In 2005 the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), along with Sciences Po in Paris and the London School of Economics and Political Science, established the Global Public Policy Network (GPPN), an international association of research universities offering graduate-level public policy education and dialogue with policymakers. The network is global in two senses: it includes institutions from around the world, and the policy issues at the center of their research and teaching are of global extent. GPPN's member institutions link their teaching with their research on the most pressing policy issues of the 21st century. The Network plans to expand its partnerships with public policy graduate schools in key global cities worldwide and will be announcing new partners in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East in the coming years. The activities of the GPPN include collaborative public policy research; faculty exchanges and team teaching; case study development; training programs for global professionals; exchange programs; and dual degree programs.   The GPPN currently includes active programming at SIPA, the London School of Economics, Sciences Po in Paris, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, the Centro de Investigaciones y Docencias Economicas (CIDE, Mexico City), the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Public Policy, and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

The Earth Institute leads numerous international efforts to mobilize science and technology toward building a sustainable future, particularly for the world's poor. In 2004, it launched the Millennium Villages Projects to work toward early successes in achieving the Millennium Development Goals through a proven integrated package of approaches. Villages in Kenya and Ethiopia have been established, and an additional ten villages in different eco-agricultural zones around Africa are currently being developed. The Institute's Earth Clinic sponsors a number of collaborative programs on initiatives such as reducing arsenic exposure in Bangladesh, expanding health care in Ethiopia, and advising the government of São Tomé and Príncipe to best manage and invest its new oil revenues for the betterment of its citizens. Climate experts from the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction are forecasting seasonal climate fluctuations to aid countries in decision making. Natural hazards experts from the Center for Hazards and Risk Research work with policymakers to build resilience into disaster-prone cities around the globe.

The Mailman School of Public Health's ground-breaking initiatives have improved the health of millions of people in resource limited settings around the world. The Mailman School has developed models for the scale-up of global HIV/AIDS comprehensive care and treatment. The Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program (AMDD), which improves the availability, quality, and utilization of emergency obstetric care in developing countries, was launched in 1999 with a $50 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-the largest private foundation grant in Columbia University history. A leader in infectious disease research, the School's Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory acts in both a coordinating and research capacity to diagnose, contain, and treat emerging viral diseases such as SARS. The Mailman School and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia's Earth Institute have been collaborating in Araihazar, Bangladesh, since 2000 to develop preventive strategies and treatments for arsenic poisoning for those exposed to the toxin through contaminated well water.

The Columbia Business School has established a partnership with Fudan University's School of Management in Shanghai, China, to provide Chinese financial executives the opportunity to study global financial markets with Columbia faculty. The collaboration is supported by Shanghai Financial Working Committee, a department of the Shanghai Municipal Government. The Business School also extends its reach through its Executive MBA-Global Program in conjunction with the London Business School.

The Journalism School's interdisciplinary curriculum offers students the opportunity to concentrate on foreign affairs and international reporting and stresses the development of practical skills to stimulate a strong free press in newly democratizing countries. Recently established programs such as the Pulitzer-Moore Scholars and the Gordon Gray Fellows also provide financial aid for international journalism studies.

Over the past ten years, Columbia Law School has significantly increased the number of programs offered in international and comparative law-from approximately 45 to 76 in 2005. The Law School now has a comprehensive program of study of legal systems by geographical area, including the Center for Chinese Legal Studies, Center for Japanese Legal Studies, Center for Korean Legal Studies, and European Legal Studies Center. J.D. students have the opportunity to enroll in 13 semester study abroad programs in 11 countries around the world. This summer, Columbia Law School also became the first American law school to launch ABA-approved student-exchange programs with leading law schools in both Beijing and Shanghai: Peking University (Beida) and Fudan University.

The School of Dental and Oral Surgery is expanding its formal collaborations with international dental schools in Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, Israel, Spain, and the Netherlands.

In 2005, the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation established an urban planning studio to improve slum dwellings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dakar, Senegal. Students spent three weeks in Nairobi developing a plan to provide better quality services such as water and electricity.

In partnership with Barnard College and the Harlem Arts Alliance, the University Arts Initiative organized a month-long campus residency in 2005 for world-renowned director Peter Brook and his international theatre company, for the first time integrating his work into the life and culture of a large urban university. During his residency, Brook mounted the U.S. premiere of Tierno Bokar, a theatrical exploration of tolerance, featuring cast members from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Mali, and Vietnam.

The Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University has launched a new training initiative to advance human rights thinking and activism with respect to the global economy. The Initiative on Human Rights Advocacy and the Global Economy incorporates the Center's highly successful Human Rights Advocates Training Program, featuring a program of advocacy, skill-building, and scholarship through a four-month, intensive training program in New York for up to ten activists each year.

The Center for Brazilian Studies

Director: Albert Fishlow

The Center for Brazilian Studies is intended to serve as a regular platform for government officials, business representatives, union leaders, and politicians, visiting from Brazil. The center also attracts Brazilian academics, students, and faculty, for periods of up to a year in which they focus upon their research, interact with their counterparts at Columbia, as well as speak publicly about their research results. Finally, the center serves as a focal point for American students and faculty with deep interest in, and knowledge of, Brazil.

The East Central European Center

Directors: John S. Micgiel and Kevin Hallinan

The East Central European Center was established in 1954 within the Institute for the Study of Europe to promote the study of the modern history, politics, languages, cultures, and societies of the region. It does so in cooperation with various departments at the University and by arranging for supplemental instruction by visiting and adjunct professors. The center sponsors courses, symposia, conferences, and lectures by prominent scholars and practitioners.

The Harriman Institute

Directors: Catherine Nepomnyaschchy

The Harriman Institute is the oldest and largest academic center of its kind in the United States devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Russia and the other successor states of the former Soviet Union, east Central Europe, and the Balkans. The institute's mandate is to advance scholarly knowledge and public understanding of the polities, economies, societies, and cultures of the Eurasian landmass extending from the Elbe to the Pacific, and from the Arctic to Afghanistan. Toward this end, the institute promotes advanced research and publicly disseminates information, analysis, and opinion generated by its faculty, fellows, students, and other affiliated scholars.

The Institute for the Study of Europe

Director: Volker Berghahn

Established in 1947 as the European Institute, the Institute for the Study of Europe promotes research and learning on the cultural, political, and socioeconomic issues facing Europe both inside the EU and in its wider international context. The institute organizes a wide range of activities during the academic year, including formal courses, conferences, colloquia, and lectures by distinguished academics and policymakers.

Institute of Latin American Studies

Director: Albert Fishlow

The Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) is the center for Latin America policy development and research at Columbia University. The institute provides its students and faculty with access to the resources of one of the major policy institutions in the world. ILAS also serves as a focal point for a network of Latin American and U.S. scholars engaged in dialogue on a wide range of issues.

The Middle East Institute

Director: Rashid Khalidi

The Middle East Institute of Columbia University, founded in 1954, has helped to set the national pace in developing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to the present, with a primary focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Fostering an interregional and multidisciplinary approach to the region, the Institute focuses on the Arab countries, Armenia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Central Asia, and Muslim diaspora communities.

Southern Asian Institute

Director: Vidya Dehejia

The Southern Asian Institute coordinates the many activities at Columbia University that relate to Southern Asia—mainly the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. Its conferences, seminars, exhibits, films, and lecture series bring together faculty and students with widely varying interests and backgrounds.

Weatherhead East Asian Institute

Director: Myron Cohen

Since its establishment in 1949, Columbia University's East Asian Institute has been a major center for research, teaching, and publishing on modern and contemporary Asia Pacific activities, covering China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Korean peninsula, and the countries of Southeast Asia. The institute is affiliated with Columbia's schools of business, law, international and public affairs, and arts and sciences, bringing together over fifty full-time faculty, a diverse group of visiting scholars and professionals, and more than 250 students from the United States and abroad.

Center for Israel and Jewish Studies

Director: Yosef H. Yerushalmi

The Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, established in 1950, coordinates interdisciplinary studies and brings together faculty members and students whose academic interests are primarily concerned with the study of Jewish civilization in its historical and contemporary dimensions. To this end, it encourages research and publication in all branches of Jewish history, culture, and institutions, in the Hebrew, Yiddish, and other Jewish languages and literatures, and in the history of Jewish philosophy and religion. It also provides a forum for consultation, exchange of information, and reporting on research completed or in progress.

Institute of African Studies

Directors: To be announced

Founded in 1959, the Institute of African Studies provides an intellectual forum for Africa-related activities outside the classroom. It brings speakers and visiting scholars to the campus, organizes conferences, and serves as a resource center for students seeking opportunities to work, study, and travel in Africa. The institute concentrates on sub-Saharan Africa, while North Africa is included in the programs of the Middle East Institute.

In 2005, 20 presidents of prominent universities from all over the world endorsed a statement of guarantee that their campuses would be refuges for open debate and freedom of speech. Columbia convened the inaugural meeting of this Global Colloquium of University Presidents, co-hosted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger.

Expanding East Asian Studies (ExEAS) was launched in 2002 through a multiyear grant from the Freeman Foundation. Based at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, with the cooperation of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Barnard College, ExEAS provides models for incorporating East Asia into general education and disciplinary and survey courses in the undergraduate curriculum.

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) was one of the first schools in the country to offer a comprehensive distance learning network, giving students from anywhere in the world the opportunity to enroll in SEAS certificate and graduate-level programs. Forbes magazine has named this network "Best of the Web" three times.

In 2006, President Lee C. Bollinger established the Columbia Committee on Global Thought to provide an institutional vehicle for rethinking the ways in which the University confronts challenges stemming from globalization. Composed of leading faculty members drawn from across the University, the Committee is charged with organizing a series of discussions, workshops, and seminars on what it might mean to engage fundamental questions from a global perspective. The committee also will develop proposals for other initiatives and collaborations with activities in the Arts and Sciences, and in the professional schools. This is a seed project that could lead to curricular innovation and reform, even as it helps reconceive and find new ways to support the making of Columbia University into a genuinely global university in the century ahead.

Each year, the University Libraries add some 80,000 new titles published abroad, encompassing more than 50 languages.

The Global Health Online Directory, developed by the Mailman School of Public Health, is a dynamic searchable index of current projects and programs involving Columbia University faculty, staff, and students who contribute expertise in education, research, and treatment relating to worldwide public health. The School currently conducts 32 major programs in 50 countries.

More than 20,000 Columbia University alumni live around the world, in 176 countries.

Columbia has 25 alumni clubs and associations worldwide, including branches in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.