About the Institute Founded in 1951 under the spon¬sorship of Dwight D. Eisenhower dur¬ing his tenure as President of Colum¬bia University, the Institute of War and Peace Studies (IWPS) was renamed the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS) in March 2003. President Eisenhower created the Institute to promote understanding of the “disastrous consequences of war upon man’s spiritual, intellectual, and material progress.” Under its first director, William T.R. Fox, the Institute became one of the major re¬search centers on international rela¬tions in the United States. From the beginning the Institute interpreted its role broadly. Over the years, researchers have probed the political, military, historical, legal, economic, moral, psychological, and philosophical dimensions of interna¬tional relations. Although the Insti¬tute does not take official positions on any public policy issues, individual members of SIWPS contribute to the   general discourse on these topics by authoring articles in journals such as Foreign Affairs, discussing current issues with officials and journalists, serving as consultants to government departments and agencies, and testify¬ing before Congressional committees. The Institute itself has no formal teaching program; rather, its members conduct a wide variety of instruc¬tional activities through the Political Science Department and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia. Institute mem¬bers offer courses on American for¬eign policy, national security, interna¬tional politics, political economy, en¬vironmental policy, and international organization. In addition to offering courses, SIWPS Director Richard Betts coordinates the International Security Policy Concentration for SIPA, and Professor Robert Jervis serves as Deputy Chair of the Department of Political Science.