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Join us for Open House on November 13, 2026. Register now.
This reflection was written by Sié Fellows Ripa Ghosh (MA in International Development) and Fahad Al-Salam (MA in International Studies)
On October 15, 2026, two Korbel students and Sié Fellows, Ripa Ghosh and Fahad Al-Salam, joined graduate students from leading international affairs programs worldwide for a Carnegie-supported conversation on how international affairs education should evolve. Their takeaway: pair theory with real-world practice, and bring more interdisciplinary and global perspectives into the classroom.
I had the opportunity to participate in ‘Rethinking International Affairs Education: Student Conversation,’ an international discussion organized through the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, as part of a broader initiative supported by the Carnegie Foundation. The session brought together graduate students from leading international affairs institutions worldwide, including Georgetown University, American University, University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, the Geneva Graduate Institute, and others. The main objective was to explore how international affairs education should evolve to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Participants were divided into breakout groups to discuss different issues, including the role of the private sector, shifting geopolitical power, technological advancements and AI, civil society organizations, and ethical challenges in international affairs. I was part of the group discussing Shifting Geopolitical Balance of Power, where we exchanged our perspectives on the changing global order and what these developments mean for our future.
Our discussion focused on four key questions concerning the current world order, our hopes for the future, our career aspirations, and our expectations from international affairs education. We discussed how the existing global order is in transition, particularly with the rise of China and its growing influence in global politics and economics. We also discussed democratic backsliding and the rise of right-wing political parties in different parts of the world, reflecting on what these trends could mean for international cooperation and political stability. Another important part of our conversation was the role of international organizations. We questioned how effective these institutions are in responding to contemporary global challenges and emphasized the need for stronger, more representative, and more effective international institutions. Despite the uncertainties surrounding the changing world order, we shared our hopes for a future where countries could resolve differences through dialogue and cooperation rather than confrontation. We also discussed our professional aspirations, which ranged from pursuing academic careers and research to working with international organizations, NGOs, diplomacy, public policy, think tanks, and international development. Although our career interests differed, we shared a common desire to help address global challenges and make a meaningful impact.
One of the most interesting parts of the discussion was reflecting on what we expect from our international affairs education. We agreed that while theoretical knowledge is essential, universities should place greater emphasis on connecting classroom learning with real-world challenges. We discussed the importance of practical experiences, including internships, policy simulations, case studies, research opportunities, and direct engagement with policymakers and professionals working in the field. We also felt that international affairs programs should encourage more interdisciplinary learning, critical thinking, and exposure to perspectives from different regions of the world. Beyond the academic discussions, I particularly appreciated the opportunity to interact with students from different countries and academic backgrounds. Listening to their perspectives helped me understand how people around the world interpret the same international developments differently. The session was also a valuable networking opportunity, allowing us to connect with fellow students from other international affairs institutions and explore how to maintain these connections through a future student network. Overall, it was an engaging and meaningful experience that encouraged me to think more critically about the changing international system, my own professional goals, and how international affairs education can better prepare us for the challenges ahead.
Participating in the Rethinking International Affairs Education student conversation was a meaningful experience. I had the opportunity to represent the Josef Korbel School and connect with students from around the world to discuss how international affairs education should evolve in response to today's global challenges. I was part of Group 3, where I joined two students from Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco to discuss technological changes and artificial intelligence. What I found particularly interesting was how, despite coming from different countries and academic backgrounds, we shared many of the same concerns about the future of technology. Our conversation focused on two major issues: AI governance and its implications for human development. We discussed how rapidly technology is advancing compared to the policies regulating it, and how unequal access to technology, digital skills, and resources could further widen existing inequalities. Coming from Bangladesh and studying international development, I was particularly interested in discussing how these challenges affect marginalized communities and developing countries.
One of my biggest takeaways was that international affairs education needs to prepare students not only to use emerging technologies but also to critically understand their social, political, and ethical implications. We talked about the importance of AI literacy, practical learning opportunities, and bringing more Global South perspectives into conversations about technology and policymaking. I also really appreciated the opportunity to exchange ideas with peers from another institution. It was interesting to see how our different experiences contributed to a shared understanding of these global challenges. For me, this conversation reinforced the importance of creating spaces where students from different countries can learn from one another, challenge their perspectives, and think collectively about solutions. I hope initiatives like this continue and create more opportunities for cross-institutional collaboration, because understanding international affairs requires engaging with perspectives beyond our own classrooms and communities.
Join the Sié Center for a conversation with author and expert on geopolitics Dalia Dassa Kaye on U.S.-Iran relations and American foreign policy. Drawing on her new book, Enduring Hostility, Kaye will explore why hostility between the United States and Iran has endured — and what this history reveals about how foreign policy is made. The conversation will connect U.S.-Iran relations to broader questions of Middle East security and American engagement in the region, followed by audience Q&A.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and director of its Initiative on Regional Security Architectures. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dalia is an internationally recognized expert on geopolitics and Middle East policy. During her fifteen years at the RAND Corporation, Dalia served as a senior political scientist and the director of the Center of Middle East Public Policy.
She has received numerous awards and held previous positions at an array of research and public policy institutions, including as a Fulbright Schuman visiting scholar at Lund University, a fellow at the Wilson Center, an advisor at the Foreign Ministry of The Netherlands, an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill.
She is a frequent public speaker and contributor to leading media outlets, including BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, and Foreign Affairs. She is the author of dozens of articles and policy reports, as well as three books, including most recently Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy (Stanford University Press, 2026).
Dalia holds her BA, MA, and PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Join us for a post-election conversation with faculty experts in public policy, law, political science, and foreign policy to examine the 2026 state and federal election results and the political, policy, and legal implications for the U.S. and global landscape. Co-hosted by the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy and the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy, the discussion will bring together perspectives from Korbel, CAHSS, and Sturm to explore what the election results mean for Colorado, the country, and the rest of the globe.
The event will conclude with an audience Q&A. Open to all!
Faculty speakers:
- Dean Fritz Mayer | Dean of Korbel School and Professor
- Professor Naazneen Barma| Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs | Director, Scrivner Institute
- Professor Phil Chen | Associate Professor of Political Science
- Professor Viva Moffat | Assistant Professor, Sturm College of Law
- Professor Seth Masket | Professor of Political Science
- Professor Rachel Epstein | Professor of International Relations | Director of the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy
- Professor Susan Schulten | Distinguished Professor of History
The Sie Center presents the first event of our 2026-2027 quarterly Policy Pop-Up series, in partnership with the Scrivner Institute of Public Policy. Please join us for a casual, open discussion related to current policy with featured faculty. We invite all DU students, faculty, and staff to come and bring questions related to the upcoming midterm elections.*
Faculty speakers:
- Dean Fritz Mayer, Dean of Korbel School and Professor
- Professor Naazneen Barma, Professor | Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs | Director, Scrivner Institute
- Professor Ajenai Clemmons, Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Pizza will be served.
*Please note: This is not a public event.
In a world struggling with social polarization and conflict, strengthening social cohesion, and building peace, requires learning lessons and carefully crafted approaches. What works to renew trust and foster peace in the wake of polarization and conflict? This timely lunchtime panel features the experiences and insights of leading practitioners who have mediated social differences through community-based approaches in Northern Ireland and in a myriad of other settings around the world.
The conversation will be moderated by Korbel professor Tim Sisk. Following the discussion, we will have an open audience Q&A. This event is open to students, faculty, staff, and DU community members. We hope to see you there!
The Korbel School will host a town hall style event with Tobias Bergner, Director of the German Information Center - Public Diplomacy at the German Embassy. This event will engage with DU and Korbel students, faculty, and staff, as well as interested members of the public about German foreign policy in a town hall style format. Mr. Bergner will begin with brief introductory remarks before opening up to audience Q&A, moderated by Korbel Professor Rachel Epstein. A reception with light bites and refreshments will precede the program.
We invite you to join us for the Anschutz National Security Lecture Series, where we'll host a timely conversation with Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. Drawing on insights from his latest book, To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution, O’Hanlon will explore the evolution of U.S. defense strategy — from its historical foundations to today’s complex global landscape — and assess what lies ahead for American national security. With a regional lens, the discussion will also highlight Colorado’s contributions to national defense.
Korbel Professor Rachel Epstein will moderate the conversation, which will be followed by audience Q&A. Doors open at 5:15, and programming begins at 5:30.
Dr. O'Hanlon's book is available here: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300279931/to-dare-mighty-things/
About Michael O'Hanlon
Dr. Michael O’Hanlon is the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy and director of research in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy and budgets, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He is a senior fellow and directs the Strobe Talbott Center on Security, Strategy, and Technology. He co-directs the Africa Security Initiative as well. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Columbia University and was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board from 2021 to 2025; he was also a member of the external advisory board at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2011-12. His newest book, timed to coincide with the nation’s 250th birthday, is “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution” (Yale Press, 2026). In 2023, O’Hanlon published a book titled “Military History for the Modern Strategist: America’s Major Wars since 1861.” His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, Survival, Washington Quarterly, Joint Forces Quarterly, and International Security, among other publications; he has also written hundreds of op-eds in major newspapers. Recent articles include a detailed analysis of the U.S. defense budget, a military assessment of a possible Chinese blockade of Taiwan, and a proposal with Georgetown Professor Lise Howard for a new security architecture for eastern Europe. O’Hanlon has appeared on television or spoken on the radio more than 4,000 times since September 11, 2001.
At the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, global challenges are not abstract. They are lived, debated, researched, and translated into action. A shining example of this real-world approach is Korbel’s Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy, a research hub born from a vision that ideas, when supported and connected, can move the world toward greater peace, security, prosperity, and justice.
Thanks to a transformative endowment from the Anna & John J. Sié Foundation, the Sié Center was dedicated in 2009 and named in honor of John Sié's father, Ambassador Sié Chéou-Kang, an extraordinary diplomat, educator, author and playwright, who spent much of his adult life in Europe forging relationships on behalf of China. Inspired by Ambassador Sié Chéou-Kang’s legacy of bridge-building, the Center was designed to bring scholars together across disciplines and perspectives.
This generous gift created more than a physical space; It established a durable intellectual infrastructure designed to support interdisciplinary research and elevate scholarship that bridges security and diplomacy across sectors and borders.
Korbel Distinguished University Professor Deborah Avant became the center’s inaugural director, and under her leadership, the center launched important, policy-relevant initiatives and brought in its first faculty and students. Over time, the Center has evolved through different leadership eras, partnerships, and major grants, including multiple iterations of Carnegie Corporation funding.
“As it exists today, the Sié Center serves as a dynamic hub to support faculty whose research interests span the spectrum of security and diplomacy – from nuclear strategy and military security to cultural diplomacy, gender and security, conflict studies, and climate governance,” said Ashten Scheller, program manager of the Sié Center. “We want to be responsive to global events as they happen.”
Today, the Sié Center is led by Korbel Professor Rachel Epstein, who continues Sié’s ambition to keep communities informed through pathbreaking faculty research and programming on ongoing global issues, from the recent elections in Bangladesh to nuclear non-proliferation efforts to understanding limits on immigrants' and asylum seekers' legal access in the United States.
“In our programming, we connect faculty research to events unfolding in real time,” Dr. Epstein said. Faculty expertise puts world developments in historical perspective and illuminates the deeper sources of conflict and cooperation across many regional settings.”
The Sié Center brings research to light to ensure scholarship serving the public good reaches the public itself. Through its primary engagement initiatives, the center explores how academics and policymakers can engage ethically and effectively:
Beyond these initiatives, Sié hosts more than two dozen events and programs each year, including new “Policy Pop-Ups” that bring faculty together for informal conversations about pressing global events, giving students direct access to expertise beyond the classroom.
IGLI travels to New Mexico
“We want to be a hub for research and also a gathering hub for community,” Scheller shared, an ethos that is visible in how the center supports both faculty and students.
Faculty Support
From its earliest days, the center’s intention was clear: build an interdisciplinary body of research that cuts across silos, enabling faculty within Korbel and across DU departments such as the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, along with visiting scholars and practitioners, to collaborate in an ongoing exchange of ideas.
Supporting such research and collaboration means more than administrative coordination. It means working directly with faculty who secure external grants, offering frequent feedback, connecting research opportunities with available funding, and brainstorming programming ideas.
For example, Sié staff coordinate with affiliated faculty like Dr. Hilary Matfess, who leads a team of 14 research assistants as part of a grant on Women’s Mobilization Within Armed Groups During and After War, and support other leading projects on nuclear security, democratic erosion, climate transitions, and global economic restructuring. The center provides the backbone that allows these projects to scale.
Sié’s small staff team has always had an outsized impact. The centralized structure — typically a director and program manager partnership — creates a focused research support unit within the larger school.
“It allows us to specialize more in our program and, in some ways, be more creative with our programming,” Scheller explained. This tight coordination enables faster idea generation, more constructive brainstorming, and targeted administrative support for research projects, she said.
In addition, while high-level research often happens behind the scenes, the Sié Center ensures it does not stay there.
“Because we understand the wide-ranging research outputs of all faculty, we also try to support them in communicating to the public via social media and newsletter announcements to increase their exposure,” Scheller added.
Faculty affiliate Debak Das hosts an event on nuclear arms and armament.
“The Sié Center is also about providing research resources to outstanding students,” said Scheller.
Between 30 and 40 students support affiliated faculty each academic year and do much more than research alone. Assistants develop skills in data collection, literature review curation, analytical writing, and subject-matter mastery, often working one-on-one with faculty in intensive mentorship relationships. Among these research assistants are the highly competitive Sié Fellows, who receive full scholarships that help remove financial barriers and embed students directly in active research.
These unique research experiences and direct line to Sié faculty affiliates have shaped many careers during students’ time at Korbel and after graduation. Here are just a few of many Sié student stories:
Korbel students attend one of the Center's many events
Universities produce important research, but that research does not always travel on its own. Centers and institutes create a structure that allows scholarships to thrive, even beyond academia.
“Centers provide increased research support and reduce systemic barriers for our faculty,” Scheller said. “As we are able to focus on our specific faculty’s research and needs, Sié allows resources to be allocated more specifically and efficiently to research clusters.”
Without that structure, research can happen more slowly, more sporadically. A center provides organizational scaffolding around research, bringing visibility to work already underway while helping faculty balance scholarship with public engagement, student mentorship, and grant development.
Beyond faculty initiatives, centers and institutes allow opportunities for greater student engagement “because they centralize research projects into both clear and tangible opportunities within the school,” Scheller added.
At the Sié Center, that structure translates into measurable impact that reframes traditional divides in global affairs and contributes to real-world understanding and experience.
The world of security and diplomacy is not static. Neither is the Sié Center.
“Times have always been tumultuous. But today’s foreign policy landscape moves quickly — and the public wants clarity,” Scheller said. “The Sié Center exists to ensure that when global events unfold, the experts are ready, the research is visible, and the next generation of scholars and practitioners is already engaged in the work.”
In the 2025–2026 academic year, programming highlights the human costs and policy dilemmas of Russia’s war in Ukraine; the restructuring of the global economic order under renewed U.S. tariffs; the power of cultural diplomacy through sports and the arts; and the domestic and international implications of a second Trump presidency, among many other pressing topics.
Student simulations, data workshops, and spring programming on nuclear proliferation, democratic erosion, genocide, and the global energy transition are already underway.
The center’s priority remains constant even as topics shift, as staff at Sié continue working directly with faculty to support their most impactful research and ensure that expertise informs public conversation.
“By linking faculty research to analysis of developments in world politics, the Sié Center highlights the importance of deep and free inquiry, independent of any given political wind,” said Dr. Epstein. “Our faculty and students remain committed to seeking the truth, no matter how unpopular or controversial it may be.”
The 2026 colloquium will explore current challenges to democracy around the world and international and comparative legal responses that could strengthen equal participation as a broad democratic principle. The colloquium is co-hosted by the Ved Nanda Center for International and Comparative Law, the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security & Diplomacy, and the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy.
View the 2026 Sutton Colloquium Program
Join us for a fascinating fireside chat with Dr. A. Dirk Moses, Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations, City College of New York, and editor of the Journal of Genocide Studies. Following his remarks, Korbel Prof. Marie Berry will moderate a conversation with Dr. Moses and Dr. Simon Maghakyan, University of Oxford Associate and Colorado College Visiting Professor.
Refreshments will be provided.
This event is presented by the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy in partnership with Armenians of Colorado.
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