Mission Statement
Read about our mission in the Daily Trojan.
“We’re not trying to look at the top 10 articles on The New York Times and repost them and spread that same information. We’re trying to look at … the things we know about because it’s what we study, but that the common individual that doesn’t pay attention to international relations might not know.”
Katie Abrams, Fellow
About Us
The Global Policy Institute was founded by Steven Lamy and a group of international relations students in Fall 2018. Students created the organization as a way to discuss critical foreign affairs matters beyond the classroom, and bring those conversations to the larger USC community. GPI started with a handful of students, and has now grown to over 30+ undergraduate fellows. Our leadership is comprised of student directors, editors, event planners and more.
We serve all students within USC Department of Political Science and International Relations and strive to reach the greater campus community through our events, conferences and web content — available to all staff, faculty and students. Additionally, GPI works with guest speakers and collaborators across the U.S. and the world. From university faculty and activists across the world to political leaders and policymakers, GPI hopes to bridge the gap between students and the international community.
As part of our mandate, GPI hosts several events throughout the semester and hosts an annual problem-based learning competition that encourages students to work in teams to solve a critical global issue. Beyond that, our editorial team maintains our foreign affairs web blog with updated analysis, op-eds and face-offs on pressing international matters.
“It’s not about collecting data for a professor’s research … these are kids that are creating their own entity that they can proudly say ‘I created the Global Policy Institute. And next year’s group can say, ‘We didn’t create it, but we helped it grow in this direction.”
Steve Lamy, Founding Faculty Director and Professor Emeritus of International Relations
Partners
The Global Policy Institute is proud to partner with other USC Dornsife institutes and Departments, including the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, School of International Relations, Department of Political Science, Department of Middle East Studies.
GPI is also thankful for the generous support of the Abrams family.
Faculty Director
Robert English
Robert English serves as GPI’s faculty director for the 2021-2022 school year. He is an Associate Professor of International Relations, Slavic Languages and Literature and Environmental Studies at USC.
Professor English studies Russia, the former USSR, and Eastern Europe, with a focus ranging from general issues of regional relations to specific questions of ethnicity, identity, and nationalism. He is presently working on a book-length study entitled Our Serbian Brethren: History, Myth, and the Politics of Russian National Identity. He formerly worked as a policy analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Committee for National Security.
Read more about Prof. English: USC Faculty Profile