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The Security & Foreign Policy Initiative

The W&M GRI Security and Foreign Policy Initiative (SFPI) was designed with two key objectives: to meet students’ demand for courses and research opportunities in the areas of international security and U.S. foreign policy and to diversify W&M’s theoretical approaches to the study of these subjects. The SFPI consists of a post-doctoral fellowship program and a series of convenings that bring scholars, students, and policy practitioners together, generously supported by the Charles Koch Foundation and Paul C. Jost and Laura Holmes Jost.

Many in the academic field of international relations (IR) and observers of the foreign policy discourse in Washington, DC have noted the need for greater diversity of thought. Long dominant approaches to U.S. foreign policy have failed to integrate the insights of Realist thought to challenge the dominant liberal internationalist theories in academia and the consensus thinking in DC that leads to more interventionist policies. The changing balance of power within the international system, as indicated by the rise of China and other potential peer competitors, makes revisiting the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of U.S. foreign policy a pressing concern both in the academy and in Washington, DC. 

In this section:

 

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Featured Event

2024 Fall Distinguished Lecture
What will US foreign policy look like in the next presidential administration?

Join Dr. Kiron Skinner (former State Department Director of Policy Planning), Dr. Francis J. Gavin (Director of the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University), and moderator Dr. Jessica Trisko Darden (Director of the W&M Security & Foreign Policy Initiative) for a timely discussion of the foreign policy visions of the prospective Harris and Trump administrations. 

5:30-7:00 PM, Oct 29th, Sadler Center Commonwealth Auditorium

Spring Convening

The annual Security & Foreign Policy Initiative Spring conference focuses on a specific contemporary policy issue and provides a platform for research that critically questions the efficacy of past and current foreign policy solutions to pressing problems.

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Postdoctoral Fellowships

GRI’s two-year residential Security and Foreign Policy Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship increases and broadens W&M’s intellectual capital in security studies. Our postdocs explore topics such as grand strategy of restraint, U.S. overseas military commitments, foreign aid, free trade, and U.S. foreign policy in both contemporary and historical contexts.

Publications & Impact

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