Week 1: Sowing Seeds
Throughout the spring semester of 2L year, I worked on a little garden at the William & Mary Campus Gardens. I grew my garden from seeds to little sprouts until finally I planted them in the ground. As I got ready to leave for D.C., I felt a little tinge of sadness that I'd have to leave behind my little plant babies this summer. Nevertheless, on Sunday afternoon, I said one last goodbye to my garden, packed up my car, and headed off for a new adventure. It was time for me to sow my own seeds in D.C. as I started working at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where I've been dreaming of working since I started law school.
Before I knew I would be working here, though, I talked to previous USIP interns from William & Mary, and they raved about their experiences. Without fail, each of them made sure to mention how beautiful the office is, and when I arrived on my first day of work this Monday, I could definitely tell why. The building is stunning. It's bright and airy, and there's even a rooftop terrace where we can go to eat lunch or take a break. Not to mention, it's across the street from the Lincoln Memorial and walking distance to the National Mall! On my first day, I spent time getting oriented at the organization and meeting the other members of my team, while also fleshing out my project for the next ten weeks.
This summer I'll be working as part of USIP's Justice & Security Dialogues Project. The goal of this project is to improve relations between state security services and their constituents. Accordingly, it focuses on the Sahel and Maghreb regions of Africa, where colonialism contributed to mistrust between citizens and their governments, especially toward security services such as police and military. USIP's JSD project represents a hyper-localized approach; USIP facilitates conversations, but local actors come up with and implement solutions that work for them, making the project more impactful and sustainable.
Within 30 minutes after getting to work on Monday, I got to hear how this process works while sitting in on a phone conference between several of our team members and local partners in Africa. Although, it was a little intimidating, as the meeting was almost completely in French! I better brush up on my Duolingo practice!
After that, I met with my supervisor, a fellow WM Tribe member, and she explained my research project for the summer. My job is to determine if, when, and how states should engage with non-state security forces ranging from neighborhood watch groups to vigilante groups to citizen militias. Ultimately, this research will include case studies of successful and non-successful state engagements as well as an analysis of which factors appear to be key in making interactions successful.
While this task seems pretty monumental, I'm excited to dig deeper into it after having researched a little already this week. I know my work this summer is going to be useful to USIP because they need this research to provide models that can be used in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. In these two countries, vigilante groups have mixed relationships with state security forces. While the groups often provide security that the state is unable or unwilling to provide, and the groups enjoy some popular legitimacy, they often turn violent against the populations they set out to protect. The key is to determine how states can engage these groups before they "turn bad," or become corrupt. That's what I'll be trying to figure out. Easy as pie, right?
In between researching for my project, though, USIP also hosts a number of events and educational opportunities that I plan on taking advantage of while I'm here. Outside of the office, I have been getting settled in to my new apartment in Arlington, exploring my neighborhood, and visiting the monuments that are so close by USIP.
Stay tuned for the progression of my research, more of my adventures in D.C., as well as updates on my garden back home!