The IGCC community is a far-flung cohort of scholars,
students, staff, and interested parties both within and outside of the University
of California, brought together by their common interest in studying international
conflict and cooperation. Director Susan Shirk, the central office staff,
the state-wide steering committee, and program directors on the individual
campuses
are
responsible for keeping this community informed about new developments, opportunities,
and potential collaborations.
Use the links below to find more information on
IGCC faculty, staff, steering committee members, and campus program directors.
Background: Susan Shirk is director of the
University of California system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and
Cooperation and Ho Miu Lam Endowed Chair in China and Pacific Relations
in the School of International Relations
and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego. Professor
Shirk first traveled to China in 1971 and has been doing research there
ever since.
From 1997 to 2000, Prof. Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility
for the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia.
Prof. Shirk founded in 1993 and continues to lead the Northeast Asia Cooperation
Dialogue (NEACD), a “track two,” or unofficial, forum for
discussions of security issues among defense and foreign ministry officials
and academics from the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea,
and North Korea.
Prof. Shirk’s publications include her books How China Opened
Its Door: The Political Success of the PRC’s Foreign Trade and Investment
Reforms; The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China; and Competitive
Comrades: Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China. Her most recent
book, China: Fragile Superpower, was published by Oxford University
Press in 2007.
Prof. Shirk served as a member of the U.S. Defense Policy Board, the Board
of Governors for the East–West Center (Hawaii), the Board of Trustees
of the U.S.–Japan Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the
National Committee on United States-China Relations. She is a member
of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an emeritus member of the Aspen
Strategy Group. As senior advisor to the Albright Group, Prof. Shirk
advises private-sector clients on China and East Asia. She received her
B.A.
in Political Science from Mount Holyoke College, her M.A. in Asian Studies
from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in Political
Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Background: Herbert York, the founding director
of IGCC, began his career working on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge,
Tennessee,
during World
War II. York was the first director of the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory,
which is managed by the University of California. He was appointed
director of Defense Research and Engineering by Presidents Eisenhower
and Kennedy.
From 1961–1964 and 1970–1972, York was chancellor of
UC San Diego. From 1979–1981 he served as U.S. ambassador to
the Comprehensive Test Ban
negotiations in
Geneva. He founded IGCC in 1983. In 2000, York received the prestigious
Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Board for his leadership
in the arms
control movement and his work on nuclear energy.
Research Directors
Henry D. I. Abarbanel
Research Director for Science and Security
Background: Henry D. I. Abarbanel received his B.S. in physics from Caltech and his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University. He has served on the faculties at Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and, since 1982, at UC San Diego. He also holds an appointment as a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He presently has appointments as professor of physics at UC San Diego and research physicist at the Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His research interests have ranged from elementary particle physics to the nonlinear dynamics of biological and physical systems. In that regard he was the founding director of UC San Diego’s Institute for Nonlinear Science and served from 1986 through 2007. In 2000–01 he served as a member of the University of California’s Academic Council, the governing body of UC’s faculty senate. Since 1974, Abarbanel has been a member of JASON, a consulting group to the U.S. Government on technical matters. In 1992 he became a member of the City Council of Del Mar, California, serving as mayor in 1995–96. In that role he has served on numerous regional bodies concerned with energy, wastewater, infrastructure, and quality of life in the San Diego region.
Eli Berman
Research Director for International Security Studies
Background: Eli Berman is an associate professor
of economics at UC San Diego. His research interests include labor economics,
labor markets and technological change,
the economics of religion, economic demography, applied econometrics,
economic growth and development, and environmental economics. Recent
grants from the National Science Foundation (2002 and 2005) have enabled
him to look closely at relationships between religion and fertility from
an economic standpoint. His latest publication, “Religious Extremism:
The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly” (with Laurence R. Iannaccone),
is forthcoming in Public Choice. Berman received his Ph.D. in
economics from Harvard University and was a National Bureau of Economic
Research
Sloan Fellow in 1999.
Herbert York
Eli Berman