IRC's History

We are proud of our history. The IRC was founded in 1979 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The plight of undocumented Mexican workers and the impact of energy development on indigenous communities in the Southwest were the focus of the IRC's early work.

In 1981 we published a book on U.S. relations with Central America called Dollars and Dictators and produced several audio-visual presentations about the conflict-ridden region. Over the course of the 1980s our primary focus was on Central American politics and economic development and the role of U.S. policy in the region. The IRC acquired an international reputation as a leading source of information and analysis on these issues.

Having maintained a focus on U.S. policy in Central America and the Caribbean throughout the 1980s, the IRC turned its attention to the changing U.S.-Mexico relationship in 1990, producing a number of books on politics and development in Mexico as well as on U.S.-Mexico relations.

Through our work on U.S. policy toward Mexico, we developed projects on cross-border organizing and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, including our U.S.-Mexico Project and our Border Information & Outreach Service (BIOS). The work carried out under both of these projects is now consolidated into our Americas Program.

The acceleration of the globalization process during the 1990s prompted us to establish our Global Affairs Program and its flagship project, Foreign Policy In Focus project (FPIF). A collaborative effort between the IRC and the Institute for Policy Studies, FPIF offers policy critiques and prescription aimed at making the U.S. a more responsible member of the global community.

Over the course of the past two decades, the IRC has confronted the ever-changing landscape of U.S. foreign policy to ensure that alternative information and analysis are available to those committed to social change, winning recognition for our ability to bridge the gap between academic research and popular education and between the policy community and activists.

From its early days of planning around the kitchen table and late-night envelope-stuffing sessions to its current use of PDF files, dedicated internet connections, and conference calls, the IRC has creatively adapted to political and technological changes in order to more effectively feed the progressive agenda into policymaking circles and provide activists with crucial analytical tools to make informed decisions, influence public policy, and be instruments of social change.