Summer 2018 Political Studies & Summer Courses
If you could study with some of the world’s top thinkers on some of the world’s most important topics – war and grand strategy, economic policy, or political thought and philosophy – which would you choose?
Each year, the Hertog Foundation brings together top college students to the nation’s capital to explore the theory and practice of politics in an intensive seminar setting with outstanding faculty.
This summer’s offerings provide students the flexibility to create their ideal summer experience – by applying for a seven-week summer fellowship or choosing among one- to two-week seminars to create their own individualized course of study. All students receive full scholarships, complimentary dormitory accommodations, and a stipend to offset travel and living expenses.
Applications for Summer 2018 programs are now under review. Candidates selected for interviews will be contacted on a rolling basis from late February to late April.
Political Studies Program
This highly competitive fellowship is designed to reflect the broad curriculum of the Hertog Foundation. Hertog Summer Fellows take courses in a wide variety of subjects, from political philosophy to contemporary public affairs, from economics to foreign policy. Twenty-four exceptional undergraduates and recent grads (2017 and 2018) will be invited to participate.
Summer Courses
Students seeking a more specialized experience can apply to the courses within the Political Studies Program that best fit their interests and knowledge level. This option is also ideal for students who have other jobs, internships, or commitments during the summer. Up to 110 undergraduates and recent grads (2017 and 2018) will be selected to participate.
Students may apply simultaneously to both the seven-week Hertog Political Studies Program and to specific Hertog Summer Courses. Only one application is necessary to apply to any of our programs. Applicants who apply by our early decision deadline, Monday, January 15, 2018, can be accepted by Friday, March 2, 2018.
Faculty & Speakers
PETER BERKOWITZ
Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He studies and writes about, among other things, constitutional government, conservatism and progressivism in America, liberal education, national security and law, and Middle East politics. He has written hundreds of essays, articles, and reviews on many subjects for a variety of publications, including American Political Science Review, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Commentary, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, The London Review of Books, National Review, The New Republic, The New York Post,The New York Sun, Policy Review, The Public Interest, Real Clear Politics, The Times Literary Supplement,The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard, The Wilson Quarterly, and The Yale Law Journal. His most recent book is Constitutional Conservatism, published in 2013 by the Hoover Institution Press.
ROBERT C. BARTLETT
Robert C. Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and holds an MA in Classics and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College. His principal area of research is classical political philosophy, with particular attention to the thinkers of ancient Hellas, including Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle.
He has published articles in the American Political Science Review,American Journal of Politics, Journal of Politics, Review of Politics, and other leading scholarly journals. He is the author or editor of seven books, including The Idea of Enlightenment, Plato’s Protagoras and Meno, and Xenophon’s The Shorter Socratic Writings. He is also the co-translator of a new edition of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and the author of the forthcoming Sophistry and Political Philosophy: Protagoras’ Challenge to Socrates (University of Chicago, 2016).
Before coming to Boston College, Robert Bartlett served as the Arthur M. Blank/National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor at Emory University.
PAUL CANTOR
Paul Cantor is the Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Virginia. He has written on a wide range of subjects, including Shakespeare, Romanticism, Austrian economics, and contemporary popular culture. His books include Literature and the Economics of Liberty (co-editor, 2009), Shakespeare’s Rome(1976), Creature and Creator: Myth-Making and English Romanticism(1984), Shakespeare: Hamlet (1989), and Gilligan Unbound (2001). His most recent book is The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture: Liberty vs. Authority in American Film and TV (2012). Professor Cantor earned his A.B., and Ph.D from Harvard University.
PAUL CARRESE
Paul O. Carrese is the founding Director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. For nearly two decades he was a professor of political science at the United States Air Force Academy. He is author of The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism, and co-editor of three other books – on George Washington, constitutionalism, and American grand strategy. His most recent book is Democracy in Moderation: Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Sustainable Liberalism. He has held fellowships at Harvard University; the University of Delhi (as a Fulbright fellow); and the James Madison Program, Politics Department, Princeton University.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI
Matthew Continetti is editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Prior to joining the Beacon, he was opinion editor of The Weekly Standard, where he remains a contributing editor. The author of The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine (Doubleday, 2006), Continetti’s articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. Continetti is a 2003 graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in history.
RYAN P. HANLEY
Ryan Patrick Hanley is the Mellon Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. His research in the history of political philosophy focuses on the Enlightenment. He is the author of Love’s Enlightenment: Rethinking Charity in Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and his edited volumes include Adam Smith: His Life, Thought, and Legacy (Princeton University Press, 2016), the Penguin Classics edition of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (Penguin, 2010), and with Darrin M. McMahon, The Enlightenment: Critical Concepts in History, 5 vols. (Routledge, 2010). His articles have appeared or are forthcoming in American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, European Journal of Political Theory, Review of Politics, Social Philosophy & Policy, History of Political Thought, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Revue internationale de philosophie, and Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. Professor Hanley received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.Phil. from Cambridge University, and his Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Prior to coming to Marquette, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University’s Whitney Humanities Center.
YORAM HAZONY
Yoram Hazony is President of the Herzl Institute. He is founder and past President of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, now Shalem College. His books include The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture, The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel’s Soul, and God and Politics in Esther. Hazony is director of the John Templeton Foundation’s project in Jewish Philosophical Theology, and a member of the Israel Council for Higher Education committee on Liberal Studies in Israel’s universities. He holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Political Theory from Rutgers University.
YUVAL LEVIN
Yuval Levin is the editor of National Affairs. He is also the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a senior editor of The New Atlantis, and a contributing editor of National Review and The Weekly Standard. He has been a member of the White House domestic policy staff (under President George W. Bush), Executive Director of the President’s Council on Bioethics, and a congressional staffer. Author and editor of numerous books, including The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left (Basic Books, 2013), he most recently published The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (Basic Books 2016) .
Liebert is the author of Plutarch’s Politics (2016, Cambridge University Press), which won the Delba Winthrop Award for Excellence in Political Science. He has also edited several volumes: Executive Power in Theory and Practice (2012, Palgrave Macmillan); Thinking Beyond Boundaries: Transnational Challenges to U.S. Foreign Policy (2014, Johns Hopkins University Press); American Grand Strategy and the Future of U.S. Landpower(2014, U.S. Army War College Press); What Is the Worst That Can Happen? The Politics and Policy of Crisis Management (2016, Sloan); and Confronting Inequality: Wealth, Rights, and Power (2016, Sloan). His articles have appeared in History of Political Thought, Review of Politics, and Armed Forces & Society. He is currently writing a book on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, tentatively titled Religion Around Gibbon, and scheduled to appear from Pennsylvania State University Press in 2017.
DIANA SCHAUB
Diana J. Schaub is professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a member of the Hoover Institution’s task force on The Virtues of a Free Society. In 1994–95 she was the postdoctoral fellow of the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University. In 2001, she was the recipient of the Richard M. Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters. In 2004, she was appointed to the President’s Council on Bioethics. She is the author of Erotic Liberalism: Women and Revolution in Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters” (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995), along with a number of book chapters and articles in the fields of political philosophy and American political thought. She is the editor, along with Amy and Leon Kass of What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song (ISI, 2011). She is a frequent contributor to opinion journals such as the Claremont Review of Books, the Weekly Standard, National Affairs, and the New Atlantis. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Kenyon College, with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
VANCE SERCHUK
Vance Serchuk is executive director of the KKR Global Institute. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Serchuk served for six years as the senior national security advisor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut). In this capacity, he worked on a broad range of international issues, including comprehensive sanctions legislation, the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, and the U.S. response to the Arab Spring, traveling to over 60 countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. From January to July 2013, he was a Council on Foreign Relations-Hitachi International Affairs Fellow, based in Japan, and a regular columnist for the Washington Post. His writings have also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. Mr. Serchuk is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, holds a JD from Yale Law School, and was a Fulbright scholar in the Russian Federation.
DARREN STALOFF
Darren Staloff is Professor of History at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He earned his B.A. from Columbia College and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Staloff has published numerous papers and reviews on the subject of early American history and is the author of The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts (1998) and Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding (2005).
BENJAMIN STOREY
Benjamin Storey is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Furman University. In 2016-2017, he was a Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is the winner of Furman’s 2016 Meritorious Teaching Award, and of the 2011 “American Scholar” Award given by Furman’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. At Furman, he is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Tocqueville Program, which aims to revivify traditional liberal education in a modern context. He received his MA and PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and his BA in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His publications have appeared in First Things, The New Atlantis, The Weekly Standard, The Claremont Review of Books, Doublethink Quarterly, The Journal of Politics, The Review of Politics, Perspectives on Political Science, and Society. He is currently completing a book entitled The Restless Age: Four French Thinkers on the Quest for Self-Understanding in an Unsettled Modernity.
JENNA SILBER STOREY
Jenna Silber Storey is a Lecturer in Political Philosophy in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Furman University. She is also Managing Director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman, an association of students interested in cultivating the ability to reflect on contemporary issues with a perspective informed by the study of the history of political thought. Dr. Storey received her PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, where she was a John M. Olin Junior Fellow, and her B.A. from the University Professors Program at Boston University, where she also worked as Executive Assistant to the Superintendent for the Boston University-Chelsea Schools Partnership. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The New Atlantis, The Weekly Standard, and The Claremont Review of Books. Her research and writing is focused on the relation of politics and theology in the work of Carl Schmitt and Pierre Manent.
VICKIE SULLIVAN
Vickie Sullivan is the Cornelia M. Jackson Professor of Political Science at Tufts University where she teaches and studies political thought and philosophy. She also maintains teaching and research interests in politics and literature. Her articles have appeared in The American Political Science Review, History of European Ideas, History of Political Thought, Political Theory, Polity, and the Review of Politics. She has published extensively on Machiavelli, including the monographs Machiavelli, Hobbes, and the Formation of a Liberal Republicanism in England (2004) and Machiavelli’s Three Romes: Religion, Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed (1996). Her most recent book is Montesquieu and the Despotic Ideas of Europe: An Interpretation of “The Spirit of the Laws” (2017).
ADAM J. WHITE
Adam J. White is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution based in Washington, D.C., writing on the Constitution, regulation, and the courts for such publications as The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and SCOTUSblog. He is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, teaching administrative law. He is a contributing editor with National Affairs, The New Atlantis, and City Journal, and a contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation‘s blog, “Notice and Comment.” Read some of his commentary on the Hoover website.
Prior to joining Hoover, he was an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In addition to his research and writing, he practiced law with Boyden Gray & Associates, writing briefs on constitutional and regulatory issues in the Supreme Court and various other federal courts. (He continues to be “of counsel” to the firm in three pending cases involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Communications Commission.) Previously, he was a senior associate with Baker Botts, working on various constitutional and regulatory matters, including energy infrastructure regulation.
In 2015 he was appointed to the leadership council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, where he co-chairs the Judicial Review committee and co-directs its Supreme Court Series. He also is a member of the executive committee of the Federalist Society’s Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group.
He received his J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, and his B.B.A. (economics) from the University of Iowa College of Business. He clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Week 1
PETER BERKOWITZ
Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He studies and writes about, among other things, constitutional government, conservatism and progressivism in America, liberal education, national security and law, and Middle East politics.
Weeks 2 & 3 (Select a track)
ROBERT BARTLETT
Robert C. Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. His principal area of research is classical political philosophy, with particular attention to the thinkers of ancient Hellas, including Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle.
VICKIE SULLIVAN
Vickie Sullivan is a Professor of Political Science who teaches and studies political thought and philosophy. She has published extensively on Machiavelli, including the monographs Machiavelli, Hobbes, and the Formation of a Liberal Republicanism in England and Machiavelli’s Three Romes: Religion, Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed.
HUGH LIEBERT
Hugh Liebert is assistant professor of American politics, policy, and strategy in the department of social sciences at the United States Military Academy. His primary areas of interest are Greek and Roman political thought and American politics. He is the author of Plutarch’s Politics: Between City and Empire.
DIANA SCHAUB
Diana J. Schaub is professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a member of the Hoover Institution’s task force on The Virtues of a Free Society. She is the author of Erotic Liberalism: Women and Revolution in Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters”, along with a number of book chapters and articles in the fields of political philosophy and American political thought.
YORAM HAZONY
Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher, Bible scholar and political theorist. He is President of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. His books include The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture and God and Politics in Esther.
RYAN P. HANLEY
Ryan Hanley is the Mellon Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. His research in the history of political philosophy focuses on the Enlightenment. He is the author of Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue and editor of Adam Smith: His Life, Thought and Legacy.
Weeks 4 & 5 (Select a Track)
DARREN STALOFF
Darren Staloff is Professor of History at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Professor Staloff has published numerous papers and reviews on the subject of early American history and is the author of The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts and Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding.
James W. Ceaser is Harry F. Byrd Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1976, and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written several books on American politics and political thought, including Presidential Selection and Liberal Democracy and Political Science.
BENJAMIN STOREY
Benjamin Storey teaches the history of political philosophy, and is Co-Director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman University. His forthcoming book is called The Restless Age: Four French Thinkers on the Quest for Self-Knowledge in Modernity.
JENNA SILBER STOREY
Jenna Silber Storey is the Director of the Society of Tocqueville Fellows at Furman University. Her research focuses on the work of Carl Schmitt and his influence on the contemporary interest in political theology.
PAUL CANTOR
Paul Cantor is the Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Virginia. He has written on a wide range of subjects, including Shakespeare, Romanticism, Austrian economics, and contemporary popular culture.
Weeks 6 & 7 (Select a Track)
YUVAL LEVIN
Yuval Levin is the editor of National Affairs. He is also the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a senior editor of The New Atlantis, and a contributing editor of National Review and The Weekly Standard.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI
Matthew Continetti is editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Prior to joining the Beacon, he was opinion editor of The Weekly Standard, where he remains a contributing editor.
ADAM J. WHITE
Adam J. White is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution based in Washington, DC, writing on the Constitution, regulation, and the courts. He is also executive director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
DAN BLUMENTHAL
Dan Blumenthal is the director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has both served in and advised the U.S. government on China issues for over a decade. Previously, he was the John A. van Beuren Chair Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
PAUL CARRESE
Paul Carrese is the founding Director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, having served for 19 years as professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he co-founded and served as director of the Academy’s great-books honors program.
VANCE SERCHUK
Vance Serchuk is executive director of the KKR Global Institute. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Serchuk served for six years as the senior national security advisor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut).
Political Thought & Philosophy
PETER BERKOWITZ
Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He studies and writes about, among other things, constitutional government, conservatism and progressivism in America, liberal education, national security and law, and Middle East politics.
ROBERT BARTLETT
Robert C. Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. His principal area of research is classical political philosophy, with particular attention to the thinkers of ancient Hellas, including Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle.
VICKIE SULLIVAN
Vickie Sullivan is a Professor of Political Science who teaches and studies political thought and philosophy. She has published extensively on Machiavelli, including the monographs Machiavelli, Hobbes, and the Formation of a Liberal Republicanism in England and Machiavelli’s Three Romes: Religion, Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed.
HUGH LIEBERT
Hugh Liebert is assistant professor of American politics, policy, and strategy in the department of social sciences at the United States Military Academy. His primary areas of interest are Greek and Roman political thought and American politics. He is the author of Plutarch’s Politics: Between City and Empire.
DIANA SCHAUB
Diana J. Schaub is professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a member of the Hoover Institution’s task force on The Virtues of a Free Society. She is the author of Erotic Liberalism: Women and Revolution in Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters”, along with a number of book chapters and articles in the fields of political philosophy and American political thought.
YORAM HAZONY
Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher, Bible scholar and political theorist. He is President of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. His books include The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture and God and Politics in Esther.
RYAN P. HANLEY
Ryan Hanley is the Mellon Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. His research in the history of political philosophy focuses on the Enlightenment. He is the author of Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue and editor of Adam Smith: His Life, Thought and Legacy.
DARREN STALOFF
Darren Staloff is Professor of History at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Professor Staloff has published numerous papers and reviews on the subject of early American history and is the author of The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts and Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding.
James W. Ceaser is Harry F. Byrd Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1976, and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written several books on American politics and political thought, including Presidential Selection and Liberal Democracy and Political Science.
BENJAMIN STOREY
Benjamin Storey teaches the history of political philosophy, and is Co-Director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman University. His forthcoming book is called The Restless Age: Four French Thinkers on the Quest for Self-Knowledge in Modernity.
JENNA SILBER STOREY
Jenna Silber Storey is the Director of the Society of Tocqueville Fellows at Furman University. Her research focuses on the work of Carl Schmitt and his influence on the contemporary interest in political theology.
PAUL CANTOR
Paul Cantor is the Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Virginia. He has written on a wide range of subjects, including Shakespeare, Romanticism, Austrian economics, and contemporary popular culture.
War & Foreign Affairs
ERIC EDELMAN
Eric Edelman is a Counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and the Roger Hertog Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins. Before retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service, he held senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House.
DAN BLUMENTHAL
Dan Blumenthal is the director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. Mr. Blumenthal has both served in and advised the U.S. government on China issues for over a decade. Previously, he was the John A. van Beuren Chair Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
PAUL CARRESE
Paul Carrese is the founding Director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, having served for 19 years as professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he co-founded and served as director of the Academy’s great-books honors program.
VANCE SERCHUK
Vance Serchuk is executive director of the KKR Global Institute. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Serchuk served for six years as the senior national security advisor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut).
Economics & Domestic Policy
YUVAL LEVIN
Yuval Levin is the editor of National Affairs. He is also the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a senior editor of The New Atlantis, and a contributing editor of National Review and The Weekly Standard.
ADAM J. WHITE
Adam J. White is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution based in Washington, DC, writing on the Constitution, regulation, and the courts. He is also executive director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI
Matthew Continetti is editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Prior to joining the Beacon, he was opinion editor of The Weekly Standard, where he remains a contributing editor.
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Alumni Spotlight
MEREDITH POTTER
Meredith Potter participated in the Hertog Political Studies Program the same year she graduated from Yale University. She is now a Research Assistant for Dr. Henry Kissinger.
“I’ve always believed history explains much of the modern political landscape. I knew studying Aristotle, Machiavelli, and, in particular, the American Founders, could impart important lessons about the timeless characteristics of politics.”
Current Position: Primary Researcher and Notetaker to Dr. Henry Kissinger
Past: Presidential Management Fellow, U.S. Department of State
Education: Yale University
Meredith Potter participated in the Hertog Political Studies Program the same year she graduated from Yale University. After the Political Studies Program, she began a career as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) at the U.S. Department of State, where she handled issues of international security, including postings abroad and at the United Nations. She is now a Research Assistant for Dr. Henry Kissinger, working with him on issues of national security and diplomacy.
HOW DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT POLITICAL STUDIES? WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO APPLY?
From one of my professors, John Gaddis, who teaches courses on Cold War history and Grand Strategy. He nominated me for the program. I think he was impressed by the extent to which the Political Studies syllabus mirrored our Grand Strategy one—both seek to connect seminal texts to modern strategy-making.
WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF THE POLITICAL STUDIES CURRICULUM AND ITS COMBINATION OF HISTORICAL TEXTS AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES?
I’ve always believed history explains much of the modern political landscape. I knew studying Aristotle, Machiavelli, and, in particular, the American Founders, could impart important lessons about the timeless characteristics of politics. Plus, Hertog helps connect the dots, with the last few weeks of Political Studies focusing on modernity. Taking the course on Iranian nuclear proliferation [taught by Hudson Institute expert Michael Doran] was immediately relevant. That Hertog allows you grapple with both of those concepts—Aristotelian thought and Iran—is both interesting and useful.
OVERALL, WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION OF POLITICAL STUDIES?
On one hand, Political Studies is very much like college—sometimes you learn the most in late-night conversations with your peers. The collective social experience of getting to know 35 other people who want to talk about political philosophy—even at 2 in the morning—was fun.
On the other hand, Hertog brings together people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. The folks who challenged my assumptions aided my own intellectual development. And as someone who stayed in DC for a while—where so many Political Studies alumni end up—I’m thankful for my Hertog friends.
DO YOU THINK POLITICAL STUDIES IS BENEFICIAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE INTERESTED IN PUBLIC SERVICE?
Yes. The people I’ve worked with have also studied the classics. The books encourage 30,000-foot strategic thinking about the big picture. What’s the root cause? What’s the end goal?
That’s a powerful framework for a modern bureaucrat. It’s easy to focus on responding to crises. It’s harder to think from 30,000 feet but it’s critical.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 10 YEARS? IN A SIMILAR JOB, OR EMBARKING ON SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
I think I’ll likely work for the government again. Beyond that, I don’t know. Some of the best public servants this country’s ever had were flexible. They seized opportunities as they arose. I can’t say exactly what job I’ll have, but I do hope it’s in public service.
Other courses you might be interested in
MATTHEW CONTINETTI
Matthew Continetti is editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Prior to joining the Beacon, he was opinion editor of The Weekly Standard, where he remains a contributing editor.
ADAM J. WHITE
Adam J. White is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution based in Washington, DC, writing on the Constitution, regulation, and the courts. He is also executive director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
CHRISTOPHER GRIFFIN
Christopher Griffin is a national security expert, specializing in U.S. foreign and defense policy toward the Asia-Pacific. He served as legislative director to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, advising the senator on the full range of legislative proposals and key votes.