Newsroom

After a lifetime of studying and participating in the politics and diplomacy of the Middle East, Daniel C. Kurtzer has measured U.S. diplomacy in the region against one event — one he helped shape more than 30 years ago.Back in 1991, Kurtzer was serving as a member of the Middle East peace team of Secretary of State James A. Baker III. Although the U.S. had been trying to convene an international Middle East peace conference since the previous administration, it took a public directive to end the Arab-Israeli conflict by President George H. W. Bush to set the stage for a breakthrough.Kurtzer, who has been the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East…

“At 19, I received a scholarship to live and study abroad for the first time in Baku, Azerbaijan. The experience reshaped my understanding of cross-cultural exchange and sparked my interest in economic development, especially as I observed stark regional inequalities outside the capital. After graduating from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities during the pandemic, I began my career in public service as a contact tracer for my county. I went on to teach English at a university in Türkiye and later worked in international financial services before transitioning to economic policy. At the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of International…

Mattie Isaac ’27 began learning Mandarin at an immersion school in Washington, D.C., as a child. She closely follows Chinese culture, enjoys the region’s cuisines, and listens to its music. Her family has hosted two exchange students from China, and she first went to the country in 2017.As a student at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Isaac has a strong interest in U.S.-China relations. Yet, up until this spring, Isaac had few opportunities to engage directly with peers and scholars in China.In May, on the heels of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Isaac was one of 11…

For three years, the Princeton SPIA DC Center has served as the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ policy nexus in Washington, a place for faculty, students, alumni, and policymakers from across the federal landscape to gather for dialogue, symposia, and networking.Complementing the center’s focus on policy is a policy-adjacent cultural series. For the last two years, “Books & Cocktails” has brought faculty authors and other high-profile thought leaders to its Dupont Circle locale for stimulating conversations with Princeton SPIA faculty members, prominent journalists, and experts, followed by socializing on the building’s…