IRVINE : UCI Global Peace Program Gets Grant

UC Irvine’s Global Peace and Conflict Studies program received a $55,250 grant this month that will pay for various guest lectures and research projects. The grant was awarded by the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

About $21,000 of the grant will be used to pay for lectures and other activities that the program presents throughout the school year. The most prestigious of these talks is the annual Julius Margolis lecture, which has attracted such well-known figures as Vladimir Lukin, the Russian ambassador to the United States, and Defense Secretary Les Aspin.

About $4,000 of the grant will be used to fund a study by two UCI professors entitled “Critical Mass: Public Responses to the Environmental Consequences of Nuclear Weapons Production in the United States and Russia.”

About $14,800 will be awarded to Alec Stone, an assistant professor of political science, for his study entitled “Constructing a Superanational Constitution: The Case for European Integration.” Wayne Sandholtz, an assistant professor of political science, will receive $14,950 for his research into the monetary integration of Europe.

UCI’s peace and conflict program sponsors classes and research into international problems, said assistant director Paula Garb. By taking certain classes, students can earn a minor in global peace and conflict studies.

“We are focusing a lot of attention on environmental issues and looking now at resolving these issues (rather than) conditionally studying the problems,” Garb said.