2025 SOTS

Dear Members of the Elliott School Community,

In the report contained here, you will see highlights of the numerous accomplishments among our Elliott School community members during our previous academic year. We have been busy! Over the past year, we hosted not one, but two prime ministers–in timely conversations that brought our students and faculty as close to the headlines as it gets. We sent twenty students to New York to speak on parallel panels during the UN Commission on the Status of Women. More than two dozen Elliott students attended the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings. And in January, one of our longtime faculty members returned from public service, having served as Under Secretary of the Treasury, now bringing fresh and direct insights on financial diplomacy back to the classroom. 

These examples show how we see our charge as one of engagement. We don’t stand back to study problems; our students and faculty lean in, roll up their sleeves, and engage directly on the most important international affairs issues affecting our world. 

It has been a year of major change in our field, with the transition in the U.S. administration and a declared emphasis on the homeland. A federal hiring freeze and the incorporation of USAID directly into the U.S. Department of State suspended some traditional pathways for students and recent graduates focused on these fields. In response, we have redoubled our work to highlight the full array of international affairs opportunities across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors–including at the state and local levels. 

We also know that the work that we do, and the skills our students gain, continue to have great relevance in a deeply connected world. As I said to our graduating classes of 2025 at our ceremony in May, we should recall the founding of our predecessor school, the School of Comparative Jurisprudence and Diplomacy, back in 1898. Contemporaneous coverage in the Washington Post of its founding ceremony noted not only that this was the first such school in the United States, but that “The want of it is recognized by every one who has given the subject consideration.” We can all take great pride in knowing that our purpose–research and education in international affairs–has endured for the past one hundred and twenty-seven years, across global changes and tumult, and throughout different approaches and even different emphases for global engagement. I continue to believe deeply in all that we do, and have absolutely no doubt of the importance of our community’s expertise and contributions to the world.

As always, we will look to our faculty, students, staff, and alumni in the years to come for their expertise and skills to address the international questions before us, and the Elliott School community will continue to meet the moment. 

Best Regards,

Image

Alyssa Ayres 
Dean, Elliott School of International Affairs