I first applied to the International Fellows Program when I applied to SIPA, but was not accepted. I tried again for my second year, and the second time was definitely a lucky charm. Read More →
I first applied to the International Fellows Program when I applied to SIPA, but was not accepted. I tried again for my second year, and the second time was definitely a lucky charm. Read More →
You may have heard about the prestigious International Fellows Program (IFP). It is highly competitive, as only 30 Columbia University students (10 new SIPA students, 10 continuing SIPA students and 10 Columbia University graduate students) are selected each year to participate in the program. Once you are an international fellow, you are a member for life.
Dr. Stephen Sestanovich, a professor of international diplomacy and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the United States ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union from 1992 to 2001, has a new book out. He joined SIPA’s faculty in the fall of 2001 as the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Diplomacy. Professor Sestanovich is also the director of the International Fellows Program. He currently teaches the “US Role in World Affairs” course at SIPA.
Professor Sestanovich’s new book, Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama looks at sweep of U.S. foreign policy since 1940s. It upends the accepted notions of widely known events and shows how personalities can play as important a role as events in creating policies. Sestanovich argues that, “there is much to learn from the history of American foreign policy, but that we can’t learn it from the sepia-tinted versions of the past that have dominated public discussion in recent years.”
SIPA will host an event in recognition of Professor Sestanovich and Maximalist on March 26 at 6 p.m. in the International Affairs Building.
Read more about Maximalist at knopfdoubleday.com
For Stephen Sestanovich’s complete biography, click here.
You may have heard about the prestigious International Fellows Program (IFP). It is highly competitive — only 30 Columbia University students (10 new SIPA students, 10 continuing SIPA students, and 10 Columbia University graduate students) are selected each year to participate in the program. Once you are an International fellow, you are a member for life.
To clue you in for those who do not know much about it, we prepared some fun facts about the program…
The IFP is a two-semester seminar open to students of all graduate-degree programs at Columbia University. The diverse perspectives and professional backgrounds that fellows bring to the Program enrich their year-long common enterprise.
All fellows receive a stipend and study a curriculum with two goals – to examine the origins of the current international order, in which the United States has for decades played the leading role, and to look ahead to the new world that will eventually take its place, dominated by a larger number of actors, new problems, and approaches to problem-solving that have yet to be defined. Weekly meetings of the International Fellows Program are supplemented by study trips to Washington, D.C. and the United Nations, where fellows have extraordinary access to senior policymakers, diplomats, legislators, journalists, and leaders of nongovernmental organizations.
You may apply for the IFP as a SIPA applicant (a separate essay is required when you submit your admissions application); as a continuing SIPA student (there is an internal process that our first year students will hear about at the end of their first semester at SIPA); or as a Columbia University graduate student (application is available online)
The International Fellows Program offers unique opportunities inside and outside of the classroom to explore and engage important international issues of the 20th and 21st century. Focusing on world affairs through the lens of the U.S. has illuminated key interactions between major foreign policy players and offers an interesting vantage point through which to analyze international political developments. In addition to lively class readings, discussions, and debates, our recent meeting with permanent representatives from France, Singapore, Lebanon, and Gabon helped enrich the academic and practical study of diplomacy by providing a forum through which to better understand the issues critical to the US and the world according to these countries. On a personal level, gaining a more nuanced understanding of the day-to-day professional practice of international diplomacy is what drew me to apply to the International Fellows Program, and has been a focal point–and highlight–of the yearlong course thus far. I am especially eager to participate in the IFP annual DC trip held at the end of the semester where the class will meet with prominent practitioners, academics, and legislators regarding our class subject matter.
-Testimonial by current SIPA student & International Fellow, Jesse Corradi, MIA 2014
"The most global public policy school, where an international community of students and faculty address world challenges."
—Merit E. Janow, Dean, SIPA, Professor of Practice, International and Economic Law and International Affairs
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