 Logo used since 2015. The building featured in the logo is the Segal Building, the first building purchased by the institute. | |
Former names | Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies (1955–1979), Monterey Institute of International Studies (1979–2015) |
|---|---|
| Type | Privategraduate institute |
| Established | June 9, 1955 |
Parent institution | Middlebury College |
| Affiliation | TPC |
| Vice-president | Jeff Dayton-Johnson |
Academic staff | 70 full time; 70 adjunct |
| Postgraduates | 750 |
| Location | ,, U.S. 36°35′58″N121°53′49″W / 36.59932656720151°N 121.89697922474039°W /36.59932656720151; -121.89697922474039 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Colors | blue andwhite |
| Website | www.middlebury.edu/institute |
 | |
Established in 1955, theMiddlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly known as theMonterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), and theMonterey Institute of Foreign Studies (MIFS), located inMonterey, California, is agraduate institute and satellite campus ofMiddlebury College.[1] For brevity, it is often referred to as simply theMonterey Institute. The cofounders of the institute wereGaspard Etienne Weiss, Louise Weiss,Dwight Morrow Jr.,Remsen Dubois Bird,Enid Hamilton-Fellows, Countess of Kinnoull, Sybil Fearnley,Noël Sullivan, and Frank Elton.[2][3][4] The institute offers master's degree programs and certificates.
MIIS has been the official supplier of translators and interpreters to theOlympic Games since the1984 Summer Olympics.[5][6][7][8] Professors and alumnus have also served as Chief interpreters and Chief translators for Olympic Games around the world since 1984.[9][10][11] MIFS was the 2nd-ever school in the United States to establish a training program inTranslation and Interpretation (T&I), following George Washington University only by 8 years.[12] MIFS was the first, and for over a decade, the only school in the United States with a program inconference interpretation.[13] MIFS was the first-ever school based in the United States to train translators and interpreters for work at theUnited Nations and theUnited Nations Interpretation Service, prior to which all were trained abroad.[14][15][16] MIIS is today also the last remaining school of conference interpretation for three Asian languages left in the United States.[17][18] MIIS is presently the only school in the United States under aMemorandum of Understanding with the United Nations to provide training for UN language officials.[19]
In August 2025, Middlebury College President Ian Baucum announced in a video that due to budgetary considerations, MIIS will cease all operations in June 2027.[20][21][22] Its self-sustaining research centers will remain in operation under the Middlebury College umbrella.[20][21]
In the years and months during the planning stages of the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies (MIFS), the attitudes of theMonterey Peninsula reflected the era: it was the height of theCold War, and the area was an epicenter of military and espionage activity between the states of the Pacific region and the United States.[23] Only ten years before, theCharter of the United Nations had been signed in the city ofSan Francisco, attended by several people who would later become affiliated with the Institute throughout the years.
The cofounders of the institute came from a wide array of espionage and military backgrounds. MIFS was established as the brainchild ofGaspard Etienne Weiss, who in the early 1950s was employed by theSixth Army of the United States as the chairman of the French Department at theArmy Language School, located at thePresidio of Monterey, which crests a hilltop overlooking the Monterey Peninsula. Weiss, and his wife Louise, were in 1952, involved in an espionage gossip scandal that shook the language school at the time, and the 6th Army Command had to investigate the rumors that they might have fed intelligence to the Nazis during their time serving with as Propagandists for the French Interior Minister during the Second World War.[24][25] In 1953, they were both transferred to the languages department atRobert Louis Stevenson High School (RLSH) inPebble Beach, California.[26] Weiss taught Latin, and Louise taught French.[23]
The German teacher at RLSH was Sybil Fearnley, who had graduated shortly before the outbreak of the war fromBerlin University, earning certificates in the study of English and teaching German to foreigners.[26] The Weiss's and Sybil Fearnley had many conversations about the development of a post-graduate school on the Peninsula.[23]
Two experts in pedagogy and the development, management, and operations of modern universities involved in establishing the school wereRemsen Dubois Bird andDwight Morrow Jr.. Remsen Bird had been the youngest President ofOccidental College, seeing that College through theGreat Depression and both of the World Wars.[27] Morrow, aside from his relative infamy as being the only son of the former US Ambassador to Mexico and brother-in-law ofCharles Lindbergh, was a world-renowned educator at the time.[28] He had also been the person who had convinced Weiss to move to California, after having met at a different university.[28] Bird became the Founding Chairman of the Board, and there is a bust of him in the main lobby of McCone Hall, in his honor. Morrow served with him on the Board for many years, even while taking a teaching position on the East Coast.[28]
Frank Elton was a South-African-born British diplomat living inCarmel Valley, involved with theBritish General Consulate in San Francisco.[29] He was also involved in managing the San Francisco chapter of theWorld Affairs Council, until he oversaw the establishment in 1955 of an entirely new chapter of the organization responsible for theMonterey Bay Area.[30] His position as the head of theBritish Economic Service in San Francisco allowed the Institute to quickly develop a connection into the business world. He became an educator at MIFS while simultaneously serving as the President of the British American Council for Economic Affairs in San Francisco, and hanging out in elite Men's Clubs in that city.[31]
Although Morrow and Elton had helped with large donations to the school, two people who served as the primary financial backers of the institute were theCountess of Kinnoull andNoël Sullivan. Kinnoull had been heavily involved in the Catholic Nationalist movement during the Spanish Civil War, being the officialpress photographer not only for theVatican, but forFrancisco Franco himself.[32] She had spied on communists in France for MI6 shortly before fleeing the country in 1940, settling in the United States and becoming a large philanthropic donor throughout the area of Monterey and Carmel.[32] Speaking several languages herself, she was keen on seeing California becoming an epicenter of civilian language instruction. Sullivan, who had also established theCarmel Music Society, died of a heart attack only roughly a year into the success of the first program.[33]
The primary desire of the founders was to create a spinoff of the kinds of language instructions that were being taught at the Presidio, but for a civilian set of students, with a different style of language immersion than any other program before it.[34] They did not want the program to be one where "the book is on the table."[34]
When the doors of MIFS opened in on June 9, 1955, there were 13 students, and the only two subjects taught that year were in the languages and cultures ofFrench andGerman.[35] The initial programs, called "Summer Seminars," were intensive summer language programs, held annually, for students currently attending other universities.[36][37] What separated this program from those of other similar programs of the era, such as the summer language programs atMiddlebury College, was that the programs here were not designed to be only those of language instruction, but were also structured to teach courses on foreign cultures and areas exclusively in that language.[38] By the fourth year of the program in 1958, the languages offered had evolved to includeItalian,Spanish, andRussian.[38] Remsen Bird, in a letter to the CIA directorAllen Dulles in 1958, wrote that the institute was "directed to the job of teaching languages for use and the understanding of the other civilizations."[37]An advertisement appearing inThe Stanford Daily recruiting students for the fourth annual summer session reads:
"The courses are presented exclusively in the language of each country by native-born instructors. In addition, the institute offers a workshop for the teaching of French and Spanish in elementary grades.Comparative History,Comparative Law andGovernment, andInternational Economics comprise an integrated approach to understanding the socio-economic and political structure of the Western world. Courses in Asiatic Civilization are also offered."[38]
When the institute started these programs, it had no permanently owned buildings, only a post office box, and held its summer courses in buildings in the area ofMonterey County. When it began in 1955, it occupied 4 rooms at theMonterey Peninsula College, and lectures that year were held in theTheatre-in-the-Round, in the city ofCarmel, located roughly 5 miles away from downtown Monterey, on the other side of theMonterey Peninsula.[39] After its first year, the institute was housed mainly at theMission of San Carlos Borromeo, also in Carmel.[37] Students lived in small group "dormitories," often in groups as small as 10 students and often with an instructor living in the building.[40] The instructors lived in the buildings to ensure that only the language of instruction was spoken during the length of the summer.[40]
Despite the fact that at this initial stage they had no official campus and were only a summer language program, the vision of the institute founders was indeed that the institute would become a true graduate professional center with a core focus and mission dedicated to programs beyond their core classes of language instruction and cultural understanding.[41] Throughout the second half of the 1950s, as the Chair of the Board, Remsen Bird started forming relationships with other universities and nongovernmental institutions to convince their leadership to start sending students to the summer programs. Included in this relationship were representatives of theChristian Science Monitor and theUniversity of California at Berkeley.[37] By 1960, the institute was offering an 11-week beginners course in languages that lasted 5 hours a day for 6 days a week.[42]
1961 saw the introduction of year-round degree programs taught at MIFS.[36] The first building that the institute acquired was the Barnet J. Segal Building, also known as theOld Monterey Carnegie Library building, which was originally the city's public library.[43] The institute was soon accredited by theWestern Association of Schools and Colleges, categorized as a "Liberal Arts Institution."[44]Samuel Finley Brown Morse was instrumental in the purchase, underwriting the school's loan to buy the building. As President of theMonterey Peninsula Foundation, Morse also arranged for the distribution of major grant funds to the school for investments and expansion.[45]
One of the first faculty members brought in around this time, and an instructor in the German language, was Samson Benjamin Knoll. Knoll was born in the Austrian Empire, but spent most of his life in Germany. He was educated at the University of Berlin from 1930 to 1933.[46] Throughout the late 1930's, Knoll had been a language instructor at various universities in the United States.[47] Notably, in 1938, Knoll was quoted as saying that he believed the people of his country would rise up and overthrow Hitler.[47] That didn't happen, and during the Second World War, Knoll was assigned to US Army Intelligence on the Western Front, and it was one of his primary duties to interview Allied prisoners of war that had either escaped or had been released by the Nazis.[48] During the early 1950's, while serving as a language instructor at Stanford, Knoll returned to Europe to lead tours of the music history of Central Europe.[49] By 1968, Knoll was serving as the Chancellor of MIFS.
By the year 1965, the school had developed programs for aBachelor of Arts and aMaster of Arts in languages and civilizations, and in the political arts. The summer sessions that year had also expanded to include full 10-week programs for undergraduates, and shorter 7-week programs for only for graduate students.[44]
In 1968, the department of Translation and Interpretation (T&I) was initiated in order to provide training in written and oral interpretation, both insimultaneous andconsecutive. Prior to 1968, all UN translators and those of other related international organizations were trained elsewhere, primarily in Europe.[50] The 200 seat Irvine Auditorium was designed specifically to be modeled after the UN's General Assembly, complete with several booths in the back of the room slotted for translators and interpreters.[50]
In 1968, whenSamuel Finley Brown Morse was on his deathbed, he arranged in his will that MIFS would receive a third of his vast fortunes. However, he stipulated that this money would not be distributed until all of his children had died. Most of his children remained involved with the school through the 70's and 80's. The disbursement did not occur until 2018, when the $4.5 million loan was accepted by MIIS Vice President Jeff Dayton-Johnson.[45]
By 1969, MIFS was teaching language and area courses inArabic,Chinese,French,German,Italian,Japanese,Portuguese,Russian, andSpanish. MIFS was also teaching courses in history, international economics, political science, language education, translation and interpretation.[51]
In 1969,Fulton H. Freeman left his post as the US Ambassador to Mexico to become the President of MIFS. He was described by theAssociated Press at the time as a "jazz-playing, cigar-smoking extrovert." In his going-away ceremony, he was awarded theOrder of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government.[52][53] Several years before taking his post, Freeman suggested a program called Training for Service Abroad (TSA) designed to simulate for business and other professionals the same kinds of courses that were taught to members of the US Foreign Service. After becoming President of the institute, he lobbied heavily and created the program.[50] Freeman held his position until 1974, when he died suddenly at the age of 59.[54]
The major funding model through the 1970s was to push the TSA program on corporate America, and it did indeed draw many students from the professional class.[34] The TSA program had become the centerpiece of MIIS language instruction.[34] This program emphasized grammar and vocabulary, but also stressed education in cultural practices, social etiquette, and professional norms relevant to the student’s corporate assignment abroad.[34] Instruction was highly individualized, often arranged around the student’s corporate schedule, and incorporated immersion techniques such as meals in restaurants and role-playing of social or business situations.[34] Corporate tuition fees for the TSA program were substantial, but many multinational firms supported the training as a safeguard against failed postings abroad, which could cost employers significantly more. The faculty involved in the program declared that language training provided insight into social structures as well as communication skills, with the aim of reducing culture shock and improving the effectiveness of overseas assignments.[34]
In 1970, tuition started suffering from a phenomenon of massive inflation. The price for tuition at 4,000 USD was one of the highest rates in the country, falling just behind the highest tuition in the country, Middlebury College.
In the year 1973, the school had 360 upper division and graduate students with an average age of 29.[50]
In 1979, the MIFS changed its name to the Monterey Institute of International Studies.[55]
In the 1980, a representative from theAmerican Cattleman's Association approached Lee Cagwin, the director of language programs at MIIS, and said that he desired to be able to communicate effectively with business associates in Latin America. Cagwin and MIIS then designed a Spanish program aimed specifically at the local Californian farming and ranching community.[56] The goal of the program was to create farmers that knew how to speak Spanish in order to communicate effectively with their cattle farmhands and migratory field workers coming up from Mexico for the picking seasons. In this program, there were never more than 5 students per course.[56] Tuition for this program costed $3,650, ran for six weeks, 5 days a week, for 6 hours a day. Something that the ranchers and farmers might have been unused to in their professional lives was two to three hours of homework per night. After farmers and ranchers went through the program, they reported that they had grown more respect for their employees.[56]
In the years of 1991 and 1992, MIIS was at the center of a Congressional spending scandal that was outside of its own control. In 1991, Democratic members of the United States Congress considered adding $6.8 million dollars in grant funding for MIIS to theMilitary budget of the United States, for the stated purpose of funding a Center of International Trade Enhancement, which would be designed to train government translators and other officials.[57] However, RepresentativeDan Burton, a Republican, called the notion "pure, unadulterated pork," and launched a campaign to kill the grant.[57] In March, 1992, PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush then sent his own revisions to the budget back to Congress, with the allocation for MIIS removed entirely, alongside a third of the entire defense budget.[58] In the Fall of 1992,Leon Panetta, who was serving as the Chair of theHouse Budget Committee at the time, then placed $6.8 million in grant money for MIIS into the language of an emergency spending bill designed for the victims ofHurricane Andrew.[57]
In December 1995,Jonathan B. Tucker, a research specialist in chemical weapons was dismissed from his role on thePresidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, a specialWhite House panel dedicated to discovering the cause ofGulf War syndrome and other illnesses experienced by veterans.[59] The committee at the time had refused to comment on why he was dismissed.[59] The committee published their findings that illnesses suffered by veterans were not caused by chemical weapons used during theGulf War. In 1996, Tucker secured his position at MIIS as the director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation studies.[59] In April 1997, however, Tucker testified before theHouse Government Reform Committee and provided evidences that Iraq had most likely used chemical weapons during the war against US troops.[59] He also said that he had been ordered by the committee not to talk to any Gulf War veterans or others who may have been exposed to chemical weapons in order to secure proper medical treatment for them.[60]
In 1997, the institute became the first professional graduate school in the world to offer a master's degree in International Environmental Policy.[1]
Following theSeptember 11 attacks, and thePatriot Act that followed, attendance at MIIS began to drop dramatically.[35] Admissions steadily declined during thePresidency of George W. Bush, especially in those students applying from other countries, and the institute started to worry that its finances would be unable to recover.[35] Especially approaching the 2004 Fiscal Crisis of California, the institute was in a budget deficit by 2003[61].
In 1984, William Weber, dean of the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at MIIS at the time, arranged an academic internship for 32 students of translation and interpretation to work at the1984 Summer Olympics.[5][6] Therein, the relationship between the two institutions was secured, and MIIS was known as the "official supplier of translation and interpretation services" for the games.[9] The students assigned to that year's Olympics worked as translators of official documents, and simultaneous interpreters in English and French for the main Olympic press center.[9]
The relationship has become so entwined over the years that MIIS was given the honor of occasionally using theOlympic symbols on its stationary.[6] For over 30 years, the director of translation and interpretation services was William Weber, a language professor at MIIS.[9] His predecessor, Alexandre Pomonarev, who has been the most recent Chief interpreter for the Olympics, including the games inTokyo 2020 andParis 2024, is a graduate of MIIS.[10] He is currently the Chief Interpreter for theInternational Olympic Committee.[10] Daniel Glon, another language professor at MIIS, served as the Chief Translator for the2002 Winter Olympics.[11]
The leadership of Middlebury College, a private "Little Ivy" in the town ofMiddlebury,Vermont, started to have desires to become a more globally-focused and internationally renowned college at the tail-end of the nineteenth century, almost a hundred years after its founding in the year 1800. The first major endeavor into becoming this kind of international institution was the establishment of theMiddlebury Language Schools with its first summer language school in German being in the year 1915. By the year 2002, Middlebury College, although it did not identify itself as a "university," by this time operated nine intensive summer Language Schools in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.[62] These language schools brought about 1,300 students to its Vermont campuses each year.[63]
Despite the fact that Monterey's language programs began almost exactly a half-century after the first language school at Middlebury, the Monterey Institute was much quicker to develop a wider range of language programs offered. Monterey's Arabic program in 1969, for example, began almost twenty years before Middlebury's Arabic School in 1982.[62][51] As the two programs grew on opposite sides of the country, throughout the decades, the language schools at MIIS and Middlebury College were often mentioned together as the premier language programs in the country, and operated in a healthy environment ofdirect competition. They did not have many other competitors. For example, in a 1974 letter in response to an inquiry from Jenise Cook about which language schools might be preferable, theDeputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time,Vernon A. Walters wrote:
"I was very interested to know of your interest in languages. The world in which-we live grows smaller every day and the ability to communicate grows in importance... I have heard of the Monterey Institute of Foreign Study and everything I have heard of it has been good. At Monterey, also, is the Defense Language Institute (for the Armed Forces only), a really superb school. Middlebury also has a very good reputation."[64]
Middlebury College's other main endeavor in expanding its global reach was by quite literally expanding its international footprint with a program called theC.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad.[65] This program began in the year 1949 with a Middlebury graduate degree program at a university inParis.[65] By the year 2002, Middlebury Schools Abroad had sites inChina,France,Germany,Italy,Russia, andSpain. In 2002, however, through a partnership withSUNY Plattsburgh, the program added seven additional locations inArgentina,Uruguay,Brazil, andMexico. The agreement also allowed Middlebury students to access additional universities inSouth America through SUNY Plattsburgh’sSouthern Cone program.[63] In addition to the Schools Abroad, about 500 students annually attended theBread Loaf School of English inRipton, Vermont, which maintained additional teaching sites inAlaska,New Mexico, andOxford, England.[63]
In the year 2003, MIIS was suffering from a majorbudget deficit and was on the verge offinancial collapse.[66] MIIS sought an institutional partner due to these financial difficulties, believing that becoming part of a larger network would allow the institute to continue operations. Initial discussions took place with theUniversity of California system.M.R.C. Greenwood, Chancellor of theUniversity of California at Santa Cruz, announced that negotiations were underway between the two schools. However, those talks ended in November 2004during a period of fiscal crisis in California, after which negotiations withMiddlebury College began.[63] The UC system eventually recovered after the passage ofProposition 57 andProposition 58, but by then, the relationship with Middlebury was already being finalized.
Due to the similarities in the programs of Monterey and Middlebury, the general thinking in the leadership of Middlebury College at the time was that MIIS had developed a range of international programs that complemented Middlebury’s academic priorities. At this time, MIIS graduated a class of roughly 300 students representing 37 countries. Middlebury, which was over two centuries old, produced about twice as many graduates annually and enrolled undergraduates from more than 80 nations. International studies had become one of Middlebury’s principal academic goals, alongside language and literary studies, writing, and environmental studies. Unlike many private U.S. undergraduate institutions, Middlebury also offered financial aid to its international students.[63]
The faculty of Middlebury College at the time, however, disagreed greatly with the decisions of leadership at the College. At a Faculty Council meeting on April 1, 2005, a paper ballot election was held on the question of the acquisition.[67] The final vote count was 80 to 21, in favor of not pursuing the relationship any further. The President of Middlebury College at the time,Ronald D. Liebowitz, decided to go-ahead with discussions anyways.[67]
On June 24, 2005, the trustees of Middlebury and MIIS jointly announced their approval of a letter of intent establishing Monterey as an affiliate of Middlebury, with a target date of December 23, 2005, for the completion of the arrangement. According to the agreement, MIIS would be overseen by a five-member board of trustees appointed by Middlebury. While the MIIS board retained general oversight, Middlebury reserved authority over presidential appointments or removals, budget approvals, property transactions, and the initiation or termination of academic programs.[63]
Middlebury stated that it anticipated supporting MIIS financially through fundraising, designated gifts, and, if necessary, secured loans. The funding was intended for facility improvements, technology upgrades, admissions efforts, and development activities. Middlebury projected that financial support would be provided over four years, with the expectation that MIIS would become financially self-sustaining after the initial investment.[63]
Middlebury's stated intent in the affiliation was that it was providing financial support for the struggling institution, but it also wanted direct access to the world-renowned language programs provided by MIIS. At the time, MIIS was the only institution in the entireWestern Hemisphere offering graduate degrees inconference interpretation and in translation and interpretation for English-Chinese, English-Japanese, and English-Korean.[63] MIIS also operated several research institutions at the time; the Center for International Trade Strategy, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for Language in Education and Work, and the International Interpretation Resource Center.[63]
In December 2005, shortly after the 50th anniversary,Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute signed an affiliation agreement that established a formal relationship between the two institutions. Under that agreement, the Monterey Instituteboard of trustees was reconstituted to include 13 members, nine of them with Middlebury connections and four former members of the Monterey Institute board of trustees.
The nine new board members with connections to Middlebury were:[68]
The four board members who previously served on the Monterey Institute board were:[68]
On September 11, 2007, Middlebury College announced the establishment of the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy (MMLA), which catered to those described as "pre-college students." Michael Geisler, the vice president for Middlebury Language Schools, Schools Abroad and Graduate Programs at the time said that the MMLA would meet the demand of parents who had been asking him for an option to teach their children languages.[69]
In June 2010, Middlebury College formalized its acquisition of the institute, which was formally designatedA Graduate School of Middlebury College.[70] The Monterey board of trustees was renamed the board of governors, and subsequently the board of overseers, with ultimate responsibility for the institute residing with the Middlebury Board of Trustees.[71]
On January 7, 2015, Middlebury announced that the institute would become known as the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. The name change was part of a general rebranding of Middlebury-affiliated institutions.[72]
The Middlebury Institute trains translators, interpreters (including conference interpreters), localization experts, and language teachers. It also offers degrees for language teachers who will teach English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and teach a foreign language.[73] Certificate programs are additionally offered in these areas as well as Language Program Administration.
The Middlebury Institute of International Studies also offers several non-degree programs, including intensive ESL programs year round; summer intensive language programs, custom language services, English for diplomats programs, short term translation and interpretation courses, and international policy certificate programs. The institute is the only school in the Western Hemisphere offering graduate degrees in conference interpretation and in translation and interpretation between English-Chinese, English-Japanese and English-Korean.
The Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) program at MIIS is a Master's Degree program combining the two fields ofterrorism studies andnonproliferation.[74] This MA program, established in 2010, is the first and only program in the world to combine the two fields.[75][76] having direct access to the combined staffs of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) and the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) to be their professors and instructors.[77] Students are also allowed to attend all conferences hosted by CNS, and have direct access to professionals in the field such asAlex Wellerstein and others.[78] Terrorism experts are also brought in from local institutions, such as theNaval Postgraduate School andStanford University.[79] While the common vernacular states that the term nonproliferation implies specifically tonuclear non-proliferation, here the term is used to define the nonproliferation of anyWeapon of mass destruction. Graduates of the NPTS program have been employed after graduation by various world governments, the United States military and intelligence community, the United Nations, theInternational Atomic Energy Agency, theDepartment of Energy, and elsewhere in related fields.
The Master of Arts in International Policy and Development (IPD) is a graduate program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. The degree requires 42 credits and can be completed in 12 to 16 months, with entry points in both the fall and spring semesters. The curriculum includes coursework in economics, development theory, global governance, data analysis, and research methods, with the option of additional study in language and intercultural communication.[80]
A distinctive element of the program is a semester-long practicum in which students work with external organizations, either in person or remotely. Practicum placements have included the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, non-governmental organizations, and private firms, and may take the form of client projects, policy research, or professional assignments. Faculty members are drawn from international institutions such asUNHCR and theWorld Bank. The program also provides academic and career advising, as well as an alumni network with a concentration in Washington, D.C. Graduates have pursued careers in organizations includingUSAID, theInternational Rescue Committee, andDeloitte.[80]
TheCenter for the Blue Economy (CBE) is a research center managed by MIIS. CBE was founded in year 2011 and focuses mainly on research related to the ocean and the coastal economy. The center also complements theInternational Environmental Policy program by offering specialization courses in Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.[81] The center works in collaboration with various local and national organizations on a wide range of topics includingclimate adaptation in coastal areas, governing environmental issues and also finding solutions to problems that are affecting ocean and coastal economies. CBE is home to the National Ocean Economics Program, which compiles, analyzes, and publishes economic data about changes and trends along the U.S. coast and in coastal waters.[82]
CBE also offers summer fellowships to the students to work on a wide range of projects related to ocean and coastal resource management. The Speakers Series (Sustainability Speaker Series and the Marine speaker series) organized by the center is a unique platform where experts working in different fields, mainly oceans and coastal issues, are invited to deliver lectures. This speaker series is organized every year and is open to students, researchers, faculty, and the public. The center has its own peer-reviewed journalJournal of Ocean and Coastal Economics (JOCE) that has published around 57 research articles.
Shortly after theSeptember 11 attacks, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies began seriously endeavoring to create a program that might address the concerns of terroristic activities regarding the possible access to weapons of mass destruction. What resulted, and especially from the work of the researcherGary Ackerman, around 2003 was the Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism Research Program (WMDRTP). Ackerman was instrumental as WMDTRP's first director in laying the groundwork for future endeavors.[83][84][85][86]
On January 20, 2005, MIIS was awarded a grant to focus on reducing worldwide terrorism, and Ackerman was working to restructure WMDTRP into a more specifically focused terrorism research program.[87] By 2006, the name of the new program aimed at addressing the goals of this grant was called the Monterey Terrorism Research Education Program (MonTREP).Fred Wehling and Gary Ackerman served in 2006 as MonTREP's first research directors, andMoyara Ruehsen was serving as MonTREP's education director.[88][89] The senior researcher at the time wasJeffrey Bale, who had been working at MIIS for several years.
In 2018, MonTREP was redesigned and elevated from program status into a fully-fledged center, and rebranded as the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC). CTEC conducts in-depth research onterrorism and other forms ofextremism.[90] It is one of a handful of designated "Terrorism Research Centers," in the United States.[91][92] CTEC's initial focus is on three crucial areas:threat finance andsanctions, extremist messaging and terrorist use of the internet, andspecial operations and countering the threat of terrorism.[93][94][95]
CTEC engages faculty experts and graduate students inmixed-methods research on terrorist threats, extremist networks, and counterterrorism responses. Its work encompasses several key domains, includingmilitant accelerationism, the study ofonline extremism and digital platforms for radicalization,threat financing and sanctioning as tools to disruptextremist groups, and programs for preventing andcountering violent extremism (P/CVE). The center also examines the implications of emerging technologies for extremist activity andcounterterrorism practice.[96]
Within these areas of focus, CTEC develops research initiatives and collaborative projects that are intended to provide insight for policymakers, law enforcement, and nongovernmental organizations. The center’sapplied research model integratesacademic study withpolicy-oriented outcomes, aiming to inform both domestic and international approaches to countering violent extremism (CVE). By combining the resources of a graduate academic institution with practitioner-oriented research, CTEC positions itself as a bridge between scholarship and real-world counterterrorism efforts.[96]
TheJames Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) is an American research center located in Monterey, California. It was founded in 1989 byWilliam Potter, world-renowned expert on nuclear non-proliferation. It is the largest nongovernmental organization in the world dedicated to studying, researching and training specialists in combating the spread ofWeapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Its stated mission is "to train the next generation of nonproliferation specialists." CNS operates offices in Monterey,Washington, D.C., andVienna. These offices offer a variety of programs. In 2007 it was renamed from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in honor ofJames Martin.[97]
CNS publishesThe Nonproliferation Review, adouble-blindpeer-reviewed journal discussing the causes and consequences of Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Weapons as well as their spread. It also focuses on different case studies, reports, and book reviews about many topics: weapons programs, treaties and export controls,CBRNterrorism,disarmament, and others. The review dates from 1994 to the present and is published in different months of the year.[98]
The Inventory of International Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes is a website that provides information related to disarmament, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and arms control. It focuses on treaties, regimes and organizations from different parts of the world that deal with international security topics.[99]
CNS Analysis and Papers is an online website that provides experts' analyzes of non-proliferation, disarmament, and other related topics. Papers are divided according to the regions (Americas, Asia, East Asia, Eurasia/Russia, Europe, Middle East/Africa, South Asia) and are mostly based on current events.[100]
Additionally, CNS provides the public with tutorials and videos where scholars and experts analyze current events related to non-proliferation. TheNukeTube Nonproliferation Multimedia Library provides readers with open public online material.[101]
The William Tell Coleman Library[102] at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies opened in 1955. The library is named after the American pioneerWilliam Tell Coleman, whose family donated money in the early days of the institute. Since its opening, the library has served as a central research hub for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the local community.
The school's first librarian was World War II survivor and Polish Jew Eva Schroeder.[103] The library provides access to a broad range of resources such as technology, collaborative and quiet study spaces, books in different languages, and online databases.
The institute library's collection[104] consists of approximately 100,000 print volumes, more than 600 print periodical subscriptions, and 35 daily and weekly newspapers. The library is well known for its extensive collection of specialized dictionaries in fields such as trade, diplomacy, nonproliferation, and translation interpretation studies. More than one-third of the library's collection is in a language other than English. The most significant are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. It also has a large collection of DVDs and streaming films.
The library subscribes to over 50 online databases and hundreds of online academic journals, including JSTOR, Taylor & Francis, and ScienceDirect. SinceMiddlebury College in Vermont and Middlebury Institute have been under the same umbrella, MIIS students have priority access to Middlebury College's collection through their Interlibrary Loan service.
In April 2002, the institute signed theTalloires Declaration, joining more than 600 universities internationally in committing to sustainable practices on campus.[105] The institute aims to achievecarbon neutrality through a variety of practices, including the purchase of carbon offsets to reduce the institute's environmental impact.[106]
The institute's Sustainability Council was established in 2007 and is composed of faculty, staff, and students. The council's goal is to promote and implement campus-wide sustainability projects and initiatives.[107]
In the spring of 2009, the institute's organic garden was established by students, and subsequently became a student-led community organic garden. Current organic garden projects include a worm composting initiative and the introduction of 1,500 ladybugs and 150 praying mantises as natural pest control measures. Two insect houses have been added in an effort to attract local bees.
Current Sustainability Council projects include a Climate Action Plan, an annual Greenhouse Gas Emission Audit, a student-run organic garden, and planning for future solar panel and EV charging station installation. In May 2019, the institute hosted what some believe may have been the first 100 percent plant-based graduation reception by a graduate school in the U.S.[108] Institute policy requires that all campus events offer at least 50 percent plant-based food options.
Source:[109]
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