The Centre for Global Studies was founded in 1996 as an autonomous body inside the Social Market Foundation (www.smf.co.uk) and then called the Centre for Post-Collectivist Studies. As the Centre for Post-Collectivist Studies it published a number of books, including Francis Fukuyama, The End of Order (1997), Robert Skidelsky ed. Capital Regulation: For and Against (1999), Mauricio Rojas, Millennium Doom (1999) and two important essays by the Hungarian economist Janos Kornai, From Socialism to Capitalism (1997) and Welfare after Communism (2000). The Centre also held a variety of conferences on global issues and was responsible for publishing Russia on Russia, a quarterly journal based on the proceedings of the Moscow School of Political Studies (http://tmp136.vokrug.info/). In 2002, the Centre became full autonomous and was renamed the Centre for Global Studies.

The Centre for Global Studies is a registered charity no.1094442 and a company no. 4375608 limited by guarantee.