School of International Service, AU

10/15/2026

We asked SIS students to share their favorite class 📚 Comment your favorite SIS class!

10/13/2026

Just a month into his first semester at SIS, Lucas Dunn, SIS/BA ’30, found himself moderating a coffee chat with Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Geraldine Byrne Nason ahead of her panel discussion for Ambassadors Up Close.

The Ambassadors Up Close series takes advantage of SIS’s location just off Embassy Row to bring ambassadors to campus for panel discussions and real conversations with students. More than 20 events in, guests have included ambassadors from Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Denmark, and Thailand.

“I have the opportunity to meet these people that aren’t just experts in their fields, but they constantly are involved in international politics—like the ambassador from Ireland,” says Dunn.

Read more about the series ➡️ https://bit.ly/4B2Doof

10/09/2026

This week, SIS was honored to welcome Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi to campus. Satyarthi is a children’s rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 and founded both the Save the Childhood Movement and the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion.

During the event, Satyarthi shared his vision for eradicating child labor and reflected on the role of compassion in that work. He then joined a panel conversation, led by SIS professor Judy Gearhart, with Jon Jacoby, CEO of GoodWeave International, and Timothy Ryan, chairperson of the Global March Against Child Labour.

Thank you to Kailash Satyarthi, Jon Jacoby, and Timothy Ryan for joining us on campus for this important conversation!

10/08/2026

Islamophobia and xenophobia surged in the wake of 9/11—and it didn't end there. SIS professor Gregory Aftandilian joins Big World to trace that legacy to today's political rhetoric.

“Unfortunately, we still see Islamophobia today. If you look at the Michigan Senate race, you have a Muslim American running against this Republican Mike Rogers, and even though Mike Rogers has not played into Islamophobia, certainly a lot of supporters of his have.”

He also looks back at the larger legacy of the War on Terror, 25 years after the attacks that reshaped U.S. foreign policy.

🌎 Listen to the full conversation on Big World, a podcast from the School of International Service at American University 🎙️ https://bit.ly/4iixQz4

10/07/2026

When can I join the Foreign Service? How can I best prepare myself?

On this episode of Ask a Diplomat, SIS professor and Chair of the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security Piper Campbell answered questions about her time as the US Ambassador to Mongolia and a Senior Official to ASEAN.

When can I join the Foreign Service? How can I best prepare myself?...

10/06/2026

What is John F. Kennedy’s legacy more than six decades after his presidency? Is he just an icon in a distant collective memory, or have his dilemmas as a political thinker and leader returned in new forms today?

SIS professor Hansong Li is joined by Stephen Kennedy Smith, Kennedy Presidential Library board member, and Fredrik Logevall, a Pulitzer-winning historian at Harvard Kennedy School and Kennedy biographer, to discuss these questions and more. From executive power and corporate concentration, to nuclear danger, technological disruption, and a fractured public sphere, the conversation asks what Kennedy’s record can—or cannot—teach us about governing amid today’s polycrisis.

Listen now:

WorldViews is proud to present a rare and remarkable fireside trilo...

09/30/2026

📣 Calling all SIS Alumni: Know someone passionate about serving the global community who is interested in applying to grad school? We’re awarding up to 10 students $30k each toward their master’s degree at SIS and would love for YOU to tell us about someone exceptional you think is ready to rise to the occasion.

Earlier this year, we launched the SIS Global Service Leaders Award—a new alumni-nominated scholarship for individuals interested in pursuing a master’s degree at SIS whose work exemplifies what SIS stands for.

We know you've worked alongside exceptional people. Colleagues, mentees, and partners whose commitment to peacebuilding, diplomacy, global governance, international development, climate justice, or any sector serving the global community, answers our call to service. Now is your chance to nominate them.

How it works (nominations are open to SIS alumni only):
✅ Your nominee applies to an SIS master's program for spring or fall with all materials submitted by the required deadline.
✅ You email us at [email protected] with their name and a paragraph on why you are nominating them. Deadlines are November 1 for spring applicants, and January 15 for fall applicants.
✅ Note: you can nominate more than one person (please send separate emails)

At a time when the world needs well-trained international affairs professionals more than ever, help us shape our next class. Who will you nominate?

See our graduate admissions webpage more information on application deadlines: https://www.american.edu/sis/admissions/index.cfm

09/28/2026

Could Ireland be reunified anytime soon? President Trump's recent comments put the question back in the headlines, but SIS professor Carolyn Gallaher and SPA professor Kimberly Cowell-Meyers say not so fast.

In a piece originally published in The Conversation U.S. they explain what unification would actually take—from a referendum, to merging two governments, to government spending, and why Irish Americans are now divided over what the U.S. role should be.

Read their full analysis: https://bit.ly/4d5e8DA

09/27/2026

Five years ago, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ended in chaos at the Kabul airport and a Taliban takeover. SIS professor Gregory Aftandilian joins Big World to revisit how that withdrawal unfolded, what's happened to Afghanistan and its people since—from the rollback of women's rights to a growing food crisis—and what the U.S. still hasn't reckoned with from the War on Terror.

🌎 Listen to the latest episode of Big World, a podcast from the School of International Service at American University 🎙️ https://bit.ly/4iixQz4

09/24/2026

Ahead of the much-anticipated presidential meeting between President Trump and President Xi, Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, joins SIS professor Hansong Li to ask whether the world’s most contested and consequential bilateral relationship can be mended in this age of national security and AI risks.

Have Washington and Beijing allowed legitimate security concerns to expand into indiscriminate securitization—from semiconductors and investment, to healthcare, electric vehicles, and student visas? Orlins challenges the ever-expanding “small yard, high fence,” while Li asks whether economic entanglement can still restrain geopolitical rivalry. Both are concerned with the dramatic decline in American students studying in China, which, coupled with China’s growing ability to attract global scientific talent, exacerbates the asymmetry of knowledge between Chinese and American youths.

Listen now on the WorldViews podcast:

Ahead of a much-anticipated inter-presidential meeting between Trum...