The Center for International Studies, which coordinates and supervises the University of Chicago's international programs, has grown out of the University's seven-decade-long involvement in the study of international phenomena. In the 1930s the first Committee on International Relations in the United States was founded at Chicago and since then the University has remained a key innovator in the study of other cultures, launching area studies centers, various interdisciplinary and collaborative projects and committees, and educational outreach programs. The center is committed to fostering multidisciplinary and interregional discussions in the work of developing new tools to deal with emergent international situations.