We begin the new academic year at CIS with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Last year was a good one for us, and this year begins our transition to the Peter Munk Centre of International Studies. Renovation work has begun on the Trinity College buildings that will be our new home one year from now, when we relocate with related University centres and programs.

CIS is really about people, however, not about buildings. The generous gifts provided to the University by loyal alumni and friends challenge us both to broaden and to deepen our research and teaching programs. It is through those programs that we reach out in meaningful ways to students, local and visiting scholars, and wider communities outside the University. Next fall we will not be writing on a blank slate. Already reflecting the rising interests of our various constituencies, new and established CIS programs are addressing a full range of policy and analytical challenges. Among other issues, CIS studies focus on the rapidly changing global economy, the intermingling of formerly separate world cultures, dramatic shifts in international and regional power balances, emerging forms of governance at regional and international levels, and the rise of new environmental and public health concerns.

Gerry Helleiner officially took up residence in the Centre two months ago. Scott Eddie from Economics joined us in his capacity as the new coordinator of the University's Joint Initiative on German and European Studies. This month, Annette Zimmer from the University of Muenster begins her stay with us as visiting DAAD professor in German and European Studies. Next January, we will be welcoming Suchit Bunbongkarn from Chulalongkorn University as our new ASEAN professor in the visiting chair supported by the Canadian International Development Agency. During the past few weeks, we reluctantly bid farewell to Eileen Lam and gladly welcomed Pamela Yuen to the Centre. I am happy to note that Joan Golding rejoined us as administrator for the Collaborative MA in International Relations Program and that Mary Lynne Bratti and Tina Lagopoulos continue to hold the entire operation together.

This newsletter provides a brief update on current activities at CIS, a glimpse of future agendas, and an invitation to attend the conferences, workshops, and seminars noted in our new calendar. In this regard, please remember that special events are often planned with little notice and unavoidable changes in planned events sometimes occur. Ron Deibert, Raf Gomez, and Maja Nazaruk have just completed the reconstruction of our web-site. The calendar will be kept up-to-date there, so please check it regularly . Ivan and Vladimir Savic have taken on the herculean task of rebuilding our 3,000+ database. If you have an email address, or if your mailing address changes, please let us know. Thank you for your continuing interest in CIS and for your active support.

Louis W. Pauly 

The Collaborative M.A. in International Relations Program

The new degree program launched at CIS in the fall of 1997 is a great success. The program, directed by David Welch, enables students to combine a range of studies in the humanities and social sciences, as well as law. Forty nine students applied for admission during the program's inaugural year; of the thirteen students entering that year (five deferred admission), nine first began simultaneous programs in the Faculty of Law. Fifty four students applied last year and an entry class of seventeen commenced their studies in the fall of 1998 (one deferred). Of the students doing course work in 1998-99, one comes from economics, three from history, nine from law, eight from political science, and one from religion. To enhance the program's visibility, CIS recently joined the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs as an affiliate member. The program maintains a web-site, which is linked to the CIS homepage. 

 CIS Faculty, Fellows, and Visitors

Simultaneously with the establishment of the Collaborative MAIR program, the Centre began significantly to expand the scope of its research activities. Seventy five senior faculty members are now formally associated with CIS. They include many of the University's most prominent political scientists, economists, geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, engineers, legal

scholars, medical researchers, and management specialists. In addition, some thirty professors emeriti, junior faculty members, independent scholars, and doctoral fellows are now formally associated with the Centre. Eight members and senior fellows maintain offices in the Centre.

Permanently housed in the Centre as well are visiting senior professors, one from Germany, one from an ASEAN country, and (until the Spring of 1998) one from the United States. Last year, we were delighted to host Michael Th. Greven from the University of Hamburg, Johan Saravanamuttu from the Malaysian University of Science, and Stephen Wasby from the State University of New York at Albany. Next year, the University will be using the original Bissell-Heyd endowment for the U.S. chair to establish a new Centre for the Study of the United States. Although independent of CIS, it will be co-located in the new Munk Centre.
 

 
With the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), last April CIS organized an international conference in Toronto on the theme, "Democracy Beyond National Limits?" In Washington earlier last spring, we held a very successful conference on China's accession to the World Trade Organization. A few months before that, also in Washington, we co-sponsored a high-level conference on intelligence and the Cuban missile crisis at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Back in Toronto last winter, we organized and co-sponsored (with Industry Canada) a conference on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment led by the Canadian negotiating team. As our new calendar indicates, a similarly active series of events is in store for the 1998-99 academic year.

Research Programs and Projects

Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems (PROGRIS)

Established at CIS in the summer of 1997 and led by Meric Gertler and David Wolfe, PROGRIS investigates how the interaction of firms and regional institutions - in Canada and other countries - facilitates, or impedes, the process of innovation and social learning that is critical for success in the new global economy. During its first year, the program initiated studies on an array of related topics, which have already led to presentations at conferences in Italy, Sweden, Spain, Germany, and elsewhere. Relatedly, DGXVI of the European Commission recently invited Gertler to assist in the evaluation of their program to promote the inter-regional transfer of manufacturing technologies.

Last June, PROGRIS successfully responded to a call from three federal agencies, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the National Research Council to participate in a proposed Innovation Systems Research Network. Coordinated by Industry Canada and funded jointly by the three federal councils for three years, the network is comprised of five subnetworks across the country selected through a rigorous process of peer review.

PROGRIS won its bid to act as the node for the Ontario subnetwork, now called the Ontario Network on the Regional Innovation System. In essence, this subnetwork will link the work of political scientists, geographers, planners, industrial relations experts, and scholars of international studies at the universities of Toronto, Waterloo, Western, Queen's and Carleton. It also includes representatives from two provincial ministries, private not-for-profit organizations at the provincial and municipal level, and private sector firms. CIS will provide the base for the subnetwork's research secretariat.

  Project on China's Integration into the Global Economy

  Sylvia Ostry and a group of experts meeting regularly under her leadership continue actively to monitor and assess the process of China's accession to the World Trade Organization. In addition to the Washington conference held in last spring, during the past year a number of research papers have been produced on a complex series of issues related to China's continuing transition.

Planning is underway for final conferences in Beijing and Shanghai, and a major book on the subject is in preparation. On the China theme, as well as on broader international trade and investment issues, Dr. Ostry continues to be very active on the conference and lecture circuit throughout North America, Asia and Europe.

Program on Trade, Environmental Regulation and Canadian Competitiveness

Building on several previous projects at CIS, this program is currently in its second year of operation with the support of grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The project is co-directed by Alan Rugman, now holding a chair at Templeton College, Oxford University, and John Kirton of Political Science. Julie Soloway is the research coordinator.

During the past year, the program produced an edited volume of the classic works on the trade-environment nexus; nine articles and book chapters; and five new conference papers. This work crosses a number of disciplines, from international relations to business management to economics to law. Recent conference presentations took place in Ann Arbor, Mexico City, Washington, and Toronto. Early in 1999, the results thus far will be published by Oxford University Press in a book entitled Environmental Regulations and Corporate Strategy: A NAFTA Perspective.

The program also continues work for the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) on the implications of the NAFTA agreement. The specific objective of the NAFTA project is to provide the CEC council, comprised of the environment ministers from Mexico, Canada and the United States, with an analytical framework for monitoring on an on-going basis the environmental consequences of the trilateral trade agreement. To encourage research on broader issues raised by the NAFTA agreement, the program last year launched a series of luncheon seminars under the CIS banner. Speakers have included U of T faculty members, visiting scholars, government officials, and corporate executives.

 
Program on Latin America and the Caribbean

The program currently has four principal research and teaching projects underway. Al Berry and Gustavo Indart continue to supervise two international research teams looking into the effects of economic restructuring and trade liberalization in the region, particularly on labour markets and income distribution. Under grants from the Ford Foundation and CIEPLAN, seven Latin American researchers visited CIS in 1997 and 1998 while participating in this project.

The third project is entitled "After NAFTA." Supported by grants from FOCAL and the IDRC, ten individual projects (by faculty members from various North and South American universities) are being completed in two areas: 1) labour markets and social policy, and 2) trade and investment.

The fourth project rests on a grant from CIDA won in 1998 for the purpose of providing specialized economic training to senior officials in the Government of Cuba. CIS was also named Canadian counterpart in CIDA's SPEAL II Program. An ambitious international conference is now being organized on LAC-Canada issues. In addition, several mini-courses are being taught by U of T faculty and others in four different LAC countries. Finally, the program continues to organize and host an active series of seminars, conferences, and visits.

Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation (PCMN)

Complementing course offerings in the School of Continuing Studies, the research component of PCMN is based at CIS and continues to be led by

Janice Stein and Alan Alexandroff. In the early spring of 1998, the Ontario Ministry of Intergovernmental Relations asked PCMN to assist in the design, organization, and implementation of facilitation support for the Ontario Speaks town hall meetings on the future of the federation. PCMN organized over 40 dispute resolvers to support provincial legislators as they undertook community town hall meetings. Over 60 such meetings took place throughout the province. At the conclusion of the process, an analytical report was prepared on the use of citizen engagement in such initiatives.

This past summer, PCMN launched its Executive Summary publication series, "Coming to Terms: Shaping Effective Negotiation and Dispute Resolution." This series is intended to bring systematic findings about negotiation and dispute resolution to the wider community. Each issue in the series aims to disseminate the best research by scholars and practitioners to those involved in day-to-day negotiation and conflict management. The first issue reviewed a paper produced by Ellen Gutterman on the impact of preliminary agreements on final negotiated outcomes. The second issue is scheduled to come out this fall; it reviews a paper on anchoring and its influence in successful negotiations by Glen Whyte and James Sebenius.

The program has funded research by a number of U of T faculty members, including research on the impact of first offers by parties in commercial negotiations and on the impact of a "peacemaker's program" on levels of violence in a pilot school in a Caribbean country.

This fall, PCMN launches the Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman Conflict Resolution Special Lecture Series. The inaugural lecture will be given by Ambassador Itamar Rabinovitch of Israel on the theme, "Syria, Israel, and the Middle East Peace Process."

Program on Health and Global Affairs

During the 1997-98 academic year, a coincidence of interests inside the Centre led to the creation of a new research program. Colleagues from the Faculty of Medicine were trying to locate researchers with interests in international health policy. Members of CIS had in fact been doing health-related work, some of it centered around the dissertation projects of two promising graduate students, Andrew Price-Smith and Joy Fitzgibbon. After several exploratory meetings, CIS offered to provide office space and administrative support for a new program. CIS researchers subsequently participated in two conferences with our Faculty of Medicine colleagues and an initial CIS working paper was released.

Against this background, an international conference was soon planned by Price-Smith and Jay Keystone of the Faculty of Medicine. The conference will be funded by CIS, the Connaught Committee at U of T, and the Department of International Health of Health Canada. To be held in October 1998, the theme is "The Social and Political Impact of Emerging Infectious Diseases: Towards a Global Perspective." Macmillan Press will publish the proceedings.
 

Meanwhile, discussions between CIS and the Faculty of Medicine continue on the question of organizing further collaborative work in this increasingly important field of study.
 

The G7/G8 Research Program

Growing out of the work of a group of scholars associated with the International Relations program of Trinity College, the G7/G8 Research

Program is led by John Kirton and Peter Hajnal. A series of projects under the rubric "Global Governance" are now based at CIS. The projects include the construction at U of T of the world's leading web-site for documentation of the G7/G8 summit process.

During the 1997-8 academic year the program significantly expanded its scope with the introduction of several new activities, and a strengthening of those initiated in previous years. Scholarly publications from the program included five books and theses, nine articles and book chapters, three papers in the refereed working paper series "G8 Governance," two policy studies and three media articles by the members of the group directly affiliated with the CIS. Working with the group last year were Joseph Daniels of Marquette University, a CIS research fellow and visiting Fulbright scholar, and Ella Kokotsis, as research coordinator.

During the year, the research group hosted public lectures by Finance Minister Paul Martin and Piero Franco Fassino, Italy's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and by the ambassadors, high commissioners or senior representatives of the G8 countries in Canada.

Other Projects
On-going research by scholars in residence at the Centre benefits in various ways from the administrative support available here. Increasingly, newly cross-appointed faculty members not in residence are also availing themselves of this support. Recent examples of informal events planned and coordinated mainly by our star conference organizer, Mary Lynne Bratti, include: two workshops for students in the Collaborative MAIR program; a PROGRIS-related workshop with Statistics Canada officials on the measurement of industrial innovation; a meeting on international labour standards with Canadian union officials; a workshop on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation process (APEC); workshops by visiting officials from the OECD, the WTO, and the Government of Canada on trade policy; and several meetings on the new agenda for international health policy.

The APEC workshop provides a good example of how CIS can and does promote new research. Following a major conference in 1997 organized by CIS, our then-ASEAN chairholder, Johan Saravanamuttu, convened an informal workshop on the social dimension of the APEC process. With CIS assistance, Saravanamuttu was subsequently successful in garnering CIDA's support for a major conference on APEC in Malaysia in October 1998. Recent U of T PhD and CIS fellow, Shaun Narine, is helping to organize that conference. Our continuing involvement on this theme recently sparked an offer from the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada to fund a follow-up workshop in Toronto later in the fall, which will be attended by scholars, government officials, and interested members of the business community. Out of that workshop will come a new book on APEC and its future.

The gap in fellowship support this new program aims partly to fill is in the last stages of the doctoral program, when teaching assistantships and other forms of support often become scarce. We are looking for high-quality doctoral candidates in the final year of their dissertation projects who will benefit from, and contribute to, an inter-disciplinary working environment. The expectation is that fellows will defend their dissertations at the end of their fellowship year. The next competition will be held during the spring semester of 1999.

The first three fellows in residence are: Alison Meek of the Department of History (Dissertation: "The United States and European Integration, 1955-1960"), Jay Oelbaum of the Department of Political Science (Dissertation: "State, Structural Adjustment and Tribalism: Ghana in Comparative Perspective"), and Julie Soloway of the Faculty of Law (Dissertation: "The Impact of Divergent Environmental, Health and Safety Regulations on International Trade"). The search for external funding enabling the long-term continuation of this important new program has begun.

CIS also administers a small endowment that supports necessary international travel for research purposes by PhD students. The Sir Val Duncan Memorial Fund can provide between five and eight grants per year in the $1,000-$1,500 range. Application deadlines are July 15, October 15, January 15, and April 15.

During the 1997-98 academic year, some half dozen graduate students were also employed in the Centre as research assistants. Funding came from program and personal research grants.

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