Welcome to the temporary website of the School of Public Policy and International Affairs (SPPIA). Much like the School itself, which will enroll its first students in fall 2013, this is a project under development.

In the words of its founder, George Soros, the School of Public Policy and International Affairs aspires to be “a new kind of global institution dealing with global problems”. We set out at a time when the intricate balance of the three powers – political, economic, and social – which has historically underpinned the growth and resilience of liberal democracy and open societies erodes at the national level and remains elusive globally.

In this environment, mending the fractured bonds between peoples and their governments and laying the foundations for a global public policy requires individuals and institutions willing to invest in new ideas put forward by political, social and economic entrepreneurs. SPPIA sets forth determined to become one natural home for these innovators for the public good, providing them with a rich intellectual laboratory where they can develop extraordinary ideas as well as the skill set needed to put them to work and improve public policy.

As part of Central European University, SPPIA is founded on the belief that socio-political manifestations of epistemological certainty are dangerous illusions which stifle open societies and innovation. Instead, SPPIA will encourage the contextualization of knowledge as well as creative risk-taking, even at the price of occasional failure. As envisaged by our Founder, we will also build on CEU’s tradition of cooperation with the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and a network of like-minded organizations across the globe, doing our part to learn from and strengthen civil society.

We are building a diverse community of committed founding faculty, by drawing on relevant CEU units - in particular the Department of Public Policy, the Department of Political Science, the Department of International Relations and European Studies, and the Center for Policy Studies - and by hiring over twenty new SPPIA faculty. As we develop a blend of academic rigor and practical application, we will seek to become both an institution of learning and a partner to all those committed to shaping our still young century for the common global good.

I hope you join us in this endeavor.

Wolfgang Reinicke