Athens, Ga. – Nine University of Georgia undergraduates are among a group of 200 students from across the country who will present research on U.S. foreign policy at the Roosevelt Institute’s Defense, Diplomacy, and Development Conference on March 26. The conference, which will be held at George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington D.C., also will include 20 senior national security policymakers.
The conference theme is “Building America’s Next Grand Strategy” and the program will highlight the work of the Roosevelt Campus Network Defense and Diplomacy Center, a research center at the nation’s first and largest student-run think tank. The programming is designed to explore the values and goals underpinning past, present and future American foreign policy, with the purpose of restoring coherence and consistency to American foreign policy.
UGA conference participants Tony Pelli, Katherine Arnold, Rohan Mukhopadhyay, Yuliya Bila, Patrick Smith, Seth Taylor, Nick Eberhart and Dana Higgins are undergraduate research fellows at the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network and members of the on-campus organization Roosevelt@UGA, which is sponsored by the UGA Honors Program. The students will present their research on cyber-warfare, reforming U.S. foreign assistance and American grand strategy alongside national security experts who represent an array of functional areas. They also will sit on panels with senior policymakers.
UGA student Rocky Cole, who also is participating in the conference, serves as the current director of the Roosevelt Institute Defense and Diplomacy Center and chaired the Defense, Diplomacy, and Development Conference Planning Steering Committee.
Notable guests at the conference will include Ambassador Steven Pifer, former special assistant to the U.S. president, member of the National Security Council, and director of Brookings Arms Control Initiative; Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, senior adviser, National Security Network; Gregory Adams, director, Aid Effectiveness Initiative, Oxfam; Rob Jenkins, director, Office of Transition Initiatives, United States Agency for International Development; William Davis, director, United Nations Information Center Washington; Larry Korb, Council on Foreign Relations; Michael A. Levi senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; and Anne Richard, vice president, International Rescue Committee.
For more information, see http://www.rooseveltcampusnetwork.org/policy-center/16/defense-diplomacy-and-development-conference.