The Nitze School of Advanced International Studies is the new host institution of the U.S. office of the Civic Education Project, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening democracy and civil society in former communist societies.

Throughout the last decade, CEP has sent hundreds of U.S. academics to Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on one-year fellowships to teach social science, law and journalism in universities. Currently, more than 220 fellows are teaching at nearly 100 universities in 10 country and regional programs.

CEP was founded in 1991 by graduate students at Yale and Harvard who wanted to help universities in former communist countries reform their teaching methods and curricula in the social science fields. Yale previously housed the organization's U.S. office.

"We are very excited about joining the SAIS community, as both organizations have strong expertise in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, plus a commitment to hands-on reform in the region," said Tom Wood, director of the CEP North American Office and formerly a CEP fellow at the American University in Kyrgyzstan. "We look forward to working closely with SAIS on engaging and sustaining academic interest in this region, which continues to be vital for long-term U.S. interests."

CEP oversees several other programs including its innovative Local Faculty Fellowship Program, one of the only initiatives that offers fellowships to professors in Central and Eastern Europe to help them continue working in academia in their home country. CEP focuses its support on younger academics who have studied in the West and who want to enter, and remain in, higher education in their region.

Headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, CEP operates programs in more than 20 former communist states from the Czech Republic to Mongolia. The organization receives its principal funding from the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute. Additional support is provided by a variety of international organizations, foundations, corporations, governments and individuals.

For more information about CEP, go to www.cep.org.hu.