrical trade interdependence on international conflict and cooperation. Alongside IGCC, Uras is a Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellow and a UC Irvine Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation Pedagogical Fellow.

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Past Dissertation Fellows

View our Dissertation Fellow Alumni.

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