“We promote international peace and sustainable development. An increasingly complex world faced with many challenges requires global cooperation. Dialogue of Civilizations contributes to understanding and mutual respect which encourage constructive engagement and cooperation.”

Dr. Clifford A. Kiracofe, President, Washington Institute for Peace and Development

WIPD follows in the tradition of the old “Virginia School” of International Relations at the University of Virginia as represented by scholars such as: Quincy Wright (1890-1970) who taught at the University of Chicago, Tsinghua University (Beijing), and the University of Virginia;  Innis L. Claude (1922-2013) who taught at the University of Virginia as did political scientists, Shaochuan Leng (1921-2000) and David Jordan. Farid Hanania (1908-2007) taught as a visiting professor. John Bassett Moore (1850-1947), authority on International Law and US diplomat, was a graduate of the University of Virginia. After World War II, the US Department of State facilitated the establishment of two academic centers for teaching and research on International Relations. At the University of Virginia, the Woodrow Wilson Department of Foreign Affairs was established. Area Studies were a significant component of this department. Thomas Jefferson, founder of the university, included a chair in Diplomacy in his plans for the university.

Advisors

Professor Lowell Gustafson, Villanova University
Professor Edmund Ghareeb, Washington, DC

Latest Columns by Dr. Kiracofe in China Focus

Latest Podcasts of WIPD “World Politics Today” at PODBEAN

“For my part I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may ever be maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce and friendship may be sought and cultivated by all.” —Thomas Jefferson Letter to Thomas Lieper 12 June 1815

“Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it?”

— President George Washington, Farewell Address 1796

“…the problem of preventing war is one of increasing importance in our civilization and that problem is essentially one of maintaining adaptive stability within the world community, only possible if large sections of the public persistently view that community as a whole…. Continuous thought and study, closely integrated with practical effort by our own and successive generations, is the price that must be paid for a less violent world. But neither thought nor action can be effective without a clear and widespread vision of the world as a whole, of the interactions of the past and its present, of the interrelations of the regions, and of the interdependence of its peoples.”

— Quincy Wright, 11 November 1941 in A Study of War, V. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago), pp.viii-ix.

[Our website is under development so please check back. WE have added a Podcast, “World Politics Today” and, we hope, students will find topics of interest there. Our initial website completed in Fall Semester 2021 and is evolving. We will be adding to our website for Spring Semester and Fall Semester 2023. Please note our expanding “Resources” page for working bibliography. For Dr. Kiracofe’s latest journalism see column in China Focus.]