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COPA and CISSM

Research Projects

PIPA's Foundation Sponsors

PIPA Personnel and Board of Advisors

PIPA's Publications

Jobs and Internships at PIPA

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COPA and CISSM

The Program on International Policy Attitudes is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland.

The Center on Policy Attitudes (COPA) is a group of social science researchers that was established in 1992. Its purpose is to give the public a greater voice in the public policy process by seeking to discern public opinion on public policy and to communicate its findings to the policy community, academia and the press. It does this by:

• Conducting nationwide polls, focus groups and interviews
  
• Integrating its findings together with those from other organizations into a coherent analysis of majority opinion
• Actively communicating its findings

The Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) was established in 1987, and is based at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland. It is located just outside Washington, DC, in College Park, Maryland -- a site that reflects CISSM's roots in the academic community and close ties to the world of policy. By involving faculty, students, and visiting scholars from a wide range of disciplines the Center enlivens and broadens campus discussion. Through its research, conferences, and publications, CISSM reaches beyond the University to the policy community to improve communications between scholars and practitioners.

Research Projects

Since its inception, PIPA has carried out numerous studies of public attitudes on various international topics including:

The Role of the United States in the World
The United Nations
UN Peacekeeping
Foreign Aid
The International Monetary Fund
US Defense Spending 
US Involvement in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti and Somalia
Global Warming
NATO Expansion
Transatlantic Issues
European Unification

For these studies, PIPA has conducted focus groups with representative samples of the public in cities across the country, reviewed existing polling data from other organizations, carried out in-depth interviews with representative samples of the public and conducted extensive nationwide polls.

In addition to its studies of American public opinion PIPA has conducted studies of perception of the public held by members of the American policy community, and comparisons of Americans public opinion with European public opinion on a variety of transatlantic issues.

PIPA's Foundation Sponsors

Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Tides Foundation
Ford Foundation
German Marshall Fund of the United States
Compton Foundation
Carnegie Corporation
Benton Foundation
Ben and Jerry's Foundation
Americans Talk Issues Foundation
Circle Foundation

PIPA's Personnel and Board of Advisors

Steven Kull, Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and the Center on Policy Attitudes (COPA) is a political psychologist who studies world public opinion on international issues. He directs the PIPA/Knowledge Networks poll which conducts ongoing surveys of the US public, plays a central role in the BBC World Service Poll of global opinion and is directing a major study of social support of anti-American terrorism in Islamic countries. His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Policy, Public Opinion Quarterly, Harpers, The Washington Post and other publications. His most recent book, co-authored with I.M. Destler, is Misreading the Public: The Myth of a New Isolationism, (Brookings). He regularly appears in the US and international media and gives briefings for the US Congress, the State Department, NATO, the UN and the EC. He is a faculty member of the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

I.M. Destler, former director of CISSM and chair of PIPA’s Board of Advisors, is Professor at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Economics. He is author of: Presidents, Bureaucrats, and Foreign Policy (Simon and Schuster); and Beyond the Beltway: Engaging the Public in the US Foreign Policy, (co-edited with Daniel Yankelovich, (Norton), and other works. His previous positions include Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution. His articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, Political Science Quarterly, The Washington Post, The New York Times, International Security and other publications.

Clay Ramsay,  COPA Research Director and CISSM fellow, has been with COPA since 1992. With a background in history and psychology, he has focused on the study of ideology and mass psychology. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford University, has taught at Oberlin College, and is the author of The Ideology of the Great Fear (Johns Hopkins).

Stephen J. Weber, Chief Operating Officer of the Center on Policy Attitudes, is a social psychologist. Prior to COPA, he was Executive Vice President at Synovate, a top 10 global survey and market research organization where he headed the Public Sector Research division and the firm's specialized industry groups. He has directed major survey programs for such clients as the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Disease Control, the Federal Reserve and for many Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Weber received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Northwestern University.

Angela Stephens, Managing Editor at PIPA, has a Masters degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and is a candidate for Master of International Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Her background is in international journalism, focused on the Middle East, Africa and the United Nations.

Evan Scot Lewis, is a Research Associate at PIPA. He received his Bachelors Degree at the University of Colorado and his Masters Degree at The American University. As a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Maryland, his research interests have focused on international relations, political economy, and the politics of land use management in Colorado and Maryland. He was a Harrison Fellow and has taught at both the University of Maryland and George Washington University.

Melanie Ciolek, is a Research Assistant. She received her Bachelors degree in international politics from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Her past research interests have focused on presidential leadership in Argentina in the 1990s and U.S. approaches to multilateralism.

Abe Medoff, is a Research and Administrative Assistant. He received a BA in International Affairs with concentrations in Conflict & Security and International Politics from The George Washington University. His research interests include military affairs, terrorism, and Central Asia.

Board of Advisors

IM Destler University of Maryland	Anthony Lake Georgetown University	Gloria Duffy Commonwealth Club
Benjamin Page Northwestern University	William Frenzel Brookings Institution	Robert Shapiro Columbia University
Alexander George Stanford University	Frederick Steeper Market Strategies	Alan Kay Americans Talk Issues Fdtn
Daniel Yankelovich Public Agenda Foundation	Catherine Kelleher US Naval War College

Jobs and Internships at PIPA

Journalist/Editor

A journalist/editor is sought to play a central role in WorldPublicOpinion.org, a new webzine/website published by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA). Applicant must have several years experience writing articles on international affairs or public policy issues for a magazine or newspaper. The ideal candidate will show journalistic imagination in planning story ideas, work effectively with team members, and have experience in editing others’ work. Other desirable attributes include a genuine interest in public opinion and international affairs, experience in writing about findings from polling, and an entrepreneurial spirit. PIPA is a non-profit research organization, affiliated with the University of Maryland, but located near Dupont Circle in downtown Washington, DC. Its mission is to give the public a voice in international issues, both in the US and worldwide. Please e-mail a resume and writing sample to jobs@pipa.org.