A D.C. Affair
On Friday, April 12, twenty-six W&M students accompanied Government Professors Larry Evans and Mike Tierney to Washington, DC, for a day of meetings with prominent policy practitioners and analysts. The 17 students working with Professor Evans are part of a study-abroad program that he will be leading in Galway, Ireland this summer. The remainder were members of Professor Tierney’s government department class on international organizations. The two groups split up and met with different speakers during the day, and then had dinner together with some recent W&M graduates after the events of the day.
In preparation for their study abroad experience, Professor Evans’ students met with the Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau, Sir Norman Houston, and also with the Irish Ambassador to the U.S., Daniel Mulhall. The session with Houston took place over lunch at the offices of the Northern Ireland Bureau, which is essentially a shadow embassy for the North. Houston gave a masterful presentation that summarized nearly 200 years of Irish history, including the Troubles and the ongoing controversy over Brexit. Following the presentation, students asked dozens of questions about aspects of the history and current operations of Northern Ireland.
Next, they walked across town to the Irish Embassy and met with Ambassador Mulhall and the embassy’s cultural counsellor. Mulhall likewise began with a short presentation about Irish politics and economics, with some emphasis on Brexit, followed by about a half hour of Q&A with the students. Following the formal part of the program, there was a reception of 45 minutes or so in which the students were able to interact further with the Ambassador, as well as Cultural Counsellor Lillian Farrell. The two events, in short, were a superb send-off for their five weeks studying in Ireland this summer.
Tierney and his students started the day at the World Bank’s private equity arm, the International Finance Corporation, where they met with the Head of External Affairs, Aaron Rosenberg, a ’99 alum from the Government Department and Dana Bennett, Senior Counsel at the IFC, who also serves on William & Mary’s Reves Advisory Board. They discussed the role of the private sector in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and a recent Supreme Court case that stripped the IFC of sovereign immunity.
Following the World Bank visit, Tierney’s students attended a lunch-time panel at the W&M Washington DC Office where former Treasury Department Official, Scott Morris, discussed the role of China at the World Bank and the IMF and the impact of U.S. domestic politics on policy at the multilateral development banks. Morris was joined by W&M alum Margaret McDonnell (’00), who is Executive Director of Nothing But Nets, which is a development initiative housed within the UN Foundation.
The final meeting of the day for the students in the International Organization course was at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Organization. The students met with a panel of seven career civil servants and foreign service officers led by W&M alums Anushree Banerjee (’09) and Lauren Triner Dunham.”
Salley Rowe, head of the budget office, says the government department is thankful to our donors and sponsors for making trips like these possible for our students.
Thank you to both Professor Tierney and Professor Evans for coordinating this wonderful trip!
