What We Do

The Institute is engaged in a program of research, analysis, education and policy development concerning security and global governance. “Global governance” refers to a set of collective principles, rules, processes and programs aimed at the framing and promotion of goals, demands and policies by influencing formal and informal social actors’ expectations, practices, and interactions in the area of world affairs. Global governance is treated as a normative framework with the necessary guiding power (legitimacy) to address global and security related problems through the interactions of national governments, private sector, international/multilateral, organizations, transnational movements, NGOs, and civil society. The Institute is developing and implementing solutions that respond to the reality that many sources of global problems and security threats are closely linked and require correspondingly integrated and coordinated policy and programmatic responses that are informed by careful analysis and supported by broad consensus and collective decision-making.

Since 2012, ISPP has engaged in an ongoing program of research funded by the Department of Homeland Security to study and develop analytic techniques to identify illicit trafficking in dual-use technologies, weapons and other related trade. The program represents a unique analytic approach that incorporates the expertise of university research methodologists combined with the subject area knowledge of customs and trade experts supplied by former Homeland Security Investigation Special Agents.

ISPP has also engaged in ongoing research on strategies to control firearms violence and trafficking. This work has been funded by the National Institute of Justice and private foundations and has been conducted in collaboration with researchers from other institutions, including the RAND Corporation, Rutgers University and the University of California at Davis. This area of work has been published in a variety of professional journals, including Injury Prevention, Journal of Urban Health, Forensic Science Policy & Management, Journal of Experimental Criminology, American Journal of Public Health, Justice Quarterly and The Nonproliferation Review.

The ISPP also has also developed courses on cross-border security and crime. A graduate-level course that details a comprehensive approach to security, titled Security Challenges in the 21st Century: The Changing Nature of Risk, Security and Sustainability, provides the basis of a paper published as part of the Proceedings of the Cross-Cultural Decision-Making Section of the Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) conference (2017).