History

In 1997, ETH International Relations professors Juerg Martin Gabriel and Thomas Bernauer, together with Kurt R. Spillmann, ETH professor for Security Politics and Conflict Research, and Dieter Ruloff, University of Zurich professor for Political Studies, founded the Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS). Shortly thereafter, this group was also joined by Ulrich Kloeti, University of Zurich professor for Domestic Policies.

The CIS mission statement called for an interdisciplinary center for International Studies which would span across the respective areas and institutions where the members taught. The center and its members would foster collaboration in the areas of research, teaching, organisational structure, and national and international outreach.

The Center today counts approximately 30 faculty members and roughly 150 PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and other scientific and administrative staff from relevant areas within ETH Zurich’s Department of Social Sciences and Humanities and the University of Zurich’s Department of Political Science. 

The CIS also has it's own Masters Program in Political Science. The curriculum concentrates on questions of democracy, political violence and conflict resolution, political economy, and policy areas related to sustainable development. Professors may either come from the ETH Zurich or the University of Zurich. Especially in the electives area, students have a broad range of options.