The Institute of European Studies seeks to enrich America's understanding of Europe -- its people, developments and challenges -- through the generation and dissemination of distinguished scholarship. As the University of California Berkeley's focal point for the study of Europe, IES brings disciplines together to create new cross-disciplinary understandings of European issues and issues related to Europe and its constituent nations. Today, IES is home to the leading concentration of researchers and teachers on Europe in the Western United States. Along with Harvard and Georgetown, it is among the top three such organizations in the nation.