School of Public Service Blog: SPS 2015: Foreign Policy Focus

The St. Albans School of Public Service Class of 2015 finished off week 1 of SPS 2015 with two days of a foreign policy focus. On Thursday, SPS 2015 met in class sections to discuss the changing foreign policy landscape through the lens of a New Republic article on foreign policy by Robert Kagan, Superpowers Don't Get to Retire: What Our Tired Country Still Owes the World. (Click HERE for a link to the article.) Later on Thursday, SPS '15 hosted author Juliana Geran Pilon, a Senior Fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, who spoke about her background as an immigrant from Communist-era Romania and work in the United States in think tanks and for non-profit democratization entities.

Ambassador's Residence at the German Embassy

Pretty good for a day's work, right? But SPS '15 was not finished. Our group went to the German Embassy, where we met for an extensive Q&A session with the German Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Peter Wittig. (Click HERE for Ambassador Wittig's biography.) We were lucky enough to be able to stay to enjoy dinner at the Residence and the chance to see the beautiful Embassy grounds.

On Friday, the emphasis on foreign policy continued. In the morning, our entire group visited the U.S. Department of State in "Foggy Bottom," meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Douglas Frantz of the Bureau of Public Affairs (click HERE for Mr. Frantz's biography). We had the opportunity not only to hear about the work of the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs but to ask Mr. Frantz questions on everything from current foreign policy issues to his distinguished background as a working journalist. In the afternoon, a "Ted Trip" went to the Center for New American Security's Annual Conference, where they attended panels on the nuclear negotiations with Iraq and on drone warfare.