US Embassy Policy Specialist Program Attracts More Embassies and a Growing Number of Scholars

Created in 2004, the US Embassy Policy Specialist (EPS) Program at IREX has grown into a major fellowship under the US Department of State’s Title VIII program. It began as a small-budget project intended to connect the scholarly community with US foreign policy practitioners in Eurasia. EPS scholars traveled to the region and served US Embassies and Consulates as policy specialists-in-residence for one to two months. In its sixth year, the interest in the program from the academic and policy communities has increased significantly—the number of Embassy placements has almost doubled and the number of interested applicants has quadrupled.

Working with democratization professionals who struggle in the real world of politics certainly highlighted the policy-relevant aspects of the research that academics in a university setting do. At times we forget that our research is written not just for academic journals and for other scholars. We need to understand that our work can have a real impact on practical politics and real world events.
-- William Clark, EPS 2007-2008 scholar, researching “Corruption and Public Integrity in the Republic of Armenia.”

The EPS fellowship has enabled US scholars to provide research and consultations to Embassy staff on critical foreign policy issues, such as: crime and corruption in Russia, alternative energy in Tajikistan, religion in Azerbaijan, and conflict resolution in Moldova. EPS fellows have served Embassies and Consulates in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.