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In fall 2026, members of the International Relations Policy Task Force Learning Community at the Schar School of Policy and Government will engage in four projects identified by the U.S. State Department as priority policy areas.
Associate Professor Ketian Zhang, faculty director of IRTF, secured four project placements through the U.S. State Department’s Diplomacy Lab. These placements are awarded to participating universities to conduct research on specific policy questions posed by State Department offices. These are the most proposals IRTF has received from the Diplomacy Lab.
Launched by the Department of State in 2013, Diplomacy Lab is a public-private partnership between the department and more than 60 U.S. academic institutions to broaden the State Department’s research base. Diplomacy Lab connects State Department offices with university teams to leverage the expertise and fresh perspectives of students across the nation to conduct research on key foreign policy topics.
The four projects are: “Strengthening U.S. Economic Engagement in Pacific Island Countries”; “Exploring the Decline in U.S. Study of Mandarin and Study Abroad in China”; “U.S.-Australia-New Zealand Space Education: Strategic Partnerships in Workforce Development”; and “Implications of China’s Use of Economic Coercion on Human Rights and Rule of Law in Countries in Africa and Its Effects on U.S. National Security.”
IRTF students will conduct research on the topics, write a final policy report for the State Department, and present their research in spring 2027 at the State Department and at Chinese and Australian embassies.
“I am very excited to have IRTF students work on these projects, which will be a hands-on practical experience for them to translate their empirically grounded research for policy use for the State Department," said Zhang.
In the yearlong IRTF, students work to identify and address some of the world’s most intractable problems. Previous classes have examined the following issues: Are Chinese private security companies effective in realizing Chinese foreign policy goals? How effective are U.S. counter narcotics policies in Latin America? What impact does the withdrawal of USAID have on great power competition in Southeast Asia?
This represents a small sample of the questions examined by the IRTF, Zhang says, where the course blends analytical research with policy relevance.
“Students learn the necessary social science skills to conduct their own analytical research on a crucial international relations question of their interest,” she said. “They also learn how to translate social science research into actionable policy reports. They are exposed to cutting-edge social science research as well as views from former practitioners and policy analysts from the nation’s capital.”
For more information about joining the International Relations Policy Task Force, visit this website.