The CERI is today France’s principal research center dedicated to the study of international/transnational relations and regional area studies. The CERI’s research agenda is based on the conviction that the study of the globalized world must proceed through a two-pronged approach: area studies and international and transnational relations. The Center brings together scholars from several social science disciplines, among which political science is the best represented, along with sociology, anthropology, history and economics. A dozen or so of the Center’s scholars are specialists of international relations in the strict sense. In area studies, the Center is particularly strong in North Africa and the Middle East, Latin America, the Far East, South Asia, West Africa and the African Great Lakes Region. The Center’s approach to area studies emphasizes fieldwork, empirical and comparative approaches, and the study of rare languages.