Many of Passport's readers are college students who are looking to launch careers in foreign policy. As it's job-huntin' season on campus, here's a timely guest post from Peter W. Singer, a military expert at the Brookings Institution and the author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, on how to become a foreign-policy wonk.
Many of Passport ‘s readers are college students who are looking to launch careers in foreign policy. As it’s job-huntin’ season on campus, here’s a timely guest post from Peter W. Singer, a military expert at the Brookings Institution and the author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, on how to become a foreign-policy wonk. We hope you find it helpful.
I wholeheartedly advise and support option #2, but have to acknowledge that #1 has worked for way too many people not to exist (As a corollary, people in this category also tend to wear popped collars, loafers with tassels, and often start wars later in life). One way to decide which rule you want to follow in life is to imagine yourself getting a promotion sometime in the future. When you look yourself in the mirror the next morning, do you want to know that most everyone hates you and is just waiting for you to fail so that the boss can finally see what a turd you are? If you don’t care, then pop that collar and go with #1. Otherwise, stick to #2. The rest of us will be glad you did.
Another thing I have noticed is that multi-taskers tend to advance further than pure specialists. People who can also convene and bring people, programs, and events together are more likely to advance to the leadership level than people who lock themselves away and only write. That is, when you look around at who is in the leadership positions in this field at think tanks, NGOs and the like, it is not merely people who are good writers but people who bring other skills to the table: management, organizational process, strategy, budgeting, fundraising, etc. The funny thing is that many of these skills get absolutely no nourishment within the education backgrounds that typically bring people into the foreign-policy field. Most people either come in with a politics degree or a law degree, but the skills often called upon at the leadership level are of the MBA variety. As you focus on what sort of activities to undertake and skills to build on early in your career, I would keep this in mind.
Peter Warren Singer is senior fellow and director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at Brookings. He is the youngest person named to this position in the 90-year history of the institution. His website is www.pwsinger.com. He also never follows his own advice.
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
