This past fall I had the privilege of working as an intern at the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) at the Department of State. CSO is a functional bureau, which means it does not focus on any specific region. Instead, CSO focuses on questions of stabilization which can be divided into three lines of effort: political instability, security sector stabilization, and countering violent extremism. CSO provides expertise in order to support officials throughout the government including other bureaus, the intelligence community, embassies, and Geographic Combatant Commands (COCOMS)
Within CSO, I worked in the office of Advanced Analytics (CSO/AA). CSO/AA serves the bureau by providing analytical support to any products being produced. This means that my day-to-day involved working on different types of complicated stabilization issues, in different regions around the world. In many ways interning at CSO/AA is similar to a graduate research assistant position, except with greater responsibility, independence, and shorter timelines. As the analytic office for CSO, CSO/AA produces research with extremely short turnaround.
The fast paced culture of CSO/AA allowed me to test analytical skills gained at Maxwell, and learn several new analytical methods. Additionally, I was able to gain new knowledge about conflict dynamics in dozens of different countries. This provided an insight into a newer way of approaching international relations, one where technical expertise can be just as important as regional expertise.
Outside of CSO, I was able to take advantage of all of the benefits presented to interns at the Department of State. I found almost anyone was willing to talk to me about their office, even without a prior connection. Additionally, the Department of State organizes activities for the hundreds of interns working for the department at any given time. This allowed me to go to workshops on federal resume writing, participate in diplomatic simulations, watch a war gaming session, and listen to speakers from around the world.
Adam Miller completed his MAIR degree in December 2020. He also interned at the Fund for Peace.