AGS Alumna Gives a Guest Lecture in Dr. Anand's Class at Princeton University

On July 15, Professor Ruchi Anand invited AGS alumna Laura-Lee Smith to give a guest lecture in the JSA summer course on International Relations that she teaches at Princeton University.

Ms. Smith gave an overview of NATO’s origins, its expansion over time, and its future, evaluating five different possible scenarios and discussing critical considerations regarding burden-sharing of the twenty-eight member countries.

Laura-Lee Smith graduated from the American Graduate School in Paris in 2009, earning her M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy. Her Master’s thesis focused on the efficacy of nuclear-deterrent economic sanctions and the role of direct diplomacy in the US-Iran case. As a dual degree student, she also earned a second Master’s degree in Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiation from AGS’s partner institution Université Paris-Sud.

Upon graduation, Ms. Smith did an internship at the US Department of State in Washington, before accepting a two-year research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to conduct a study on the NATO mission in Afghanistan, focusing on the role of Germany.

Ms. Smith specializes in foreign and security studies. As a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, her published research findings are about German public opinion and NATO burden-sharing in the Afghanistan conflict. Her analyses are based on interviews with political leaders, diplomatic and military officials, and special advisors from the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, German Bundestag, German Bundeswehr, NATO, and European Commission.

A six-year Berlin resident, Ms. Smith now lectures at the SRH Hochschule Berlin where she coordinates the Foreign Expertise Module. She is also working on her Ph.D. at the University of Erfurt, Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. Her dissertation topic is "An Empirical Study of Local Security in Afghanistan, 2008-2013". (See Laura-Lee Smith's profile on the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy website.)

Commenting on her participation in Dr. Anand’s course at Princeton, Ms. Smith says: “It was an exceptional teaching day and wonderful to meet Ruchi again after our last meeting at the AGS graduation in the French Senate seven years ago. Ruchi continues to be an inspiration for me and I admire her passion for her students and research. I am very thankful to her for allowing me to teach her talented students of JSA Princeton University.”

Dr. Ruchi Anand has been teaching for the JSA (Junior Statesmen of America) program every summer since 2002, at Georgetown, Stanford and Princeton, in addition to her academic activities at AGS.