$12-million gift spawns institute for research on foreign conflict

Using a $12-million gift from Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein and under the guidance of Wilson School lecturer Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, the University will announce today that it has founded the Liechtenstein Institute for Self-Determination, a research center for the study and resolution of regional conflicts.

An extension of the six-year-old Liechtenstein Research Program on Self-Determination — which has conducted extensive study of the Balkan region — the institute will offer yearly fellowships and other opportunities to faculty, students and world leaders.

"We hope to create the world's foremost institution on self-determination issues, with a strong emphasis on political solutions to avoid conflicts and bloodshed," Danspeckgruber said yesterday. Emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary work, student participation and direct hands-on involvement in foreign conflicts.

Part of the global influence and accessibility Danspeckgruber hopes the institute will gain will come from an online database of the institute's findings. The database will be available through Websites in both English and the languages of the areas being addressed.

The institute already has begun research on several projects, including a Russian studies program to examine self-governance in former Soviet states, a project to find a solution to the conflict between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region and an "encyclopedia on self-determination" reference guide that would offer an interpretation of key issues involved in such conflicts.

While future projects may address ethnic conflicts in other regions — such as East Timor or Chechnya — Danspeckgruber said he hopes to gradually expand the institute's reach to include autonomy issues raised by organized criminal groups.

Because these projects will spin off and grow more complex as they succeed, the institute will use its endowment to launch new projects and raise additional capital as these projects move ahead.

"Before, the program was basically a one-man show — now it will be a 20-man operation," Danspeckgruber noted. "The huge difference is that we are institutionalized with this endowment."