Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies - BCIS

The Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies is a tertiary level education institution specializing in offering an array of courses in the discipline of International Relations and its sub disciplines.

The institution’s unique academic posture has enabled the BCIS to be a key policy think tank in affecting the creation, facilitation and dissemination of knowledge

The Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies was inaugurated modestly on 9th December 1974 in a section of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall complex, where the historic Fifth Conference of Heads of States and Governments of the Non-Aligned Nations was held in August 1976. The Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) was the brainchild of late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first female Prime Minister who became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the first time in 1960. It was with great passion and dedication that she pioneered and nurtured the BCIS since its inception. The BCIS was conceptualized at a time when the subject of International Relations had not taken precedence as a fundamental area of study among the Sri Lankan student populace. The need was for an institution where international affairs could be studied as thoroughly as they are studied in universities elsewhere. It could be stated that during her tenure as Prime Minister from 1970-1977, it was a glorious time in Sri Lanka’s history of foreign relations, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike herself played a monumental and notable role in international affairs. It is indeed laudable that Mrs. Bandaranaike should have envisioned the pre-eminence that the study of international relations would achieve in future years, with the emergence of shifting global trends and power blocs that has transformed it from an exclusive subject of political science to a specialized field of study.

The BCIS was established by the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike National Memorial Foundation (BNMF) as a distinct institute specializing in all aspects of International Relations, including training, research and advanced studies. The specialty of its courses is evident in a projection of a national, regional and developing country perspective to the study of international relations, international law and diplomacy. International Relations has come to embrace many areas of study, including International Relation Theories, International Politics, International Law and Human Rights, Diplomacy and International Trade.