View from the Hill
It always seems like whenever I am learning about a particular topic, it subsequently pops up in the national news. Maybe it’s because I’m more hyper-aware of the topics precisely because I am learning about them, but regardless, this week the national news took an unfortunate turn and began to mirror my research. At the end of last week I received an assignment to do some background research on international standards for the treatment of women in prisons. The research was being conducted in preparation for developing a framework to apply in Honduras, a country thats prison system is currently 200% over capacity. Just as I was discovering the Bangkok Rules, which were promulgated by the UN to govern the treatment of incarcerated women, news broke of the separation of women and children at the southern border. I can say that this summer has certainly been an interesting time to be doing rule of law work, as news continuously breaks about threats to the rule of law in the United States. My learning this summer has sure come in handy!
After finishing the Honduras memo, the remainder of my week was spent doing research on migration for a presentation that Maddie (the other NCSC legal intern) and I will be doing at the end of the summer for the NCSC staff (we picked this topic before current events brought the issue to the forefront). The research was also in preparation for a VERY exciting excursion Maddie and I will be going on at the beginning of next week, stay tuned!
This week also brought an opportunity to go into D.C. and attend a conference put on by the Center for New American Security (CNAS). For a foreign policy and defense nerd like myself, this conference was an absolute dream come true. The conference kicked off with a Q&A with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham about US Foreign Policy viewed from the lens of Capitol Hill. Senators Warren and Graham are obviously VERY well known and outspoken and seeing them together was actually a beautiful image of bipartisanship. While both have strong viewpoints on where the US should be moving in terms of its foreign policy, they were able to engage in a constructive dialogue and some friendly banter that was certainly a reminder of the need for our government to work together. As someone now educated about the importance of rule of law work, it was also great to hear both Senators stress the importance of the US’ soft-power efforts to our overall diplomatic mission. The focus of this years conference was on how the US can maintain its strategic edge around the world. It included sessions on US military competition with China, the North Korea nuclear situation, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East. It was incredible to hear from the nation’s leading experts in foreign policy, I learned A LOT. To top things off, one of my William & Mary friends who is also interning in D.C. attended the conference too so I got to spend time with her while learning!
