12 Our Global Reach SFS students intern all over the world.
Edmund A.Walsh School of Foreign Service
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY • 2014-2015
SFS is published regularly by Georgetown University's EDMUND A. WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE , in conjunction with Washingtonian Custom Media, a division of Washingtonian Media (washingtoniancustommedia.com). We welcome feedback and suggestions for future issues. Please contact Jen Lennon, Assistant Director of Communications, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Intercultural Center 228, 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20057; by phone at 202-687-5736; or by e-mail at jll87@georgetown.edu. Website: sfs.georgetown.edu
10 Student Profiles
Meet three standout SFS students.
14 Showcasing Alumni
Two alums on their SFS global career paths.
26 Meet Our Faculty Professors discuss terrorism and Russia.
32 Alumna Spotlight
One SFS graduate on her work in Colombia.
“The
atmosphere at
SFS...
had a familiar international environment, a community and critical mass of foreign students.”
—STÉPHANE DUJARRIC, BSFS ’88
16 Global Security
SFS’s combination of interdisciplinary and on-the-ground research covers a wide scope of terrorism and global security issues.
22 Pledge for Humanity
SFS students and faculty debate the best way to carry out Responsibility to Protect in the wake of a humanitarian crisis.
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Search for our SFS Alumni & Student Network and Georgetown International Affairs Alliance groups vimeo.com/georgetownsfs
Revered Dean Emerita Carol Lancaster
On October 22, 2014, Dean Emerita Carol Lancaster (SFS ’64) passed away after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in November 2013. She was 72.
To many, Lancaster was more than just the dean of the School of Foreign Service. She was a powerful and influential presence on the Georgetown campus for more than three decades.
“Her extraordinary passion for this place, for her students and their growth, for the School of Foreign Service, and for our role both in Washington and around the world was inspiring and pushed us all to be better versions of ourselves,” said Georgetown University president John J. DeGioia.
Lancaster graduated from the School of Foreign Service in 1964 and won a Fulbright Scholarship to Bolivia. Afterwards, she pursued a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics. She worked at the Department of State and as deputy administrator of USAID, where she traveled with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to developing countries during her time as First Lady.
“She was feisty, determined, committed to making a difference. She would say, ‘my greatest vice and my greatest virtue is my impatience.’”
—AMBASSADOR MELANNE VERVEER, Executive Director of GIWPS
At the memorial service for Lancaster, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) executive director Melanne Verveer recalled when Lancaster served as the USAID expert accompanying Hillary Clinton on Clinton's first solo trip to five countries in South Asia. Verveer was chief of staff to the First Lady at the time. “[Carol] was smart, unpretentious, a great storyteller,” she said. “At one moment she’d blurt out the statistics for maternal mortality in Nepal or Pakistan, and in another she would render a veritable dissertation on the medicinal qualities of spicy food.”
Lancaster broke down barriers for women in international affairs throughout her life and career. She was one of only 30 women in a class of 148 as an undergraduate at SFS, the first woman deputy administrator at USAID and the first woman dean of the School of Foreign Service.
“Carol Lancaster was one of the pioneering wom-
“As a teacher, she translated her enthusiasm by engaging young minds and encouraging her students to be global citizens.”
Former Secretary of State MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
en in international affairs who... broke glass ceilings, pushed open doors and helped new generations of women to develop and thrive in places and roles that had been proudly and exclusively male,” said SFS visiting professor Katherine Marshall. “She showed that a woman executive and thinker could be as tough-minded and as demanding as any man.”
“The world has lost a true champion for human development and women’s progress.”
Former Secretary of State HILLARY CLINTON
During her tenure as dean, which began in 2010, she launched two new master’s programs in Global Human Development and Asian Studies. She was committed to forwarding women’s rights and issues, and oversaw the creation of GIWPS. She also authored 10 books, including Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics (University of Chicago Press, 2007) and Transforming Foreign Aid: United States Assistance in the 21st Century (Institute of International Relations, 2000), as well as numerous articles.
Despite standing barely five feet tall, Carol Lancaster was a force to be reckoned with. Six-foot three Georgetown College dean Chester Gillis joked
“She was excited to teach and even to learn from us. She believed that we would change the world.”
—SARAH MINTZ, MGHD ’14
about their difference in height. “Carol always called me Decanus Maximus … and I called her Decana Minima because she was so diminutive,” he said. “Her love for Georgetown and its students inspired me. Georgetown will go on, but it will not be quite the same without Carol’s leadership.”
Lancaster is remembered for her exuberance, persistence, intelligence, determination and wit.
“Our two offices were connected by a large wooden door,” said interim dean James Reardon-Anderson at the memorial service. “That door would burst open, and in would come Carol with some... idea—that she was going to establish a new master’s in global human development or she was going to create an Institute for Women, Peace and Security… Everything she did, she did full tilt.”
Lancaster is survived by her husband, Curtis Farrar, her son Douglas Farrar (SFS ’05, G ’12), her stepchildren Cynthia, John, Erin and Andrew Farrar, seven grandchildren and a daughter-in-law, Katie (Killoren) Farrar.
A DEFINING CAREER (from top left): Lancaster's SFS yearbook photo; speaking at USAID’s Frontiers in Development forum at Georgetown; with Susan Rice in 2013; Commencement 2010 with University president John J. DeGioia and Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla (G ’89).
Dear Friends,
I’m sure that our late dean and beloved colleague, Carol Lancaster, would have wanted to personally share with you the second edition of the SFS Magazine, which features our most recent commencement speaker, former Secretary of Defense and holder of a Georgetown University PhD in Russian History, the Honorable Robert M. Gates. Secretary Gates told the 2014 graduates of the School of Foreign Service that the United States must apply both “hard” and “soft” power in a complex and challenging world and reminded them of the need for our newest alumni to continue the tradition of “service” at home and abroad.
In line with the themes outlined by Secretary Gates, we focus this edition of our magazine on the
topic of international security. In our lead article, three professors comment on security challenges in the Middle East and East Asia: associate professor Colin Kahl (who was recently named national security advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden), Georgetown director of Asian studies and former director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council Victor Cha, and director of the Center for International and Regional Studies in our branch campus in Qatar Mehran Kamrava. Associate professor of science and technology Joanna Lewis explores China’s response to a different security threat coming from global climate change. And visiting professor Catherine Lotrionte discusses the connections between law and security. We also provide a sketch of associate professor of security studies Elizabeth Stanley, a former captain in the US Army who has done path-breaking work on the nexus between warfare and stress.
A separate article deals with the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P), a doctrine adopted by the United Nations in 2005 to protect populations against genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the wake of the Rwanda and Bosnia crises. A panel discussion held last spring to celebrate the work of former SFS professor and Holocaust witness, Jan Karski, featured current SFS faculty, Anthony Arend, Robert Egnell and Melanne Verveer, who talked about the manner in which Karski’s legacy lives on in this timely and still controversial doctrine.
There is more in this edition of our magazine, and in our work during the past year, which I will leave you to explore and enjoy. Our purpose is not to describe all we are doing, but to give you a sense of how the School of Foreign Service seeks to remain at the cutting edge of international affairs and to prepare future leaders for service in what lies ahead.
James Reardon-Anderson Interim Dean
A Distinctive Undergraduate Degree
Freshmen enroll in a Proseminar during their first semester at SFS, where classes are no more than 15 students. Each Proseminar covers a research topic unique to the professor teaching the class. In past years, these topics have included “Islam and the West,” “The Rise of Global Capitalism,” and “Water.”
The Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) launched a new course— “Holocaust by Bullets,” which looks at the lesser-known chapter of Jewish genocide during World War II across Soviet territories—taught by world-renowned scholar Reverend Patrick Desbois and PJC associate director Reverend Dennis McManus.
THE CARROLL ROUND is an SFS conference that provides students the opportunity to present original research on international economics.
The Walsh Exchange is one of two undergraduate research conferences organized by School of Foreign Service students and hosted on campus. It provides students a formal opportunity to interact with other young scholars and showcase their original research on international institutions, international politics and security, and area studies.
Three first-year students are selected to become Mortara Undergraduate Research Fellows, who will engage in a four-year project designed to hone their research skills with the help of a faculty mentor.
The Dean’s Leadership Fund is critical to SFS’s ability to:
INVESTING IN SFS
Dear alumni, friends and supporters,
I am writing as chair of the School of Foreign Service Board of Visitors, alumnus and parent to report on the sustained success of the University’s “For Generations to Come: The Campaign for Georgetown,” as well as this past year’s impressive fundraising effort for the SFS Dean’s Leadership Fund.
I am delighted to report that as we enter our fourth year of the public phase of the Campaign, we have raised a total of $1.3 billion towards the University’s goal of $1.5 billion.
Last December, we saw our revered Dean Carol Lancaster stricken with brain cancer. The news hit us hard and we saw an outpouring of well wishes when she stepped down to focus on her treatment.
Explore new educational frontiers
Sustain academic excellence
Serve our students and stay connected with our alumni
Support student research and work experience
Carol had accomplished a tremendous amount in her five year tenure, creating transformative institutions and graduate programs that will remain part of her legacy to the School. As we transition to a new dean (by fall 2015), we have been fortunate to have been stewarded by Interim Dean James Reardon-Anderson, a long-time member of the SFS faculty and the first dean of the SFS Qatar campus.
At the spring Board of Visitors meeting, the board decided to establish a Carol Lancaster Scholarship, awarded to the highest-ranking student in the entering class of the Global Human Development master’s program. $100,000 was contributed to cover the program for the first recipient that started in September, and efforts are starting to endow the scholarship so that it is maintained in perpetuity. Thanks to board member Steve Buffone for spearheading this effort.
This Dean’s Leadership Fund report gives you an overview of our successes and to acknowledge your contributions. Moreover, as you scroll through the second edition of the SFS magazine, you will come to know our latest plans and priorities—and the breadth of our reach as an institution—as well as the remarkable students and faculty profiled here.
As you may know, the Campaign for Georgetown benefits the entire university community. But the Dean’s Leadership Fund gives SFS the flexibility to support key initiatives such as faculty research, student internships and career opportunities—all vital strengths requisite to preserving the School’s preeminence in these turbulent times.
Because of your support, our students have greater access to high-quality educational experiences; our faculty is able to engage in more critical research projects and our programs provide more extracurricular activities for students in tandem with their formal learning than ever before. Your contributions are vital to guarantee excellence in education. Your support maintains our reputation as one of the top-ranked schools of international affairs in the world year after year.
Contributing to the Dean’s Leadership Fund indicates that you understand the challenges and opportunities facing SFS. It underscores your commitment to ensuring the School will help educate the next generation of global citizens. Interim Dean Reardon-Anderson, our faculty and staff, and the Board of Visitors pledge that, with your help, 2015 will be no less impressive. We are sincerely grateful for your support.
With best wishes,
Paul F. Pelosi, BSFS
’62, P ’88, ’89, ’91
Chair, SFS Board of Visitors
212
INTERNSHIPS
$ 149,281 $ 777,000 SCHOLARSHIPS
20 have been pledged for the ’14-’15 school year
$549,273 funded student internships last summer in scholarship funding was given during the academic year will fund scholarships and internships this year
BOARD OF VISITORS School
Mr. Paul F. Pelosi, BSFS ’62, P ’88, ’89, ’91, CHAIR
Mr. Thaddeus T. Beczak, BSFS ’72
Ms. Olga Maria Campano Beeck, BSFS ’81, P ’15, ’17, ’18
Ms. Nicole M. Bibbins Sedaca, MSFS ’97
Mr. Philip M. Bilden, BSFS ’86
Mr. Kevin P. A. Broderick, P ’05
The Honorable Edward P. Brynn, BSFS ’64
Mr. Steven P. Buffone, BSFS ’80, P ’11, ’14, ’15
Ms. Maria Teresa Alvarez Canida, BSFS ’75, P ’07, ’11
Mr. Stephen D. Cashin, BSFS ’79, P ’10, ’13
Mr. John C. Colligan, BSFS ’76, P ’07, ’14
Mr. Anthony R. Coscia, BSFS ’81, P ’10, ’12
The Honorable Paula Dobriansky, BSFS ’77
Ms. Patricia M. Duff, BSFS ’76
Mr. G. Robert Gage, Jr., BSFS ’77, L ’80, P’16
Ms. Amy Rauenhorst Goldman, BSFS ’86
Mr. Antonio Gracias, BSFS ’92, MSFS ’93
Mr. Andrew Gundlach, BSFS ’93, MSFS ’94
The Honorable Maura Harty, BSFS ’81
Ms. Joan Hill, P ’16
Mr. Edward J. Hoff, BSFS ’77, P ’15
Mr. Thomas Kalaris, P ’09, ’14
Mr. Matthew J. Lustig, BSFS ’82
Mr. George M. Marcus, P ’91
Mrs. Virginia L. Mortara, P ’04, ’09
Mr. Mitchell Rutter, P ’12, ’14
Mr. Yunho Song, BSFS ’86
Ms. Susan Swanezy, BSFS ’81
Mr. George Tenet, BSFS ’76, P ’10
Mr. C.C. Tung, P ’93, ’97
Ms. Sarah Von Thun-Hohenstein, BSFS ’82, P ’15
MOOC 2.0
SFS embarks on a new massive open online course, this time covering terrorism. by RIN-RIN YU
In October, SFS opened its virtual doors to thousands of students from around the world through an online course called “Terrorism and Counterterrorism.”
It’s the second massive open online course (MOOC) that SFS has offered. Designed to reach students all over the world and from all backgrounds, the course covered a wide range of terrorism-related topics over an eight-week period. The free course was a partnership with online course platform edX under the school’s MOOC brand, GeorgetownX.
“This course may be different from most MOOCs because the subject is very controversial,” says Daniel Byman, the lead teacher and a professor in the Security Studies Program. He points out that the student body itself creates diverse opinions, due to “a broader range of perspectives. [There are] people from around the world with different backgrounds: not just nationalities, but education and professional interests.”
Topics covered include defining terrorism, exam-
ining different groups such as Al Qaeda and Hamas, the links between terrorism and religion, terrorist recruiting, emerging issues such as cyberterrorism, counterterrorism tools, and the political context that terrorism fills. Byman hopes students gain an understanding of the terrorists’ logic and how to apply that logic to weaken or defeat them.
Last year’s SFS MOOC, “Globalization’s Winners and Losers: Challenges for Developed and Developing Countries,” attracted more than 34,000 students from 150 countries. It was so successful that the course was offered again this October. “Terrorism and Counterterrorism” joins GeorgetownX’s other courses, including “Intro to Bioethics,” “Genomic Medicine Gets Personal,” and “The Divine Comedy: Dante’s Journey to Freedom.”
While a MOOC can’t replicate the many benefits of learning in a classroom setting, it does have advantages, Byman says. In a normal class, Byman would be the only instructor. But in a MOOC, “if there’s an area where I’m weaker, I can call upon an expert to teach that particular segment.” For example, he says, the segment on Islam is taught by Jonathan Brown (C ’00), a professor in Islamic studies and Muslim-Christian understanding and John Esposito, director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. EdX, which hosts all of Georgetown’s MOOCs, was created in 2012 as a joint partnership between Harvard and MIT. It now works with 47 universities and organizations from around the world, including Georgetown, the Smithsonian Institution, and the International Monetary Fund. Classes come with weekly assignments and coursework. Students can audit classes or earn a certificate in a subject area.
VIRTUAL CLASSROOM Lead MOOC professor Daniel Byman strengthens his online “Terrorism and Counterrorism” course with expertise from other faculty.
Ten Years of SFS-Q
Gerd Nonneman, Dean of the School of Foreign Service in Qatar, describes a decade of growth.
Q: How have the courses taught changed over the past ten years?
A: Since the BSFS in Doha is the very same degree as for the rest of the cohort in DC, the core curriculum has always been identical.
What has changed over the years is the much increased diversity in the curriculum, both by adding the International Economics and International History majors and by adding electives. Among the latter, two things drove the range of additional choice: the interests of our expanding faculty and a focus on issues of particular relevance for (or resources to be found in) the region we find ourselves in. So courses on Gulf politics, Iranian foreign policy, or comparative revolutions, say, have been taught alongside others on conflict resolution and mediation, and topics focused on the Middle East: history, media and culture, secularism, and the problem of
identity. And we offer courses unique to Doha that are more generic but attract special interest in Qatar and the region.
Q: What are some other ways that being located in Doha has impacted the evolution of SFS-Q?
A: Being based within a region brings exposure to media, people, fellow students, culture, and public events, inevitably makes for a very different experience and perspective, as well as very different resources for students as much as for faculty. Since the students are typically working on matters of direct national or regional relevance, their being embedded within this region is invaluable.
Our physical proximity to international, regional, and local institutions also working in Qatar provides our students wonderful opportunities for internships and other types of collaborative partnerships that they wouldn’t have access
to otherwise. At the moment we have for-credit internship arrangements with Brookings, Blue Rubicon, the US Embassy and, soon, Qatar Museums. More broadly, we’re enabling cross-registrations with the other world-class universities present in Education City and even have one joint program. These days, it helps that SFS-Q has become a major magnet for local, regional and international leaders as a forum to put their views before an interested audience.
Q: What are some plans for the next ten years?
A: We hope to build on the momentum we’ve generated so far:
1. Further build our research
2. Pursue innovation in teaching and learning
3. Explore additional programs—certificates and majors, graduate programming, and both on our own and in collaboration with others
“Our campus began [in 2005] with two dozen students and a handful of faculty members. Today, GU-Q is a vibrant multicultural community of almost 300 students, over 50 faculty and 140 staff, [with] worldclass research, the country’s best public library, [and activities] serving the local community.”
4. Expand our wider regional linkages, and expand teaching, research and collaboration particularly on Asia, and on Asian-Middle East relations
5. Strengthen further our contributions to other parts of Qatar’s human development ambitions
We hope to do this while leveraging our location and local assets for the benefit of Georgetown as a whole.
Q: Any plans for anniversary celebrations?
A: With so many faculty and staff members putting Georgetown’s values into practice every day here while living so far from home, we want to celebrate what they’ve accomplished. Look out, among other things, for a major scholarly conference, and a substantial book commemorating SFS-Q’s decade of being Georgetown in the Middle East.
Meet Our Students
EAST MEETS WEST
SFS master’s student Lara Crouch bridges the US-Asia diplomacy gap. by RIN-RIN YU
Lara Crouch was always interested in international affairs and public service, but it wasn’t until she took an eight-week intensive language program in Shanghai and traveled through China and Japan that she really grasped how complex diplomacy in Asia could be.
A second-year master’s student in Asian Studies, Crouch spent a summer in China after she graduated from the University of Virginia. At SFS, she focuses on Asian security issues and explores cybersecurity and diplomacy as a junior fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. She’s working on a paper to be presented in April 2015 that will address the questions of which cyber issues are most relevant to the United States’ Asian partners and how
the US can engage in cyber diplomacy.
At the University of Virginia, she took four years of Mandarin, which furthered her interest in Asia-US issues. While she traveled through China she spent time “talking to normal people just like me, students and teachers,” and realized how they have a very different perspective than she does on the issues where China and the US have the most disagreement.
“China is a civilization with thousands of years of history, and America is a little under 250 years old. Chinese people would point out this difference to me,” she recalls.
“Many Chinese see us as a new player in the region.”
“The implication of that for US-Asia relations today is that many Chinese see the American presence in the region as an anomaly when viewed in the context of thousands of years of history. The United States is a Pacific power with important and enduring interests in Asia, but many Chinese see us as a new player in the region where their country has traditionally been the center.”
Before coming to SFS, Crouch worked on Asian programs at two think tanks: the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It was during her work as a research assistant, surrounded by experts and scholars working on various policy issues, that she decided to pursue graduate studies at Georgetown.
During her studies at SFS, she has read a lot of scholarly articles, particularly during her thesis seminar taught by Victor Cha. The articles “helped shape my thinking on the region’s future,” she says. “I discovered different lenses through which you can frame some of the problems in the region.”
This summer, Crouch interned at the Department of Defense in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, working with the Strategy and Force Development team on a number of projects related to Asia-Pacific issues. She had some “real-life policy experience and the opportunity to interact with people who deal with important issues on a daily basis” while honing the skills required for what Crouch hopes will be a career in government with a focus on strengthening the Asia-US relationship.
ROLE-PLAYING REAL LIFE
Senior Nicolo Dona Dalle Rose learns the art of diplomacy in an SFS simulation. by REBECCA NELSON
Nicolo Dona Dalle Rose had to think fast. He and the rest of the Lebanese delegation to the international summit were in talks about where to send more than a million Syrian refugees. Lebanon couldn’t sustain the influx of people left homeless from the civil war in Syria, and needed them out of the country in three months. Midway through the talks, the Lebanese delegates got word from Beirut that, in a stunning coup, the terrorist group Hezbollah had taken over the government. Things were tense, but Dona knew everything would turn out okay. After all, the conference wasn’t real: SFS’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy organized the daylong simulation so students could take a crack at tackling a major diplomatic crisis. About 30 students represented various parties, such as Syria, the United Nations, and an international nongovernmental organization.
Dona, a senior studying international politics, played the part of a Lebanese diplomat working to find a compromise
“Finding a compromise is very hard.”
with diplomats from other nations. Former ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly led the exercise, working with Dona and his team to find a compromise to the refugee crisis.
“We had to find that elbow room between the limitations of our government and a need to find compromise,” he says. “It was like a tug of war in which we were pulled by two sides. We had to understand where to place ourselves.”
Dona has a unique perspective on foreign policy. An international student from Milan, Italy, he became interested in the Middle East after arriving at SFS, learning Arabic so he could one day work in the region.
He got his first taste of Syrian politics up close when he studied in Amman, Jordan, last fall. His host family were Syrian Christians aligned with Bashar al-Assad’s regime. They watched Syrian propaganda and Russian state television constantly. He took it as a chance to see the situation from a new, often-ignored perspective, looking at it “through two lenses at the same time,” he says. He brought that same understanding to the simulation on Syria.
“However much you may be limited, it’s always good to put yourself in the shoes of other people,” he says.
Though it was only a simulation, he says it was important for him to get that real-world application. Talking about the theory of foreign policy in a classroom is important, but there’s nothing like being placed in a position to put theory into practice.
“The simulation gave an answer to the students who think, ‘What’s wrong with these people who can never have peace?’” Dona says. “When you put yourself in the various parties’ shoes, you understand that it gets complicated. Finding a compromise is very hard.”
THE STUDENT VETERAN
SFS undergrad Chris Allen brings his experiences in the military to the classroom. by REBECCA
NELSON
Chris Allen isn’t the typical Georgetown undergraduate. A junior studying international politics with a concentration in security studies, he doesn’t live in a dorm and only rarely eats in the dining halls.
A military veteran, Allen was 30 years old when he arrived on campus for his sophomore year after transferring from the University of Colorado. As an 18-year-old, he had gone to community college in his hometown of Iowa City, Iowa.
“I wanted to take a look at the world from a macro level.”
But his heart wasn’t in it. Then, only a year into school, September 11 happened.
“That was a big deal when you’re 18 years old, to see that happen,” he says. “I just felt a duty to serve my country.”
He dropped out of school and joined the army. After three years of training, he became a green beret, doing two tours in Iraq and then working at an embassy in Niger.
He’d never intended to make the army his career, and after 9 1/2 years, he decided he needed to “pull the trigger and get out.” His service at the US Embassy in Iraq, where he’d been able to talk with the ambassador and other diplomats, had piqued his interest in international relations.
“I got to understand, at a very micro level, how the international environment works,” Allen says. “When I was in Iraq,
I was in a city, understanding city dynamics and what was going on between people and different ethnic groups and different government entities within that city. And in Africa, it was similar. I wanted to take a look at the world from a macro level.”
Allen was worried about coming to campus with a unique background, as well as the prospect of taking classes with “18-year-old kids who have no perspective on the world”—like him before he went into the army. But, he says, he was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of students at SFS. Though they were younger, they had a grasp on international affairs he admits he didn’t have at the same age. His peers have been similarly admiring of Allen, encouraging the reserved student to talk more about his experiences in war.
Aside from sharing about his time in the army, he’s learned that being a veteran has helped him better understand his SFS curriculum.
“I didn’t have any schooling or experience in international relations, so I just saw how people [in Iraq and Niger] interacted and what they did,” he says. “Now, I can reflect on those experiences. That helps me especially understand international relations theories, because I’ve got a backdrop to place those all into.”
Around the World
KEY
Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service
Master of Science in Foreign Service
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies
Christopher Sullivan Center for Research and Popular Education/Peace Program
SSP
WASHINGTON, DC Evan Coutts Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, US Dept. of Treasury
GHD PRAIA, CAPE VERDE
Jessica Bluestein Millenium Challenge Corporation
MSFS LA PAZ, BOLIVIA Sean Suter Inter-American Development Bank
CLAS ASUNCIÓN, PARAGUAY
Richard Portwood Centro de Estudios Ambientales y Sociales
MSFS
PARIS, FRANCE
Kimberly Yarborough US Commercial Service
CGES FRANKFURT, GERMANY
Prane Wang Bank of New York Mellon
CERES
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA
Jaime Cordes
Global Youth Connect
MSFS
KIEV, UKRAINE
Steven Sunderland
Western NIS Enterprise Fund
CCAS RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
Xuhui Sun
Research on LGBTQ Advocacy Groups
MSFS
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Daniel Granot
Israel Council on Foreign Relations
BSFS
KIGALI, RWANDA
Allison Heymann GU Impact
CCAS
ANTAKYA, TURKEY
Noga Malkin
Hayata Destek (Support to Life)
CERES
TBLISI, GEORGIA
Helen Burns
Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies
GHD AMMAN, JORDAN
Lena Alfi Mercy Corps
NEW DELHI, INDIA
Suzannah Dunbar World Bank
ASIAN STUDIES
BEIJING, CHINA Yasmin Fouladi
Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy ASIAN STUDIES
CGES
SHANGHAI, CHINA
Aaron Filous IPSOS Business Consulting
YANGON, MYANMAR
GHD
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
Amy Sticklor Futures
MSFS
DAR-ES SALAAM, TANZANIA
Manish Padhiar
Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited
BSFS
WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA
Cherrie Chung
ThinkImpact Institute for Social Innovation
BANGKOK, THAILAND
Thiranat Sucharikul The Nation
SINGAPORE
Adrien Diarra
INTERPOL Singapore SSP
Sarah Maksoud UNODC Myanmar Office
ASIAN STUDIES
DILI, TIMOR-LESTE
Scott Wingo World Bank
Where Do Students Spend the Summer?
Whether taking classes or working as interns, SFS students spread out each summer to learn from leaders all over the world.
Showcasing Alumni
INTERNATIONAL MESSENGER
Stéphane Dujarric (BSFS ’88) applies diplomacy skills he learned at Georgetown to his everyday work at the United Nations.
by BEN NUSSBAUM and RIN-RIN YU
In what must be an understatement, Stéphane Dujarric describes his job as “never boring.”
As the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he meets daily with the Secretary-General, manages a staff that keeps track of everything happening at the UN, and engages with a diverse and “very, very well-informed” press corps. During the course of his day, Dujarric speaks English, French (his first language), and Italian (which he studied at Georgetown).
At the UN he witnesses scenes that take place almost nowhere else. Reporters from countries that are close to war with each other “sit together and, I would add, behave very well,” Dujarric says. “You have Iranian state TV and Israeli radio. You have Lebanese journalists close to the Hezbollah line and those very much against it.”
SPEAKING TO THE WORLD
Stéphane Dujarric uses diplomacy skills gained at SFS when managing the UN Press Corps.
Dujarric followed a winding career path to the press office. After graduating from Georgetown he went to Paris with the goal of being a journalist. “I wound up doing odd jobs,” Dujarric admits. “I couldn’t crack the media scene.” Finally, he landed a job with ABC News in Paris. What was supposed to be a short-term job
helping investigate the Iran-Contra story turned into nine years with the network. He reported from all over Europe and Asia, covered the Pope on several trips, and went to Somalia, the Balkans, Congo, and other areas of humanitarian crisis. But after leaving Paris to move to New York with his wife, Dujarric “had it in my mind to look for something else.” In 2000 he left ABC to join the UN as an associate spokesperson.
Switching from journalist to press secretary was a radical change. Dujarric was rattled the first time a journalist came into his office and started writing down everything he said. “When you’re a journalist, you make mistakes,” he says. “It can usually be corrected with a retraction. But when you speak for an organization, a mistake can have real life consequences. I had to, very quickly, learn a lot of discipline.” In 2005 Dujarric was promoted to Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s spokesperson, a position he had until 2006. After spending seven years holding other jobs at the UN, Dujarric returned to the role of the spokesperson for the Secretary-General earlier this year. At his first press briefing he was asked about chemical weapons in Syria, cholera in Haiti, the possible disintegration of Ukraine, peacekeepers in South Sudan, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and Iranian missiles in Gaza. The job is not easy, but for Dujarric, “it’s a privilege.”
“What I really love about this place is the people I work with,” he says. Dujarric has moved back and forth between France and the United States, and he says the UN is a natural home for what he calls “misfits” who straddle two cultures. “For those of us who are bicultural, it’s a place where your background is appreciated but not questioned.” His colleagues at the UN all have “their own interesting backstory.”
Dujarric is working with SFS to set up a Georgetown network at the UN. “It’s another natural home for SFS graduates as a place to practice diplomacy or humanitarian issues,” he says, noting the increasing number of Hoyas who work there. “The UN is a huge organization that, on an international level, deals with just about every aspect of our lives: peace and security, social issues, labor, gender, science, and health. It’s a great place to really test what you’ve learned at Georgetown.”
A Colombian Connector
Juliana Garcia Vargas (MALAS ’07) is a link between the military, the private sector, the police, and the community.
by BEN NUSSBAUM
Colombia has a lot of problems, but we’re advancing toward a solution. It’s not easy.”
If anyone understands the problems Colombia faces— and the country’s untapped potential—it’s Juliana Garcia Vargas, the director of infrastructure and public safety in the Ministry of Defense.
decades of conflicts.
But Garcia Vargas’ job isn’t as simple as verifying a handful of claims to a few abandoned farms. According to Human Rights Watch, more than five million Colombians have been internally displaced. Adding to the complexity is the fact that local paramilitary groups pose a serious threat to returning landowners. “The first step to return the land is to have security in the land,” Garcia Vargas says, and she calls herself the link between the police and the returning owners.
nizations have well-trained, well-armed, and well-financed military wings. In particular, Garcia Vargas works closely with companies in the gas and energy sectors that are making large investments in infrastructure, often in areas with security problems. “I am the link between the private sector and the army forces,” she says.
FINDING POTENTIAL
Juliana Garcia Vargas balances infrastructure development within conflict zones in Colombia.
Garcia Vargas, who earned a master’s in Latin American Studies in 2007, is on the front lines of the effort to create a more stable and prosperous Colombia. One of her responsibilities is to direct the fraught process of land restitution, restoring land to Colombians who have been displaced during
The satisfaction in Garcia Vargas’ voice is obvious when she describes seeing people return to their property—but she can’t afford to dwell on her success. Land restitution is just one part of her portfolio.
Garcia Vargas is also charged with helping private companies do business in Colombia—a country where the rebel groups FARC and ELN have been battling the military for five decades and an array of competing (and sometimes cooperating) criminal orga-
Garcia Vargas has one additional responsibility: directing the Colombian government’s cybersecurity efforts. “I work hard,” she admits with a smile. In addition to long hours and weekends in the office, Garcia Vargas frequently visits conflict zones—sometimes traveling five days a week. And she can’t escape her work at home: After an attack, she is one of the first people in the Colombian government to receive a phone call.
It’s clear that Garcia Vargas sees herself as someone who brings people together. She describes her job as “to make easier the relationship between the community, the private sector, the military, and the police.” She savors “the opportunity to know the people, to talk with the people, to know the country,” pointing out that she is much more open-minded and flexible because of her many conversations with Colombians around the country. She has a special affection for the Colombian military: “To know the soldiers is an amazing experience, because there are a lot of stories there.”
Garcia Vargas would like to see Colombia become a regional leader. It is the second-most populous country in South America and is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and natural beauty. “The country has a lot of opportunities to have an excellent economy and to have social development,” she says, “but we need to have peace.”
THE MANY FACES OF SECURITY
Whether it’s green technology in China, diplomacy in Syria, or cybersecurity, SFS experts stay on top of a constantly evolving field.
by BEN NUSSBAUM and SARAH KELLOGG
Protection from threats,” is how Colin Kahl, an associate professor in the security studies program, defines security. “But,” Kahl continues, “that begs two questions: What kinds of threats, and who are you protecting?”
The answers to those questions are evolving. During the Cold War, security studies focused on protecting the nation-state from a large-scale military attack. While the fall of the Soviet Union allowed scholars to broaden the field and ask fresh questions about security, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 created a renewed focus, this time on terrorism.
Now, 13 years after 9/11, a consensus is emerging that while terrorism should remain a primary concern, there are many other aspects of security that deserve renewed attention.
One recent trend in security studies looks back to its roots. There are “traditional security threats that we need to pay a lot
Robert Gates on the Balance of Powers
“A separated Internet is not good for any economy or any state. We need an open, operable, and free Internet.”
—CATHERINE B. LOTRIONTE
response to Syria’s displaced population during an impending peace process. SFS faculty and military, academic, and diplomatic professionals guided their work, including Maura Connelly (BSFS ’81), a former ambassador to Lebanon and a senior State Department fellow at SFS’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
“The students learned that the solutions to crises are multifold and have a political, social, and economic impact globally,” says James P. Seevers, director of Studies and Training at SFS’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. “With cases such as the Syrian refugee and internally displaced scenario,
Handling world crises is a delicate balancing act. There’s hard power—the brute force of the military. And there’s juxtaposing soft power—diplomacy—with it.
To Robert Gates (G ’74), former Secretary of Defense whose tenure spanned five years and two presidents (George W. Bush and Barack Obama), laying out the “full toolkit” of powers is the best method to managing global security. “I have been a strong advocate of soft power, of the critical importance of diplomacy and development as fundamental components of our foreign policy and national security,” Gates told graduates in his commencement address at SFS this past spring.
Gates, who received his PhD from Georgetown in Russian and Soviet history and spent his career as director of the CIA and later as Secretary of Defense, says in an interview that today’s “multiplicity of challenges” is best handled with long-term strategies in mind. “We don’t have the kind of cataclysmic faceoff we did with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but we have all these different geographic challenges to face simultaneously,” he says.
He ticks off a list of countries and regions currently undergoing turmoil—Crimea, Ukraine, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria, political instability in the Middle East, China’s re-emergence and tension on its borders, Ebola in West Africa, cyberhacking and worldwide terrorism. It’s a mounting burden of global
situations that eight people in a situation room can manage from a day-to-day basis, but not beyond that. It’s critical, Gates says, to develop a plan for years down the road. “Putin could be in power for another ten years,” he points out. “And how are we going to deal with all these crises in the Middle East in ten, 20 years?”
Going to war is one approach, but should always be the “last resort for America.” Training students in applying soft power is key to maintaining America’s global leadership and protecting civilians around the world from tyranny and oppression. However, balancing it with hard power is “the ultimate guarantee against the success against aggressors and dictators and terrorists,” he said in his commencement address.
“Around the world, men and women seeking freedom from despotism, want, and fear, will continue to look to the United States for leadership,” Gates told the SFS graduates. “So it falls to you, the next generation.” —RIN-RIN YU
for example, the students found that the effects of humanitarian efforts ripple beyond the intended recipients.”
“[China is] using [climate change] as a way to transform their economy in strategic industries that will be important going forward.”
—JOANNA I. LEWIS
The mock negotiations among the stakeholders, including regional states, humanitarian organizations, and other political entities, mirrored situations faced daily by global humanitarian and security professionals. “During the exercise, students have the opportunity to practice diplomatic negotiation skills, crisis decision-making, and learn very intensively about an important area of the world and international relations,” says Seevers.
While Syria is one current center of conflict in the Middle East, the region’s recent history has made it a focal point for security studies scholars. SFS is present in the region, with a physical campus in Qatar.
“It’s a vast and complicated world out there, and the best policy is to engage it from within,” says Mehran Kamrava, professor and director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at the Qatar campus. “It’s this global engagement that is the most
Mindfulness, Resiliency and Survival
When US Army intelligence officer Elizabeth A. Stanley finished her tours of Europe and Asia, she left the service with the rank of captain—and with a case of post-traumatic stress disorder.
While recovering, the associate professor of security studies adopted a rehabilitation tactic of mindfulness meditation to tame the brain’s response to prolonged turmoil and violence. Over the last decade, Stanley’s work unraveling the relationship between stress and neuroscience led her to develop a mindfulness training
that is used today by the US military, law enforcement agencies, and corporations.
Stanley’s instruction teaches individuals how to rewire their brain’s fight-or-flight response through meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises. Research has proven that the training can lessen depression, regulate emotional responses, and improve cognition and memory.
Stanley says her work at SFS illuminates the often-shadowy line in security studies between policy decisions and the real-life effects of those decisions on individuals. Her work
serves two purposes—helping SFS students understand the stressors faced by individuals on the frontlines in diplomacy and war and helping them learn how best to handle stress in their careers in global security.
“We are trying to train the future leaders and stewards of this planet in a variety of different realms,” Stanley says. “Stressful endeavors come up daily, and you want the people dealing with these problems to have the most resilience possible to cope with these issues.”
SARAH KELLOGG
PHOTOGRAPH OF STANLEY BY PHIL HUMNICKY
rewarding aspect of Georgetown’s presence in Qatar. It is representative of the level of globalization. It’s not an abstract concept anymore, but rather it’s serious engagement with the world.”
“It’s a vast and complicated world out there, and the best policy is to engage it from within.”
—MEHRAN KAMRAVA
Although academics in the West have focused on the region, Kamrava says, “Hardly anybody talks to regional policymakers to get their sense of how they see security. I decided I wanted to talk to the people on the ground.”
Kamrava traveled to Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia to meet with foreign ministers, academics, journalists, and commentators to learn more about their assumptions about threats to the region.
One insight gained from his travels is that the future of the Persian Gulf is colored by its distant past. “One of the things that was impressed upon me in Iran is the historic context for the great powers involvement in the Persian Gulf,” says Kamrava, noting that Portugal, Spain, England, and the United States have all played various roles there. “It’s a history that contributes to how Iranians perceive superpower involvement. Superpowers have had their eyes on the region for some time, whether for spices, pearls, or oil. The actors may be different and the competition is over different resources, but the presence is still the same.”
There’s one aspect of security studies where historical context is almost nonexistent. Every spring Georgetown convenes experts in the field for its annual International Engagement on Cyber conference. Policymakers, academics, and industry stakeholders come together to explore the global community’s increasing interconnectivity—and divisions—in this field.
“We’re trying to do more untraditional things at SFS by bringing the private sector, both international and domestic, together to talk about cyber,” says Catherine B. Lotrionte (MA ’99, G ’08), director of the Georgetown Institute for Law, Science and Global Security. “By facilitating this discussion, we hope to advance global norms to create a more stable cyber arena.”
Lotrionte says the focus isn’t just on the technology involved but also on the legal and policy issues associated with cyberspace. Some of those issues include tackling how international law addresses the use of force in the context of war in the cyber domain; reining in corporate cyber espionage conducted by both private actors and nations; settling the laws on cyber issues between nations; and incorporating civil society protections into global cyberspace.
“We need to manage the technical aspects of how the Internet actually operates so we don’t end up with states Balkanizing their Internet,” says Lotrionte. “A separated Internet is not good for any economy or any state. We need an open, operable, and free Internet [in the future].”
The future, of course, is what security studies is all about: protecting the future is the common thread that brings together all the aspects of the field.
“People who come into security studies want to make the world a better place,” Kahl says. “In particular they want to make the world a safer place.” While SFS gives its students knowledge and a set of analytical frameworks, what Kahl most values is “a process of mind.” SFS trains its graduates to be “smart enough to ask the right questions and have the analytical tools to study up and address those questions in a rational and rigorous way.”
It’s a “time of unbelievable change in the international system,” Kahl says. “On one level, we’ve never been safer. We don’t face an existential threat. We’re the largest economy on earth, we have the most powerful military on earth, and we’re surrounded by two immense moats.” At the same time, there’s a “huge sense of vulnerability because of turmoil in the world,” and the US has expansive interests and faces pressure to be a world leader.
The next major trend in security studies will be shaped by unknown future global events. SFS will be ready to respond and continue educating future leaders in the field.
Colin Kahl was named Vice President Biden’s new National Security Advisor after his interview for this article took place.
Responsibility to Protect
Can the UN’s Responsibility to Protect fulfill the historic humanitarian post-WWII pledge?
SFS and its world-renowned faculty are ready to answer that question—and prepare future leaders for the challenges it presents.
by GARY THILL
In 2011, Libya was about to join the growing list of countries that have descended into protracted violence and slaughter. The Gadhafi regime was conducting widespread attacks against civilians that were “gross and systematic violations of human rights,” according to a United Nation’s report. Despite international efforts that included a no-fly zone and sanctions, fears rose that Gadhafi would double down on his attacks and commit crimes against humanity. The specter of that genocide triggered a doctrine called the Responsibility to Protect. With the required unanimous vote of the UN Security Council (though Russia and China notably abstained), the UN authorized member states to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. NATO planes quickly bombed Gadhafi’s forces into submission, freeing Libya from his grip and saving countless thousands.
On the face of it, the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, commonly called R2P, worked exactly as intended. Did it mean that R2P would be the solution the world had sought since the Ho -
A LONG ROAD AHEAD
locaust to make good on the “never again” promise?
The aftermath of the action in Libya highlights the complex parallel promise and peril of R2P. Although civilians were spared Gadhafi’s wrath, some members of the international community quickly charged that R2P had wrongly been used for regime change, rather than protecting civilians. And when another, arguably more serious, test of R2P’s effectiveness came in the form of the ongoing violence and chaos in Syria, China and Russia did not remain on the sidelines: They voted against invoking R2P to allow military intervention. Today, war-torn Syria, with its burning cities, more than 100,000 deaths, and nearly 10 million refugees, has become a reminder of R2P’s limitations.
Yet despite these setbacks, many scholars remain optimistic about R2P and the promise it represents. Mixing politics, philosophy, laws, and morality, R2P is a vital, albeit flawed and often misunderstood, tool for stopping some of the worst crimes against humanity. While SFS experts don’t all agree on the spe-
cifics, they agree that the school is positioned to prepare future leaders for the challenge and opportunity R2P represents.
“In classes, we can raise difficult issues students hadn’t thought about,” says Ambassador Mark Lagon (G ’91), MSFS global politics and security chair. “For example, is sovereignty the most important thing to protect, or is the inherent dignity of people so important that if there’s mass killing and rape, the world has to act?”
Genesis of a Doctrine
In many ways, the debate about preserving sovereignty versus preserving human life and dignity drove the development of R2P. Horrified by genocide first in Rwanda, then in Bosnia—and the international community’s failure to respond—Kofi Annan asked the question: “If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unaccept-
Refugees from Côte d’ Ivoire seek safety in eastern Liberia after tensions mounted following a presidential election .
able assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica—to gross and systematic violations of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?”
Inspired by this question, the Canadian government formed the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which envisioned a right or obligation to intervene when a government did not prevent—or worse, fomented—mass killing and atrocities. This concept was called the Responsibility to Protect. The United Nations World Summit unanimously adopted the concept in 2005, although it was amended to focus on mass atrocity.
Military intervention under R2P is the last resort and requires formal action by the United Nations. This means to authorize a military operation, nine out of the 15 members of the Security Council must vote in favor of the resolution authorizing the operation, and each of the five permanent members must either vote in favor or abstain. If any of the permanent members votes against, the resolution is not adopted. For many SFS experts, the fact that military intervention must be authorized by the Security Council is arguably the most vexing and limiting aspect of R2P in today’s conflicts. Yet the doctrine still represents dramatic progress for human rights.
“[R2P] allows people to think differently about what states are doing,” says Anthony Arend (BSFS ’80), professor of government and foreign service and director of the MSFS program. “Before, if I said to a representative of a state, ‘Why are you committing these horrible atrocities?’ They could say, ‘It’s none of your business.’ But now we can say to state officials, ‘You have a responsibility to protect the people within your borders.’”
That said, Arend is the first to insist that while R2P creates important “normative expectations,” it is not a law, nor does it create any new laws. “There is no obligation that flows from R2P that doesn’t already exist somewhere else,” says Arend. “It’s very clear that if a state is not fulfilling its responsibility, other states can work through existing institutions and organize to take action.”
Traditions and Tensions
R2P’s call to protect highlights familiar tensions within the international system. Those tensions—prevention versus intervention; sovereignty versus individual rights; Global South versus Global North—go back to the founding of the UN itself, argues Robert Egnell, director of teaching with the Security Studies Program. “On the one hand, [the UN] seeks to protect the state at all costs, and on the other to protect the individual. R2P tries to solve that and address that challenge.”
Still, he says, tensions about R2P inevitably arise, especially as nations weigh international political interests and humanitarian ideals. But Egnell says that R2P itself can’t solve the problem. “[People] don’t quite understand the tension built into this system and the UN itself. We can’t blame a concept like R2P for the nature of international politics, and we can’t argue that R2P can somehow miraculously wipe out the built-in tensions in the UN.”
Rather than seeing this seeming contradiction as an impossible conundrum, Egnell and others say that R2P is doing its job just by highlighting the tensions that exist.
“It is the state structure and institution that is the threat in
Remembering R2P Pioneer Jan Karski
Late SFS professor and Holocaust witness Jan Karski’s (G ’52) life was dedicated to the principles of the Responsibility to Protect before the doctrine even existed. He worked to convince President Franklin Roosevelt to stop the ongoing Holocaust. After the war, he wrote a bestselling wartime memoir, Story of a Secret State, that detailed the horrors he witnessed—and the international community’s repeated failure to intervene.
Karski went on to earn his PhD at Georgetown, where he served as a distinguished SFS professor for 40 years, instructing world leaders such as Bill Clinton. In 1985, he completed his magnum opus, The Great Powers and Poland: from Versailles to Yalta, a comprehensive examination of superpowers’ roles in shaping Poland’s fate. Throughout
his life, Karski spoke out on behalf of oppressed people everywhere, hoping to prevent the horrors he witnessed from happening again.
April 24 was declared Jan Karski Day by the US Senate to honor his 100th birthday. A staged reading of a new play, Remember This: Walking with Karski, at Georgetown featured Academy Award nominee David Strathairn and an ensemble of Georgetown students and alumni.
SFS also hosted an R2P panel discussion featuring SFS faculty Anthony Arend, Robert Egnell, Melanne Verveer, with Interim Dean James Reardon-Anderson serving as moderator.
“In many ways, Jan Karski was the pioneer of this principle that is now so much tested in international affairs,” Reardon-Anderson said.
many, many countries,” he says. “So if we focus on the individual, the state isn’t the solution at all. It’s the problem.”
Egnell admits that this is a Western-biased viewpoint. Members of the Global South have called R2P just another mechanism for neocolonialist intervention or regime change. The Iraq War only intensified that suspicion, he and others contend.
“When you label something an R2P situation, people immediately think it’s a military situation,” says Mario Buil-Merce (MSFS ’99), political affairs officer in the UN’s Office of the Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and on the Responsibility to Protect. Buil-Merce says this is one of the biggest misconceptions about R2P. He quotes a popular saying at the UN: “R2P is not about regime change. It’s about changing regime’s behavior.”
Humanitarian ‘Ground Troops’
To be truly effective, intervention needs to be less focused on military action and more focused on stopping atrocities before they spin out of control, says Melanne Verveer (I ’66, G ’69), director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. And in that effort, women have a vital role to play. Verveer calls the globe’s female population humanitarian “ground troops,” and their condition is often the first warning signs of atrocities. “Often in conflicts, women are the first victims,” she says. “It is often their condition and what is happening to them that is the first sign of what’s to come.”
As such, women also suffer most when atrocities happen. Verveer says that worldwide, women account for the majority of civilian deaths and upwards of 70 percent of the world’s displaced people. Increasingly atrocities involve sexual violence against women, yet amnesty for those crimes is often the first agreement parties come to when hostilities end.
Rather than seeing women as victims, Verveer calls on the UN and the international community to start viewing them as active participants in building peace and security. “Women do have agency. They do have voice. They are linked to peace and security. They are paying an enormous price on the ground. But we can’t leave it at that. They have much to bring to the table.” She points to the instrumental rebuilding work women did in Rwanda and Liberia as an example of the role they can play.
Asked whether this view is Western-biased, Verveer counters, “You cannot abrogate someone’s human rights on the basis that a culture says it’s okay to abuse her. Culture is not immutable.”
Creating Change
The kind of global change that “never again” demands is possible. That change is happening through R2P and SFS luminaries such as Verveer. She and others say preparing future generations to take up that banner is what the SFS program is all about.
Focusing on R2P ideals fits into Georgetown's values and traditions. “There is something about the Jesuit tradition, about worrying about the fundamental dignity of people and questioning the behavior of people in government,” says Lagon. “The Jesuit tradition is one of free inquiry, asking the question: ‘What must the international community do when atrocities are occurring?’ And speaking plainly when vested interests get in the way.”
'A
HIDDEN LIFE OF PRAYER'
A PASSIVE ACTIVIST FOR PEACE
Sister Benedict S. McLaughlin, OSB (BSFS '83) pursues human rights in a decidedly different way than most —as a passive activist for peace.
How did your SFS experience lead to your path as Benedictine nun? I worked with the wonderful faculty, adjuncts, and guest speakers in a way that allowed me to see the limitations of individual human efforts. No matter how important and influential a person might be, the inevitable obstacles to or failures in implementing plans, realizing dreams, and attaining peace were always there. Why? We are all human—we have limitations, prejudices, and faults.
How does your service as a nun relate to efforts such R2P? The role of a contemplative is to intercede with a source of peace—God—on behalf of all those individuals who are working for (and against!) peace, for all those in need, for the sick, the suffering, the abandoned. This does not mean that individual human efforts are futile—far from it! But we believe that by our own hidden life of prayer, sacrifice, and intercession, somehow we can touch the heart of God to stretch out his hand to strengthen those working, so to speak, in the trenches.
What does it mean to be a “passive activist” for peace and security? By seeking to live in peace in the microcosm of the monastery, the contemplative hopes to radiate that same peace out into the macrocosm of the world. As Pope Francis recently said, human effort, while absolutely necessary, is not sufficient. Thus, it is above all in our life of prayer, and in the prayer of our lives, that we believe the secret to peace lies, for by these means we reach the very Author of peace.
THE SCIENCE OF TERRORISM
ing terrorism. It’s important to study the policy implementation and bureaucracy as much as the theoretical perspectives, he explains. “You’re talking about real life issues that have bearing on the well-being of individuals,” he says. “After all, that’s what public policy is about.”
Professor Bruce Hoffman examines the ever-evolving strategies behind terrorist planning. by
From wanted posters of terrorists to an Osama Bin Laden Barbie doll in fatigues, Bruce Hoffman’s office is a testament to the SFS professor's study of terrorism.
Hoffman has been researching terrorists—their purpose, strategy, organization, and most importantly, their evolution— for nearly four decades. As director of the Security Studies Program at SFS, he teaches master’s students about terrorism and insurgency, often drawing from his acclaimed 1996 book Inside Terrorism. He developed an interest in the subject during his own graduate studies at Oxford.
“What really fascinated me was how governments were constantly saying that terrorism doesn’t work,” Hoffman says. “But to an extent, it did work. It attracted attention to their causes and enabled them to thrust their issue on the world’s agenda.”
His career path after Oxford has taken him to the RAND Corporation, the CIA, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the US Military Academy. Recently, he was selected to serve on a panel to review the FBI’s implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. That includes looking at terrorism’s evolution since 9/11.
“Terrorist groups that survive are really learning organizations that are constantly studying the countermeasures used against them and adapting and adjusting to overcome them,” Hoffman explains. “The media tends to portray [terrorist acts] as mindless, irrational acts of violence, when in fact, there’s a strategic logic to them.”
Terrorists are always attached to a political agenda, he says, whether they act as a part of a group or alone. And even though terrorism has been going on for millennia, the events of 9/11 changed its course.
“It had worldwide strategic repercussions,” he says. “After 9/11, we understood that terrorists had that power.”
RIN-RIN YU
Hoffman was in an office across the street from the Pentagon when the hijacked plane hit, and he recalls how the air conditioning unit began sucking in the smoke from the fire that erupted after the crash.
Hoffman wrote papers in 1989 and 1993 that analyzed terrorism’s shifting nature. He wrote that terrorism would evolve from having secular motivations to more religious ones, with unconventional weapons such as biological agents leading to murder on a grander scale. “Terrorists know we only pay attention when there are body bags,” he says. “Violence is communication.”
Hoffman encourages students to think about government strategy when analyz-
The security studies program is larger than ever before, and growing. More students are taking an interest in studying terrorism, including students outside of Georgetown. He's teaching a slew of new virtual pupils as a lecturer in the massive open online course (MOOC) this fall, which focuses on terrorism and its countermeasures. And he just finished two books. One analyzes the major attacks and events from 9/11 until Bin Laden’s death, while the other focuses on how terorrism affected British policy on Palestine.
Despite the nature of his work, Hoffman says he’s never felt threatened. But he remembers when, in 2003, Al Qaeda’s Saudi Arabia branch issued a list of types of people to target. Not only did the list include diplomats, policymakers, and soldiers, but it also specified terrorism specialists and scholars.
“Terrorists know we only pay attention when there are body bags.”
It’s understandable, Hoffman says, that people will focus less on terrorism as time goes by without a major attack. He's quick to say that people shouldn’t have to live in constant fear and paranoia. For Hoffman, that’s reason to continue training the experts who will keep terror at bay.
BATTLING BRAINS Terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman says insurgent groups are learning organizations bent on refining their strategies.
UNDERSTANDING UKRAINE Charles King (left) and Angela Stent (below) translate the complexity of the Ukrainian situation for their students.
TEACHING CHAOS IN REAL TIME
Two SFS professors address the crisis in Ukraine in the classroom. by REBECCA NELSON
When Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula earlier this year, Charles King realized he had to veer from his syllabus.
The international affairs professor was teaching an introduction to comparative politics course. He had been watching the region closely, especially since last fall, when protests, initially over a failed agreement with the European Union, started flaring up in Ukraine. By late February, Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, had fled the troubled country. Soon Russia would annex Crimea, creating what many scholars have deemed the worst crisis in the region since the Cold War.
To help his students understand Russian president Vladimir Putin’s land grab, King gave them a bit of cultural context: A powerpoint on Ukraine for Russian elementary school teachers, straight from Russia’s Ministry of Education. It emphasizes the long-term historical ties between the two countries, and the injustice of Crimea, which used to be part of Russia, now belonging to Ukraine.
“Every part of the world has its own version of common sense,” King says. “You have to have faith that [people on the other side] have formed an opinion about the world that makes sense to them. And then, if you think it’s the wrong opinion, you have more ammunition to counter it with. But you’ve got to understand it.”
Growing up on a cattle farm in Arkansas during the Cold War, King wanted to be different, and a guaranteed way to set himself apart was being interested in communists. His first time out of the country was to Moscow in 1987. A few years later, the country that he was studying fell apart. A life member on the Council of Foreign Relations, he’s written six
books on the region, and he's conducted research in Istanbul, where he was a Fulbright scholar.
Meanwhile, on her own Fulbright, government and foreign service professor Angela Stent taught in Moscow. When she returned to Georgetown, Stent, the director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, started using videoconferencing to facilitate discussions between her SFS students and students in Moscow. It’s a chance for students from two very different cultures to interact, ask questions, and try to relate to each other, she says.
She had found that opportunity herself when she visited the Soviet Union while she was an undergraduate at Cambridge University. Although she didn’t speak a word of the language during that first visit, Russia has captivated her ever since.
“It’s a country that’s very important to try to understand,” Stent says. “It has such contrast: a wonderful culture, wonderful literature, but a very difficult political system. And it always surprises you.”
Last December, as the crisis in Ukraine escalated, she could feel increased tension between the Georgetown and Moscow students. Stent knows how important the relationship between the US and Russia is—she wrote a book on it. The Limits of Partnership: US-Russia Relations in the Twenty-First Century came out in January, shortly before Russia invaded Crimea.
“This is the worst crisis since the end of the Cold War in US-Russian relations,” Stent says. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but this is really the worst down that we’ve had.”
King agrees, pointing out: “You don’t want nuclear powers not getting along with each other.”
That’s just a piece of the complex situation the two professors are trying to help SFS students comprehend. Even though Georgetown’s campus can feel far removed from conflicts in Eastern Europe, King says caring about distant issues is at the heart of a global affairs education.
“You don't want nuclear powers not getting along with each
other.”
“We’ve really succeeded if someone becomes passionate about something they have absolutely no business giving a damn about,” he says. “It’s that ability to throw yourself into another part of the world and care about its history and its culture and its language and the way its people interpret the world that’s different than the way you interpret the world.”
C. Christine Fair has published Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War. Fair argues that Pakistan will remain a destabilizing force in world politics due to the army’s persistent pursuit of revisionist policies that have come to imperil the very viability of Pakistan itself. By analyzing the army’s publications, Fair argues that the army believes Pakistan can be victorious as long as it can resist India’s drive for regional hegemony and as long as it rejects the territorial status quo.
UPDATES
01
Anthony Clark Arend and Mark Lagon recently published Human Dignity and the Future of Global Institutions. The book examines how traditional and emerging institutions are already advancing human dignity, and then identifies strategies to make human dignity more central to the work of global institutions. Contributors explore traditional state-created entities, as well as emergent hybrid institutions and faith-based organizations. Concluding with a final section that lays out a path for a cross-cultural dialogue on human dignity, the book offers a framework to successfully achieve the transformation of global politics into service of the individual. Lagon was also recently named president of Freedom House.
02
Abraham Newman has recently published three articles: With Henry Farrell, “Domestic Institutions Beyond the Nation-State: Charting the New Interdependence Approach,” in World Politics 66(2): 331; with David Bach, “The European Union as Hardening Agent: Soft Law and the Diffusion of Global Financial Regulation,” in Journal of European Public Policy 21(3): 43052; and with David Bach, “Domestic Drivers of Transgovernmental Regulatory Cooperation,” in Regulation and Governance 2014
03
Michael David-Fox’s co-edited volume, The Holocaust in the East: Local Perpetrators and Soviet Responses, was released by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The volume contains an introduction by David-Fox, “The Holocaust as Part of Soviet History.” David-Fox is a 2014-2015 Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He recently published (in Russian) “Reflections on Stalinism, War, and Violence” in Oleg Budnitskii and Liudmila Novikova, eds., The USSR in World War II: Occupation. Holocaust. Stalinism. He also published “The Iron Curtain as Semi-Permeable Membrane: The Origins and Demise of the Stalinist Superiority Complex,” in Cold War Crossings: International Travel and Exchange Across the Soviet Bloc, 1940s-1960s, ed. Patryk Babiracki and Kenyon Zimmer.
Charles King brings to life an era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism with Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul. In Istanbul—an ancient crossroads and Turkey’s largest city— people were looking toward an uncertain future. During World War II, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII.
Robert Egnell’s book
Gender, Military Effectiveness, and Organizational Change: The Swedish Model, provides an analysis of how the military in Sweden has affirmed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts as well as in post-conflict reconstruction. Egnell’s study looks at the Swedish armed forces as a case of mainstreaming a gender perspective, conducting training, and establishing specific gender-related functions within the armed forces.
04
Emily Mendenhall published three articles: “Reorienting Women's Health in Low and Middle Income Countries: the Case of Depression and Type 2 Diabetes” in Global Health Action, “Depression and Type 2 Diabetes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review” in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, and “Acceptability and Feasibility of Using Non-Specialist Health Workers to Deliver Mental Health Care: Stakeholder Perceptions From the PRIME district sites in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda” in Social Science & Medicine
05
Jacques Berlinerblau published an article “‘Imagine That!’ Philip Roth’s Threshold Scenes: The Case of the ‘Femme Fatale’” in Philip Roth Studies, Vol. 10. (Spring 2014). His essay “Do We Know Philip Roth?” was published April 7 in The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. In March, he gave a lecture at the annual meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association titled “Secularism, Jewish Literature, and the Return of the Sacred.” Earlier this year, Berlinerblau delivered a talk on secularism for the Council on Foreign Relations in the Roundtable on Religion and US Foreign Policy series.
06
Joanna Lewis’ book Green Innovation in China: China’s Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy was awarded the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award by the International Studies Association at its 2014 convention in Toronto.
07
John Esposito received Georgetown University’s 2013-14 Distinguished Career Achievement Award. Esposito also served as series editor of two encyclopedias that were published in the Oxford Library of Islamic Studies: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, ed. Emad El-Din Shahin, and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam, ed. Ibrahim Kalin.
Susan Martin has published International Migration: Evolving Trends from the Early Twentieth Century to the Present, which examines how efforts to increase international cooperation on international migration have evolved from the early twentieth century to the present. The scope of the book encompasses all of the components of international migration: labor migration, family reunification, refugees, human trafficking and smuggling, and newly emerging forms of displacement.
James Vreeland has published The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence, which investigates the ways governments trade money for favors at the United Nations Security Council. Vreeland argues that powerful countries extend financial favors to elected members through direct aid and through international organizations. In return, developing countries serving on the Security Council must deliver their political support or face the consequences.
Jonathan A.C. Brown has published Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy, which examines the history of how various significant as well as controversial parts of Islamic law were developed. Contrary to popular misconception, much of Islamic law was codified by Muslim scholars after the founding of the religion. Brown explores the texts that are used to determine Islamic law and illustrates the tension between scripture and modern life.
An impressive array of political leaders and thought leaders visited SFS in 2014.
CIA Director Speaks at Agency’s First Public National Security Conference
JUNE 12, 2014
The 67-year-old Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is facing historic challenges that affect national security and the transparency of intelligence collection, the agency’s director said at Georgetown.
“Today—and certainly not for the first time in our history— America’s intelligence community is at a crossroads,” said CIA director John O. Brennan at the agency’s first public national security conference. “The transformational impact of technology and enhanced scrutiny and skepticism of the value, legality and appropriateness of our mission have prompted a reexamination of the work of intelligence agencies, understandably and rightly so.”
The all-day conference, “Ethos and Profession of Intelligence,” was co-sponsored by the university’s Security Studies Program in Georgetown’s historic Gaston Hall. A host of panelists at the conference explored a number of topics, including the status of intelligence work in the 21st century, intelligence and the private sector, cybersecurity threats, and the balance between secrecy and transparency.
Former FBI director Robert Mueller delivered the conference’s introductory remarks. Mueller, who began his tenure as FBI director one week before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, detailed how the FBI transitioned its priorities to counterterrorism and counterintelligence during the start of his 12-year tenure.
“No longer could our metric [for success] be the number of arrests, the number of indictments, the number of convictions, but how well we were doing developing sources, putting up wires [and] answering that one question: What are you doing to prevent the next terrorist attack,” said Mueller, who just completed a year as Georgetown’s first distinguished executive-in-residence.
NATO Secretary General Visits Georgetown for Ceremony
MARCH 19, 2014
It is more dangerous to be a woman in some places in the world than it is to be a soldier, NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a Georgetown audience after receiving an award for his leadership in promoting women, peace, and security. Ras-
mussen is the third individual to receive the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security, created by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security.
“Women time and again find themselves marginalized in these processes and they don’t get a chance to make their views known,” the former prime minister of Denmark said. “But if women don’t play an active part in making peace and keeping peace, then the needs and interests of half of the world’s population are not taken into account,” he said.
In a video tribute, Clinton said, “He understands that women are agents of change and drivers of progress, not just victims and survivors.”
Rasmussen was originally scheduled to receive his award earlier in the year but was unable to attend the ceremony that honored William Hague and Dr. Denis Mukwege.
Clinton Presents Advancing Women in Peace and Security Awards
FEBRUARY 26, 2014
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the university’s annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards for Advancing Women in Peace and Security in historic Gaston Hall. The awards were given to British foreign secretary William Hague and Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Clinton credited the award winners for their dedicated efforts in championing women’s rights globally.
“When women are excluded and marginalized, we all suffer: We miss out on their experience, their knowledge, their skills, their talents,” said Clinton. “But when
Jan Karski Celebrated with Staged Reading and Panel
APRIL 25, 2014 The Davis Performing Arts Center and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics presented the world premier performance of the play Remember This: Walking with Jan Karski, in historic Gaston Hall. Georgetown honored the late Karski, a university professor and Holocaust witness, on what would have been Karski’s 100th birthday. The staged reading featured Academy Award-winning actor David Strathairn.
Karski joined the Polish Underground at the age of 25 during World War II after escaping from Soviet capture. Thanks to his photographic memory and mastery of four languages, he was among the first to provide an eyewitness account of the Holocaust to Allied leaders.
He earned a doctorate from Georgetown in 1952 and taught in the political science department for 40 years. Karksi died in July 2000 at the age of 86, but posthumously won a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
“Jan Karski’s story, his life and his work, is characterized by speaking out against hate and intolerance, by serving as a witness, [and] by setting for all of us—at Georgetown and across the world—an example of what it means to stand for justice,” said Georgetown president John J. DeGioia.
Before the staged reading, the School of Foreign Service hosted a panel discussion on the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, featuring Robert Egnell, visiting professor in the security studies program; Melanne Verveer, executive director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security; and Anthony Arend, government professor and director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service program.
women and girls have the chance to participate fully alongside men and boys in making peace, in growing the economy, in political life, in every facet of existence, then we all benefit. And [the men] we honor today understand this and have put their considerable prestige and efforts behind that.”
“I believe that there is no greater strategic prize for the 21st century than the full social, political, and economic empowerment of women everywhere,” said Hague, who launched the Prevention of Sexual Violence Initiative with UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ special envoy Angelina Jolie in 2012.
Mukwege, who is internationally renowned for providing treatment to survivors of sexual violence in conflict and helping to rehabilitate and reintegrate victimized women, founded the Panzi Hospital in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a region that has been fraught with violent conflict for years.
Global Security Depends on Matching Wits with Emerging Disease
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
Researchers face a “perpetual challenge” to stay ahead of the evolving infectious microbes they seek to eradicate, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci served as keynote speaker at “Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health Security: Examining MERS and Polio,” a symposium organized by Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and the School of Foreign Service.
The symposium took place
MAY 16, 2014 Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (G ’74) talked to 360 new graduates from SFS about the importance of responding to world crises and balancing hard and soft power.
“I have been a strong advocate of soft power, of the critical importance of diplomacy and development,” he said after receiving an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters during the SFS commencement ceremony.
But the Georgetown alumnus also talked about the importance of hard power, and said that the ultimate safeguard against aggressors, dictators, and terrorists in the 21st century is a strong American military.
“Starting a little over 20 years ago after the collapse of the Soviet Union … a lot of people began to think that Americans didn’t need to learn about the Russians anymore, much less worry about what their government and military were up to,” said Gates, who received his PhD in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown. “The SFS graduation speaker of last year—the president of Lithuania— would, I suspect, beg to differ, as would the leaders of the other Baltic states.”
Gates urged the graduates to enter public service. “It falls to you, the next generation of globally oriented citizens and leaders, to pick up that mantle,” he said.
less than a week after President Obama announced a massive global effort to combat the spread of infectious diseases.
Two panel discussions—one on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the other on the growing numbers of polio cases in war-ravaged Syria—also took place at the symposium.
Lawrence Gostin, the O’Neill professor of national and global health law at Georgetown University Law Center; Lawrence Kerr, associate professor in the department of microbiology; and Paula Dobriansky (BSFS ’77), former undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, were among the panelists.
Dobriansky stressed that
public health and global security are inextricably intertwined, particularly when it comes to combatting infectious diseases unconstrained by borders or national polices.
National Security Advisor Susan Rice Speaks at Georgetown
NOVEMBER 20, 2013
White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice outlined the future of US policies toward the Asia Pacific during her speech at Georgetown. The Asia Pacific is a “critical region” for sus-
taining global growth through emerging economies, lowering carbon emissions, improving the well-being of those living in extreme poverty, and denuclearizing of the Korean Peninsula, she said to an audience of Georgetown students, faculty, and staff and members of the diplomatic corp.
“Achieving that future will necessarily be the sustained work of successive administrations,” Rice added. “In the near term, President Obama will continue to lay the critical foundations for lasting progress in four key areas—enhancing security, expanding prosperity, fostering democratic values, and advancing human dignity.”
Robert Gates Joins SFS for 2014 Commencement
On the Ground Running
But it was McCleskey’s determination that opened the door at Insight Crime. While working on her undergraduate thesis—a study of the Mexican drug trade—she consulted the website’s news and analysis “obsessively.” In June 2012, she cold-emailed them, attaching her resume and her thesis, and asked if she could contribute in any way. The organization quickly realized that the student who emailed out of the blue knew what she was talking about, and as she started her SSP classes, she began writing for Insight Crime.
Mostly, she wrote news briefs, quick takes of news and analysis capped at 500 words. Her editor was amazed at how well she churned them out.
CRACKING DOWN
McCleskey spent a summer in Medellin, Colombia, writing for an online research initiative about organized crime.
REBECCA NELSON
Claire McCleskey's (BSFS ’12, SSP ’14) interest in Latin America’s organized crime has taken her to Colombia and the Pentagon. Where will she go next? by
The 25-story building had elevators, but to keep the crowds under control the elevator operators wouldn’t let visitors out on every floor. Even though Claire McCleskey needed the 18th floor, she got out on the 10th floor and walked up eight flights of stairs.
Finding the prosecutors she needed to interview at the Attorney General’s office in Medellin, Colombia, took McCleskey, a fluent Spanish speaker who earned her bachelor’s in international politics from SFS in 2012 and graduated from the Security Studies Program in 2014, five hours wandering the labyrinthine tower’s halls and stairwells, dripping with sweat in the South American heat. But she got her interviews.
Organized through the online research initiative Insight Crime and funded by an SSP summer grant, her project focused on the relationship between Colombian elites and organized crime. She lived and worked in Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia, during the summer of 2013, interviewing government officials, military personnel, law enforcement officers, and other players in the world of Colombian organized crime.
For McCleskey, whose focus during her six years at Georgetown has been transnational organized crime in Latin America, it was an academic dream come true.
“It was probably one of the most important learning experiences I ever had,” she says. “And it would not have happened if it were not for Georgetown.”
The Hoya support system gave her the opportunity, paying her way for three months in Colombia.
“They were surprised that I was able to hit the ground running,” she says. “And it wasn’t because I knew how to do it naturally. It was because I had been forced at Georgetown to do it.”
Memos became a staple of McCleskey’s skill set in her junior year International Security class at SFS. Every week, her professor, Elizabeth Arsenault (G ’10), assigned a question students had to answer in 400 words, putting the “bottom line up front.”
“It is a painful learning process,” McCleskey says, “but that is the absolute most important skill. If you’re writing to the secretary of defense, this is a man that has thousands of papers come across his desk every day. And you have a page. Your question could have been ‘What should we do about Al Qaeda?’ You’re an expert on Al Qaeda. You could talk about Al Qaeda for hours. But you’ve got a page—a page that he’s going to read while he’s on a plane. So you have basically ten seconds.”
“[Memo writing] is the absolute most important skill.”
At her internship at the Pentagon earlier this year, she used this writing skill every day. Arsenault, who was also her undergraduate thesis adviser, suggested last fall that she should apply for the Pentagon internship. By January, she’d gotten her clearance and was writing policy memos in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, first in the Russia and Eurasia office, and then on the Western Hemisphere, her specialty. Doing real work—writing, arranging meetings, collaborating with other offices within the Defense Department—gave her valuable insight into how the federal government works. “I’d be in meetings and the people just seem so normal,” McCleskey says. “And they just made the policy for X country.”
In April, McCleskey was selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow finalist, a prestigious two-year leadership training program that places high-achieving recent graduates in government agency jobs. Ultimately, though, she’s interested in a specific job: special agent for the FBI. With her on-theground experience in Columbia, she’s well-prepared.
The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs serves as an academic resource for scholars, business leaders, policy makers, and students of international relations, cultivating a dialogue among those with all levels of knowledge about foreign affairs and international politics.
The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs was conceived in 1998 to complement the university’s international affairs program. The first issue of the Journal was published in the spring of 2000. Since then, the Journal has established a unique identity and global reputation.
In 2014, the Journal officially entered into a partnership with Georgetown University Press to broaden the publication’s reach and potential.
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), founded in 1919, is a premier school of international affairs. At Georgetown’s Washington, DC and Qatar campuses, SFS provides a rigorous education combining theory and practice and instills the values of service.
Learn more about the School of Foreign Service at sfs.georgetown.edu
