About CGSD

Mission

The Center for Global Security and Democracy, comprised of faculty, students, independent scholars, activists, information technologists and members of the community, exists to produce and propagate the knowledge and skills necessary to build a more secure and democratic world. In collaboration with universities, NGOs, citizens’ groups, local and national governments, and corporate partners, CGSD harnesses the resources of Rutgers and the community to promote informed action and to create the open, democratic Internet information and networking infrastructure required for global collaboration.

What CGSD does

We engage the two-way linkage between the construction of security and the construction of democracy, both broadly understood. While we recognize the terrible cost of international war, we define security to include the security of the person in the terms defined by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While we recognize the near hegemonic power of the American and more generally Western models of democracy, we define democracy not as culturally or historically specific, but as dynamic, flexible and open. And while we recognize commercial control of much of the Web and its unequal penetration globally, we embrace its democratic possibilities and so devote ourselves to the development of public access Internet tools and resources.

We believe that knowledge for the sake of knowledge and action in the absence of knowledge are of doubtful utility and often downright dangerous. We therefore combine scholarly research and research into the techniques of advocacy with active civic engagement. CGSD supports theoretical and policy-oriented research to better understand how secure, democratic societies and international systems are created, and to develop practical initiatives for constructing and deepening democratic and security-producing arrangements at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The Center brings scholars, students, policymakers, civic leaders, and ordinary citizens together in practical efforts to analyze, design, and build functioning political institutions. CGSD also involves students in all aspects of Center activity to prepare them to manage their own research initiatives and NGOs when they graduate.

Background

The Center was established by Rutgers University in July 1997 in response to the turbulent transformation of global politics that has marked recent years. Explosive technological, economic, and social change has combined to overwhelm many of the key political structures that defined and supported the 20 th Century order. As we move into the new millennium, societies around the world must construct new political institutions and practices. As they do, they face the combined challenges of providing individual and collective security in the face of new threats while assuring the personal liberty and empowerment associated with democratic governance.

The linkage between security and democracy represents an immediate, pressing concern to societies around the world and raises long-standing questions of power relations among them. Because they alone possess the means to do so, the United States and other major international actors and organizations face the challenge of developing policies to facilitate positive change and create a stable global order that assures physical, political, and economic security both within and between nations. For their part, the great majority of countries and people in the world—who do not possess the means to shape the world to their will—struggle with exactly the same challenges, as well as that of balancing the potential benefits of large power success with the costs of submission to hegemonic power, whether cultural, economic or political.

These are interesting times, with all that that implies; CGSD was founded to engage them.

Funding

CGSD has grown and flourished with the support from many sources. Moses and Annuta Back funded the establishment of CGSD’s predecessor, the Back Center for International Peace and Conflict Resolution. Additional funding was provided by the Rutgers Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Most CGSD activities, however, are funded by outside grants. In recent years, CGSD projects have been funded by partner universities such as Balamand University, Tallinn Pedagogical University and University of Natal, Pietermaritzberg, by non-governmental organization partners such as the Mongolian Women for Social Progress, the Estonian National Center for Nonprofits (NENO), the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (CPRI), the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Zoon PolitikoN, and by such governmental agencies as the European Union, Partners of the Americas, the United States Agency for International Development, and the United States Departments of Defense and State.