Pardee Institute’s Luke Venezia Wins Stimson Center Essay Competition

July 11, 2024 

Luke Venezia, a core Diplometrics team member at the Frederick S. Pardee Institute of International Futures and an undergraduate student at the University of Denver, has been adjudged the winner of the Stimson Center's 2nd annual Build a Better U.S. Foreign Policy student essay competition.  

Venezia’s winning essay, “The US Should Be Taking the Lead on Global Infrastructure Development,” focused on proposing a more efficient approach for the United States to advance sustainable international infrastructure development while avoiding the situation where funds get trapped in corrupt bureaucracies and doomed projects. 

Commenting on the award-winning essay in an article published by the Stimson Center, Venezia noted that his experience studying in Italy had inspired his essay. “I was studying abroad in Italy back in the Fall, and at that time, the country had recently withdrawn its membership in the Belt and Road Initiative, in part because of worsening US and China relations,” he said. “The need to curtail Huawei was evident, but the means to do so was limited at best from the European side. A recent class in political risk pointed me in the direction of realizing benefits from risk, not just mitigation. This led to a more business-driven perspective to foreign policy issues, hence, utilizing the private sector.”  

Venezia's achievement connects to the Pardee Institute and the work of its Diplometrics team, building their expertise and contribution to international affairs, particularly in sustainable infrastructure development. 

The winning essay can be found here on Inkstick Media.