Funding for Science and Security Projects

Committee on International Security Studies

Security in the Post-Soviet Space

The Academy has received $548,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to fund a three-year study of security issues in Russia and the other former republics of the USSR. According to Committee on International Security Studies (CISS) member and study director Robert Legvold (Columbia University), the project will focus on topics not always in the news but likely to be of major consequence for the entire region and beyond in the coming years. These include the strategic stakes of the great powers in the region, especially Kazakhstan; key military dynamics in the region, with a special emphasis on the Caucasus; the interplay of economics and national security in Russia's relations with the Ukraine and Belarus; and the implications of the varying great power approaches to the region. See project description.

Missile Data Exchange

With a $50,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, CISS has initiated a study of a largely unheralded but potentially pathbreaking joint U.S.-Russian center for the exchange of missile data. At their June 4 summit in Moscow, Presidents Clinton and Putin signed an agreement committing the two nations to the establishment of a Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) to coordinate data supplied by U.S. and Russian satellites.

The Academy study, which is being directed by CISS cochair John Steinbruner (University of Maryland), will evaluate the technical, administrative and political requirements of the U.S./Russian proposal. The study will also examine ways in which the Center's operations might be extended to include a more comprehensive form of data sharing among a larger group of participating states. For more information on these two projects, contact CISS Director Martin Malin at 617-576-5002.

Study on Human Origins

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $99,000 grant to support a study bringing together experts in genomics, geology, cognitive sciences, philosophy, and other fields to examine ways they can collaborate on research to gain a better understanding of human origins. This follow-up phase to an earlier study of Humankind's Evolutionary Roots, directed by Fellow Morris Goodman (Wayne State University), will focus first on using comparative primate genomic data to help decipher the genetic basis of being human. "Things we consider noteworthy human features," says Goodman, "have deep evolutionary roots in primates." The conference will also look at the impact of the Earth's changing physical and biological environment on human evolution and language development. Finally, conferees will focus on how system-level and computer models can help researchers probe the complex interactions between molecular genetic change, organismal development, and cultural-social organization.

The project held a planning conference at the House of the Academy in Cambridge last summer. Joining Dr. Goodman on the project are Fellows Francisco Ayala, Michael Conrad, David Pilbeam, and Elliott Sober. For more information, call Anne Moffat of the Midwest Center at (773) 753-8162 or send an email to amacad@uchicago.edu.

Back to the November 2000 Newsletter