The Centre for International Research (CERI) at Sciences Po was founded in 1952 and was then called the Centre for International Relations Studies. In the synergy they created at the Centre’s very beginning, its founders, Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, an historian of diplomacy, and Jean Meyriat, a theoretician and practitioner of the information sciences, sought to encourage forms of inter-disciplinarity that continues to underpin the CERI’s research agenda. At a time when the dynamics of international relations were little studied in France, their goal was twofold: to better understand foreign nation-states and to analyse their interactions.

Under the direction of Guy Hermet (1976-1985), one of France’s most eminent sociologists and political scientists the centre adopted a new name—the Centre for International Studies and Research—to reflect its increasing openness to comparative political science research and the comparative analysis of foreign political systems. This nuanced re-orientation reflected the growing need to fully understand, through in-depth research, major changes in the international environment including the end of the Cold War and accelerated globalisation. However, from this time, it was felt that the studying of global trajectories, also required analysis of  local crises. Under the enlightened leadership of two internationally recognised Area Studies specialists—Jean-Luc Domenach (a political scientist, historian and Sinologist, 1985-1994) and then Jean-François Bayart (a specialist in the comparative historical sociology of especially African politics, 1994-2000)—the creative tension between the study of International Relations and that of the study of very localised socio-political phenomena became embedded at the heart of the CERI’s research agenda.

In the 2000s, as a result of the synergy created between a further two distinguished internationally recognised scholars—Christophe Jaffrelot (a political scientist and specialist in South Asia, 2000-2008) and then Christian Lequesne (a political scientist and Europeanist, 2009-2013)—the CERI both strengthened and deepened its interdisciplinary approach. History, sociology, anthropology and political economy became part of the diverse palette of the research frameworks employed by its scholars. The importance given both to field research and the elaboration of sophisticated empirical approaches, became a hallmark of the CERI. Underpinning this was the stress placed on constantly reinforcing the linguistic skills of researchers within the Centre.

In order to provide greater coherence and visibility to the extraordinary research output of its members from 2014 onwards, under the direction of Alain Dieckhoff (a political scientist with a focus on nationalism and Israeli-Palestinian issues), the CERI adopted a new structure based on a focus on major research themes. While consolidating its teams working on the Maghreb, the Middle East, Latin America, the Far East and South Asia, the centre significantly strengthened its expertise in the field of African studies. At the same time, it broadened its expertise to embrace the fields of foreign policy, diplomacy, defence and security, multilateralism and environmental issues.

Since January 2024, the centre has been headed by Stéphanie Balme, a political scientist with the background of a Sinologist with a research focus on scientific diplomacy, global China and China-US-EU relations. Today, in building on an over 70-year tradition the CERI remains proud of its transdisciplinary identity. Never complacent in  going forward, the CERI places an increasing focus on the dynamics of the global South, combining international relations, regional studies, political theory, international pollical economy and comparative politics.

Since 1967 the CERI has been associated the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) the overarching public body for research in all areas in France. In 2002 It was recognised as a semi-independent research centre (UMR) in its own right.  The CERI adopted its present name, the Centre for International Research, in 2015. This renaming reflects a vision of the ‘international’ as a global space, to be analysed through a dual approach involving a focus both on transnational relations and regional studies. Open to society but resolutely focused on fundamental research, CERI is now a major player in social science research on the contemporary world.