Lifelong Learning & The Council on Foreign Relations Term Member Program

1/ Since leaving grad school I have found that one of the best professional communities to continue my intellectual development has been the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) term member program.

2/ We cram as much education into the first 20-30 years of our lives and then assume that this is enough. It’s not. We should all be lifelong learners. This is one reason why I love libraries. Because a library card is the key to unlock a lifetime of learning.

3/ My first interaction with CFR was as a United States Military Academy at West Point cadet in 2003 in General Barry McCaffrey's class, when our entire class visited NYC & CFR. McCaffrey taught me so much about life: the importance of enlisted service members, professionalism, and lifelong service in and out of uniform.

His class brought in both academics and policy makers and was easily a top 5 most interesting class I took as a cadet.

Years later, I realize that policy and ideas/academics are two sides of the same coin. Policies are underwritten by intellectual frameworks or theories (e.g. supply side economics, originalism, living constitution, etc…)

4/ CFR has helped me to continue to grow intellectually while simultaneously helping me to expand my network.

As a junior military officer my life was centered around national security. I now focus almost exclusively on business, and CFR has enabled me to zoom out and see how national security, policy, and business are all connected.

At the most recent term member conference Brad Setser & Jeff Goldstein discussed how geopolitics and economics are increasingly more intertwined. For example: MBS, Kashoggi, Saudi Arabia, OPEC, the cost of a barrel of oil, America’s economy, inflation, Biden, & America’s elections are all interconnected.

5/ I chat/meet with many military veterans and for this reason I want to highly encourage US military veterans between the ages of 30-36 to apply for the CFR Term Member program. But would of course also encourage everyone who is interested in foreign policy, national security, and policy to apply.

Apply here by 1/10/23: https://lnkd.in/gZb3wsu7

6/ There is no other program that I know of that comes close to the breadth and depth of the programming and network. CFR also likes veterans! Here are pictures of some of the CFR term members who are veterans. US military veterans constitute a very healthy contingent of CFR members. cc Chris Morales, Walter Haydock, Trevor Burns, Kelly Atkinson, PhD, Tom Barron, Ben Biles, Loren Voss, Benjamin Haas, Margaret M.

7/ If you’re a CFR member, let me know how the organization has impacted your life or what you learned at a recent CFR event in the comments below! cc Jamaal Glenn, Matthew F. Ferraro, Irina Faskianos, Tao Tan, Joyce Zhang Gray, Katherine Zimmerman, Nancy Bodurtha

#cfr #veterans #military #geopolitics #nationalsecurity #education