Early years |left The Graduate Institute of International Studies (
French:
Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales, HEI) was co-founded in 1927 by two scholar-diplomats working for the
League of Nations Geneva secretariat: the Swiss-American
William Rappard, director of the Mandates Section, and the Frenchman
Paul Mantoux, director of the Political Section. Rappard, then rector of the
University of Geneva, conceived the Graduate Institute as a way to draw on the deep pool of expertise in Geneva and to cement
transatlantic ties. With the notion that it might be named the "Wilson Institute", after
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Rappard saw it as a school for future American diplomats. The Institute was affiliated to the
University of Geneva, though independent in its program of studies and personnel. Initial funding was provided by the U.S.-based
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund, which for its part conceived the Institute as playing the role of an "international economic observation post". Funding from American philanthropic organizations, primarily the
Rockefeller Foundation as part of its initiative to promote a scientific approach to
international relations, continued until 1954.At the time, the Geneva Graduate Institute was "among the most important centres of scholarship" in
international relations alongside other schools, mostly located in Europe, including the
Institute of Higher International Studies in Paris, the
Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in Berlin, the
Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, and the
Walsh School of Foreign Service in the United States. The Geneva Graduate Institute's original mandate was based on a close working relationship with both the
League of Nations and the
International Labour Organization. It was agreed that in exchange for training staff and delegates, the Institute would receive intellectual resources and diplomatic expertise (guest lecturers, etc.) from the aforementioned organisations. According to its statutes, the Geneva Graduate Institute was "an institution intended to provide students of all nations the means of undertaking and pursuing international studies, most notably of a historic, judicial, economic, political and social nature". They attracted scholars like
Raymond Aron,
René Cassin,
Luigi Einaudi,
John Kenneth Galbraith,
G. P. Gooch,
Gottfried Haberler,
Friedrich von Hayek,
Hersch Lauterpacht,
Lord McNair,
Gunnar Myrdal,
Harold Nicolson,
Philip Noel Baker,
Pierre Renouvin,
Lionel Robbins,
Jean-Rodolphe de Salis,
Harold Laski,
Eric Voegelin,
Carlo Sforza,
Jacob Viner,
Quincy Wright and
Martin Wight.A different initiative, the Geneva School of International Studies, also offered summer programs at the Geneva Graduate Institute starting in 1923. These schools were created by both Lucie Barbier Zimmern and her husband
Alfred Zimmern. They were funded by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and several other wealthy American donors. They also attracted luminaries such as
Jane Addams and
John Maynard Keynes.
World War II The Geneva Graduate Institute had become known in the 1930s as a rallying point for
neoliberal scholars, with economist
Lionel Robbins calling it an "oasis of sanity" amid the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. It attracted leading neoliberal economists including
Ludwig Von Mises,
Wilhelm Röpke and Michael A. Heilperin, who formed an intellectual community with employees of the nearby
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and
League of Nations secretariats, such as
Gottfried Haberler, and with academics who presented key research at the Geneva Graduate Institute, including
Friedrich Hayek and
Lionel Robbins. Historian
Quinn Slobodian proposed in 2018 the existence of a so-called
Geneva School of economics to describe this group of economists and political economists, whom he characterizes as "
ordo-globalists" who promoted the creation of global institutions to safeguard the unimpeded movement of capital across borders. The Geneva School combined the "
Austrian emphasis on the limits of knowledge and the global scale with the German
ordoliberal emphasis on institutions and the moment of the political decision". Other faculty fleeing countries with Nazi regimes also included and
Georges Scelle for law, Maurice Bourquin for diplomatic history, and Swiss jurist
Paul Guggenheim. Subsequently, more scholars would join the Institute's faculty.
Hans Kelsen, theorist and philosopher of law,
Guglielmo Ferrero, Italian historian, and
Carl Burckhardt, scholar and diplomat were employed at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Expansion With the
Rockefeller Foundation ending its funding in 1954, the
Canton of Geneva and the Swiss government began to bear most of the costs associated with the Institute. This transfer of financial responsibility coincided with the arrival of Rappard's successor as the Institute's director, historian
Jacques Freymond in 1955. Freymond inaugurated a period of great expansion, increasing the range of subjects taught and the number of both students and faculty. Nevertheless, the school remained small during that period. Before the 1980s, the faculty never exceeded 25 members. Under Freymond's tenure, the Geneva Graduate Institute hosted many international colloquia that discussed preconditions for East–West negotiations, relations with
China and its rising influence in world affairs,
European integration, techniques and results of politico-socioeconomic forecasting (the early
Club of Rome reports, and the Futuribles project led by
Bertrand de Jouvenel), the causes and possible antidotes to terrorism, and
Pugwash Conference concerns. Freymond's term also saw many landmark publications, including the Treatise on international law by
Paul Guggenheim and the six-volume compilation of historical documents relating to the
Communist International. In the 1980s, after the end of Freymond's tenure, Geneva Graduate Institute faculty members, including
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann and Jan Tumlir, played a significant role in reforming and transforming the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade into the
World Trade Organization.
Reorganization In 2008, the Graduate Institute of International Studies absorbed the
Graduate Institute of Development Studies (
French:
Institut universitaire d’études du développement, IUED), and was thereby renamed as the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. IUED was founded by historian
Jacques Freymond in 1961 as the
Centre genevois pour la formation des cadres africains, later renamed
Institut Africain de Genève, or African Institute of Geneva. It was among the first institutions in Europe to develop the scholarly field of
sustainable development. It was also known for the critical view of many of its professors on
development aid, as well as for its journal, the ''Cahiers de l'IUED.'' In 2009, the Geneva Graduate Institute ended its previous affiliation with the
University of Geneva when it became an independent, Swiss government-accredited university. Prior to this, its accreditation had depended on its partnership with the University of Geneva. The master's and doctoral degrees originally awarded by the Geneva Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva were transferred to the Geneva Graduate Institute, while the bachelor's degree in international relations, formerly awarded by the Graduate Institute of International Studies, was taken over by the University of Geneva. Since 2016, student registration has also been transferred from the University of Geneva to the Geneva Graduate Institute. A loose partnership with the University of Geneva has remained in place including through joint schools (
Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights,
Geneva Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action, and
Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement) and joint degrees. == Academics ==