The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) prides itself in providing training to its interns in research and policy analysis, editorial skills, and in the field of international relations broadly. FPRI interns have gone on to hold key posts in the US government, including first US Ambassador to Kosovo, Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the State Department, Special Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Strategic Advisor to the Commander of Cyber Command, and Undersecretary of Defense. 

Meet Our 2025 Spring Interns

China’s Cyber Playbook for the Indo-Pacific

Cyber operations are now a defining feature of modern warfare, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated—and China is taking note. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has served as a testing ground for the integration of emerging technologies...

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Taiwan Relations Act in a New Era of Security Cooperation

For a document intended to carefully outline relations with a key US partner while navigating a region’s complex history and geopolitical realities, eight pages seem brief. Enacted in 1979 in response to the US switch in recognition from the...

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Japan’s Immigration Policy and the Kurdish Population

In a 2024 article on Japan’s changing refugee policy in the Asia-Pacific Journal, Maximilien Xavier Rehm, a researcher at Doshisha University, argues that “Japan’s recent shift to grant more asylum seekers protection can be...

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Erosion of the Norm of Using Chemical Weapons

The global norm against chemical weapons, bolstered by international disarmament initiatives and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), stands as a pillar of modern arms control. This treaty has achieved remarkable successes, including the elimination of 97 percent of the...

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Strengthening Pacific Security: US Shiprider Agreements

Shiprider Agreements and the US Coast Guard Early last year, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) cutter Harriet Lane, with Vanuatu maritime law enforcement officials on board, conducted an expeditionary patrol that moved through Vanuatu’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)....

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Toward a Balanced Approach: How Should the US Engage With An Increasingly Powerful Rwanda?

Rwanda—the small, landlocked country in East Africa known colloquially as the “land of a thousand hills”—has arguably gained outsized influence in Africa in recent years. Previously known most prominently for the horrors enacted against ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus...

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Russia’s Information War in Moldova

Introduction Historically, Russia has done everything it can to keep countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union in its so-called “sphere of influence” as far from the West’s orbit as possible. However, in recent years, some of...

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The BRICS Challenge to the G7 Established International Order

G7 and BRICS The G7, led by the United States in the Global North, and BRICS, led by China in the Global South, are each working diligently to control the rules-based international order. To better understand this competition, it...

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Breaking the Circuit: US-China Semiconductor Controls

In October 2022, the Biden administration introduced export controls to limit China’s access to advanced US semiconductors and technologies, aiming to maintain US technological superiority and address security concerns. These controls, targeting areas such as advanced chips and supercomputer...

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Is Change on the Horizon? Japan’s Domestic Politics

Since its creation in 1955, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated the Japanese Diet, or parliament, winning a majority in almost every election. However, its grip on the Diet is loosening, as shown by the loss of three...

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