The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs is an interdisciplinary research center at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Its mission is to promote a just and peaceful world through research, teaching, and public engagement. The institute's research focuses on three main areas: development, security, and governance. Its faculty include anthropologists, economists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians, as well as journalists and other practitioners. The institute is directed by Edward Steinfeld, professor in the Department of Political Science, and director of the China Initiative at Brown University. Location The Institute occupies three buildings surrounding a central plaza located at the southern edge Brown's campus on the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island. The first is a modern and architecturally distinctive building at 111 Thayer Street, designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly in 2001. The second, Stephen Robert 62' Hall, is a glass-walled structure at 280 Brook Street designed by architect Toshiko Mori and completed in 2018. The institute also occupies a 19th-century building at 59 Charlesfield Street renovated in 2018. History The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs was established to fulfill two parallel missions: "to bring international perspective into the life of Brown University, and to promote peace through international relations research and policy." In 1981, with the support and guidance of 1937 Brown alumnus Thomas J. Watson Jr., former chairman of IBM and Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Brown University founded the Center for Foreign Policy Development. The center was formed to explore solutions to the major global issues of the day, foremost of which was the possibility of a nuclear encounter between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1986, the university created the Institute for International Studies to integrate the Center and Brown's other international programs. In 1991, following a $25 million gift from Watson, the institute was rededicated in his honor. Originally housed in five separate locations on campus, the institute's programs moved into a single building at 111 Thayer Street, designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, in January 2002. 2014-2019: Expansion In 2014, the Watson Institute merged with the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, which had previously been housed in the Department of Political Science. Speaking of the motivation behind the merger, then–director Richard M. Locke cited the increasingly inseparable nature of domestic and foreign policy. In 2015, the Institute received a $50 million gift to expand facilities and hire