Welcome to CiPS

The Centre for International Political Studies (CIPS) is situated within the School for Social Sciences the University of Pretoria (UP), and is unique in South Africa in that its constitutive units represent a richly diverse spectrum of academic, practical, research and teaching expertise. The head, members and research fellows of the units actively pursue and disseminate research aimed at capacity building by developing critical, informed human potential, skilled in dealing with the challenges arising from South Africa's position on the African continent in an increasingly globalizing world.

While each autonomous unit follows its own particular agenda, the Centre provides space for lively and vigorous interaction between numerous disciplines. Unit heads meet on an ongoing basis to exchange ideas and to plan joint ventures around common concerns. Thus, problems of a political nature (in the widest sense) profit for their solution from a truly multi-disciplinary input. Moreover, the expertise of the various unit heads is readily available to the University and the wider community in the Gauteng area, South Africa, the Southern African region and the world beyond.

• Research on political, social, cultural and related aspects in an international context, with an emphasis on politics.
• Academic liaison and the dissemination of research findings through public lectures, conferences, seminars, symposia, workshops and publications.
• The support of teaching in political, social, cultural and related aspects in the international context.