international relations

May 21, 2025May 21, 2025

Anya Nair Takes on Research Intern Role at Traverse Project

Published by: Matt Seldon at Homeland Security Today

Anya Nair has joined the Traverse Project as a Research Intern, according to a recent update shared via LinkedIn. Nair began the internship in May 2025 and brings a range of policy, research, and advocacy experience to the role.

Nair’s background includes several internships focused on law, policy, and nonprofit work. Most recently, Nair served as a Research and Policy Intern with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association in Washington, D.C., where responsibilities included supporting nonprofit legal initiatives and contributing to policy research. Earlier in 2024, Nair worked as a Legal Intern in the Pro-Bono Office at The Center for Family Justice, conducting legal research and supporting work related to family law.

In addition to policy-oriented experience, Nair has held leadership and entrepreneurial roles. As the founder of Vintage Breakout, Nair has operated a small business offering affordable secondhand and vintage fashion in New York City and Washington, D.C., with a mission focused on ethical fashion and consumer inclusivity.

Nair’s prior involvement in public service includes being one of the first two student representatives elected to serve on the Westport Board of Education, a role that involved communicating student perspectives to district leadership. Nair has also held a communications and marketing internship with Akhil Bhartiya Netrahin Sangh in New Delhi and completed a procurement internship at Yale University focused on business operations and diversity in contracting.

Nair is currently an undergraduate student at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, majoring in international relations.

(AI was used in part to facilitate this article.)

June 8, 2023July 5, 2023

Elliott Student was Awarded the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship

Payton Beaumier, who recently graduated from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, was awarded a 2023 Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship following a highly competitive nationwide contest.

The Pickering Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Howard University, supports extraordinary individuals who want to pursue careers in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State. Beaumier was chosen out of 600 outstanding candidates.

Beaumier, who grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, said that since high school, she’s dreamed of having a career that would allow her to work towards advancing human rights on a global scale.

One of her teachers in high school once said, “What makes this country great is little people doing little acts of love.” Beaumier said it is a quote that continuously sticks with her and serves as a source of motivation to dedicate her life to public service.

After completing her graduate program, Payton will become a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. She hopes to serve as a political officer working to address matters of human security and strengthen U.S. relations with countries across the globe. Payton credits her time and experience at GW for setting her on this trajectory.

When Beaumier arrived at GW, she was searching for a way to turn her passions into a career, and GW provided an incomparable sense of direction and an environment for curiosity and growth. She stated, “I had amazing academic and experiential learning opportunities at GW. It is a wonderful place to jumpstart your interests.” Specifically, she expressed her gratitude for the unique courses she took, her engaging and influential professors, the Career Services Center, and her time as part of the Elliott School Dean’s Scholars Program.

While at GW, Payton served as the recruitment officer for the Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Sorority and was president of the Women in International Security Branch at GWU.

She participated in the U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program and interned with the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, focusing on international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. She has completed internships at the White House with the Gender Policy Council, the U.S. Department of the Treasury with the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Payton became aware of her selection for the Pickering Fellowship during her time as an intern for the White House Gender Policy Council, and she aspires to continue advocating for gender equity and equality in foreign policy during her career.

This fellowship will allow Beaumier to pursue a two-year master’s degree in an area of relevance to the Foreign Service. It will also connect her to extensive professional development opportunities, including internships, mentors, and skills training.

As part of the program, Beaumier will work at the U.S. Department of State for their domestic internship, and the U.S. Department of State will send her overseas to intern in a U.S. Embassy or Consulate to get hands-on experience with U.S. foreign policy and the work of the Foreign Service.

“I am excited for the opportunity to dedicate my future and my career to promoting peace and supporting our citizens abroad while living a life of public service.”

January 30, 2023March 20, 2023

Student Org Fair at Elliott

In case you missed it! The Elliott school recently hosted the Spring 2023 Student Org Fair. Students were able to go table to table and discover just what the 20 Elliott student orgs on campus have to offer. In addition to the more familiar orgs, three new student organizations have been recognized and added to the roster! These include the Onero Institute, the John Quincy Adams Society and the GW DC student Consortium on Women Peace and Security.

The Onero Institute is a youth-driven, nonprofit research organization that wants to develop the next generation of leaders and foreign affairs experts by actively bridging the divide between young people and the academic community and by better engaging youth and the world community on international issues. They offer support and a platform for aspiring young professionals to improve upon and share their work. The Onero Institute places special emphasis on creating intergenerational dialogues and discussing underrepresented and youth issues. This chapter of the Onero Institute seeks to engage the GW and Washington, D.C. communities with the aforementioned mission and strives to empower the voices of students and young people.

The John Quincy Adams Society (JQAS) is an international affairs-related student organization focused on building a new generation of U.S. leaders who understand the limits of power, will keep America out of unnecessary wars, and refrain from attempts at social engineering in countries halfway across the globe. JQAS at GW aims to help college students advance, both intellectually and professionally, while promoting a broader and more strategic conversation about America’s approach to international affairs.

The DC Student Consortium on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) is a student-led organization that aims to—in collaboration with the US Civil Society Working Group on WPS (U.S. CSWG)—promote awareness of the implications of women and gender in security and foreign policy. They strive to ensure that policymakers around the globe are aware of the importance of gender issues in these disciplines and the need to institutionalize a feminist approach when solving critical issues surrounding peace and security.

It’s never too late to get involved with student organizations at the Elliott School. Check out these three new orgs or any of the other 17 Elliott School student organizations on campus. Getting involved with student organizations is an excellent opportunity to meet like-minded individuals that share a common interest. https://studentlife.gwu.edu/student-organizations

April 4, 2019April 9, 2019

Sports Diplomacy —Then and Now

Sports create a common language and a shared culture, if only on the playing field. It can be a useful diplomatic tool to facilitate people-to-people relationships and to build trust between countries. At the global level, sports often become an important avenue for cross-cultural communication, says Tara Sonenshine, a former U.S. under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, who is now a senior career coach at the Elliott School. The State Department, for instance, dedicates significant resources to sports exchanges among teams in the United States and around the world. Through these sports-focused dialogues, Soneshine explains, the U.S. has a powerful way to disseminate American values internationally.

In many ways, it is a story that reaches back thousands of years— to 776 B.C., when a Greek King offered respite from war by promising safe passage to citizens for “games” to be held amidst conflict. From this ancient truce grew the modern-day Olympic games.

Major global sporting events allow host countries to showcase their nations’ points of pride — and to convey the desired national image. Today, hosting a world-class sports event has become a global stamp of approval, conferring world-class status on the host nation.

Psychologically, a powerful win on the sports field enhances a nation’s sense of self worth. It is partly for this reason that President Vladimir Putin was willing to go to great lengths to ensure that Russia garnered the most gold medals during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games — even to the point of tactics that the International Olympic Committee special commission called the “systemic manipulation of the anti-doping system.”

In recent times, sports diplomacy is conducted on a personal, as well as a governmental level, says Elliott alumna Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, B.A.’99. A global communications and sports specialist and Executive Committee member of the sports club Sport & Démocratie, which focuses on sports diplomacy, Krasnoff, consults with high-level organizations to leverage sports for diplomatic purposes. Social media has been a game-changer, she says, enabling individual athletes to tell their own stories. She says the nature of sports diplomacy has evolved from a predominantly traditional government to government approach of cultural exchange to include many more informal people to people exchanges — predominantly through social media. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube allow individuals to tell the stories as they see them and not simply accept the messaging as it is presented to the public in formal government sponsored exchanges.

With sports diplomacy taking place at all levels, from the global to the individual, there is vast opportunity for major sports events to bring about greater understanding among nations and peoples. Sports have indeed become a force for the good in our conflicted world.

Thanks to Tara Sonenshine, senior career coach at GW’s Elliott School, and Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, global communications and sports specialist and member of the advisory council to the Elliott School’s Leadership, Ethics, and Practice Initiative, for contributing to this article.