The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) is Stanford University's primary center for rigorous and innovative research on major international issues and challenges. FSI builds on Stanford's impressive intellectual strengths and exacting academic standards through interdisciplinary research conducted by its university-wide faculty, researchers, and visiting scholars.

FSI appoints faculty and research staff, funds research and scholarly initiatives, directs research projects, and sponsors lectures, policy seminars and conferences. By tradition, FSI undertakes joint faculty appointments with Stanford's seven schools and draws faculty together from the University's academic departments and schools to conduct interdisciplinary research on international issues that transcend academic boundaries.

Progress on Old Problems, New Complexities

The ideas that Stanford generates and the leaders it trains influence international policies and organizations. Today's pressing problems, because of their complexity, do not conform to traditional academic categories. Real progress requires a new level of collaboration among faculty in the full range of disciplines represented on campus.

At FSI, this interdisciplinary collaboration has been underway for some time. Scholars at the Institute's four research centers conduct research and teaching on such issues as nuclear proliferation, chemical and bioterrorism, democracy and the rule of law, conflict prevention and peacekeeping, international health policy and infectious diseases, and the political economy and regional dynamics of Asia. This work is conducted in collaboration with Stanford's world-class schools of business, earth sciences, education, engineering, humanities and sciences, law and medicine.

FSI's six research programs also address cutting-edge issues. The Forum on Contemporary Europe (FCE) is dedicated to innovative thinking about Europe and currently examining the challenges of democratic governance, economic growth, security, and cultural integration posed by the expansion of the European Union. The Program on Food Security and the Environment (FSE) aims to generate innovative and policy-relevant solutions to the persistent problems of global hunger and environmental damage from agricultural practices worldwide. The Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) draws on the fields of political science, law, and economics to investigate how the production and consumption of energy affect sustainable development and human welfare. The Program on Global Justice (PGJ) aims to bring normative ideas from moral and political philosophy into discussions about human rights, global governance, and access to basic goods. The Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN) is devoted to interdisciplinary teaching and research on the resolution of international and inter-group conflicts, and training a new generation of leaders with greater understanding of the barriers to conflict resolution and strategies to overcome them.  The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) brings timely, age-appropriate, interdisciplinary curriculum materials on international issues to K-14 schools in the U.S. and independent schools abroad.

FSI is also a place for talented students to advance their knowledge of international issues. Although the Institute does not grant degrees, it provides opportunities for advanced study through graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. Stanford undergraduates can apply to honors programs in environmental science and policy and in international security studies. Undergraduates can also be appointed to research internships through the Institute's mentored undergraduate research program.

Bringing Stanford to the World

FSI disseminates its research results to a wide audience of policymakers, and a new generation of leaders, in the U.S. and other nations. Bringing Stanford to the world will be a particular focus of the International Initiative.

Through seminars, conferences and workshops, the Institute draws together government officials, policymakers, corporate leaders, non-governmental authorities, other experts and thought leaders to debate major international issues. Institute scholars are frequently appointed to senior government positions, asked to advise international organizations, such as the United Nations, and called upon to testify to the Congress. FSI scholars provide expertise and insight to the media, and help inform public opinion through appearances on television, op-ed pieces in prominent newspapers, and articles in foreign affairs and scholarly journals.

Most of the Institute's activities are supported by research grants and gifts from individual and corporate donors. Of the Institute's annual budget of approximately $26 million, 80 percent comes in the form of endowment income, foundation grants, contracts and gifts. The remainder is drawn from university and designated funds. FSI actively seeks gifts from Stanford alumni and friends.

The "Coming Together Place"

Since the Institute's founding in 1987, it has been the "coming together place" on the Stanford campus for faculty, students and visiting scholars. FSI serves as a magnet in another strategic sense – it is playing an increasingly prominent role in forging policy recommendations to help solve some of the most persistent problems of our time.

Faculty from the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) help policymakers address North Korea's nuclear program, and convene leaders from China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States in policy workshops to reduce the risk of nuclear war in South Asia. CISAC scholars have also advised officials in the Department of Homeland Security, to improve the nation's ability to respond to acts of biological or chemical terror in American cities.

Scholars at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) are researching societal transition, development and regional cooperation in Asia and bringing new insight to bear on the rise of China, the North Korean nuclear crisis, globalization and the outsourcing of jobs to South Asia, Japan's economic recovery, and the future of U.S.-Asia alliances.

The Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (CHP/PCOR) is tackling critical global health problems, including defending against bio-terrorism; preventing and treating infectious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria; and reducing health disparities globally by making medical advances available to poor, underserved communities. The centers' faculty and researchers are drawn from diverse fields, including medicine, law, economics, statistics, sociology and business.

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is helping to foster democracy, economic growth and the rule of law in transitioning countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, Pakistan, Russia, and Nigeria, whose stability is so vital to the global community. CDDRL's innovative new Draper Hills Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development Program brings emerging leaders of transitioning countries to Stanford for specialized teaching, training and outreach to assist with needed political, economic and judicial reform, and the fight against corruption.

In all these ways, in this remarkable "coming together place" known as FSI, Stanford faculty and researchers are developing new knowledge, offering new policy recommendations, and training a new generation of leaders to address the central challenges of our time.

» Frequently asked questions about the Freeman Spogli Institute