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AS OF 2013, THE IPRD CEASED FORMAL OPERATION. THIS WEBSITE AND THE RESEARCH, REPORTS AND ANALYSIS PUBLISHED HEREIN REMAINS ARCHIVED AS A FREE PUBLIC RESOURCE
The Institute for Policy Research & Development (IPRD) is an independent non-profit research organisation for transdisciplinary security studies, analysing violent conflict in the context of global ecological, energy and economic crises. The IPRD works to promote equality, sustainability and security. Founded in April 2001 in Brighton, a UN Peace Messenger City, in the UK, the Institute moved office to the heart of London, Marylebone, in July 2005, where it currently operates as a voluntary global collective of specialist scholars, scientists, and analysts, working in different fields of the social and physical sciences.

The IPRD analyses conventional and unconventional threats to human, national and international security as global crises including, but not limited to, anthropogenic global warming, environmental degradation, hydrocarbon energy depletion, food scarcity, economic instability, social structural inequalities, international terrorism, violent extremism, military interventionism, psychological distress, and political breakdown.

The IPRD’s uniquely transdisciplinary approach to these issues aims to examine them holistically as interconnected crises symptomatic of structural problems of the global political economy. IPRD research is designed to help bridge traditional disciplinary divides in the social and physical sciences, so as to develop new interdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual frameworks which can aid understanding of the inherently interdependent origins and trajectories of global crises.

The IPRD thus collaborates with researchers at the cutting-edge of diverse academic disciplines, facilitating constructive and critical interdisciplinary dialogue in support of innovative joined-up thinking about the historical and contemporary crises facing modern industrial civilization. This approach allows the development of holistic local, regional and global policy solutions relevant to diverse constituents: the general public, civil society organisations, government agencies, international institutions, as well as the financial and business community.

Unlike other think-tanks which focus purely on the policymaking community, the IPRD aims explicitly to provide a grassroots service promoting the education and empowerment of the general public, by developing local educational activities, cultural events and diverse written and audiovisual materials, through which to disseminate academic and policy research to a mass market audience. The IPRD believes firmly that strong democracies require informed publics, and therefore that good research deserves to be widely read and understood. It thus aims to increase public understanding of social and global crises, as well as to encourage public engagement and participation in research processes, campaigning and lobbying for progressive social change.

Currently, the IPRD operates as an unincorporated association, and is funded entirely through sales of publications and donations.

The opinions published by the Institute do not necessarily represent those of the members of the IPRD Advisory Board or Staff. Reproduction of news articles is purely for educational purposes under Fair Use terms.