Mission
The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College has as its core mission to advance and nurture a premier undergraduate program in international and strategic studies, and thereby advance the mission of the College. In this context the Keck Center has pursued four interrelated missions:
to engage in sophisticated analysis of contemporary international and strategic issues;
to provide a balanced and vibrant intellectual environment and various extra-curricular opportunities for students;
to encourage and support students and faculty in conducting research on important policy issues; and
to enhance the national and international reputation of the Keck Center and Claremont McKenna College
For the purpose of implementing its mission, the Keck Center successfully organizes and carries out a variety of programs and activities with over one hundred students supported financially each year.
The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies was founded in 1980 with a generous grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles. The Keck Center opened in 1983 with a focus on teaching and researching international politics, international economics, defense and military affairs, and area studies. The Center was also equipped with a small library with a special emphasis on international strategic studies and Asian and Pacific developments. P. Edward Haley, professor of government, was selected as the first director. With the founding of this newest center, CMC positioned itself to enter the arena of global affairs research and pedagogy.
In 1989, Chae-Jin Lee, BankAmerica Professor of Pacific Basin Studies, succeeded Professor Haley as director of the Keck Center. Professor Lee focused the strategic mission of the Center on Asian Pacific studies. During this time, the Center sponsored numerous scholarly conferences on various topics focusing on a range of issues, themes, and geographical areas in international relations. In 2009, the direction of the Center was entrusted to Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and Roberts Fellow. Professor Pei is a specialist on China and U.S.-China relations. Under his guidance, the Center focused on international affairs and Asian politics and actively promoted research into issues arising from the rapidly changing world order. During this time, the Center offered five student fellowships in international affairs and started sending student representatives to the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference, the Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA) and other important academic and extra-curricular meetings.
In 2019, Hilary Appel, the Podlich Family Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow, became the director of the Keck Center. Her area of expertise is Political Economy, Russian Politics, and East European Politics. Professor Appel took this position just prior to the start of the Covid pandemic. Under Professor Appel’s leadership, the Center responded to the challenges by shifting its programming and activities to an online format from March 2020 to September 2021. She greatly expanded the number of student research opportunities during the academic year and summer by tripling the number of students benefiting from named fellowships, research assistantships, and special research programs, like the World Affairs Podcast Program, Gender and Security and Mexican Politics Research Teams, supervised by Claremont McKenna College’s IR faculty, among other programs.
