Master of Global Commerce and Policy

Schar Study Abroad Immerses Students in U.S. Mexico Border Policy, Security, and Immigration

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 20:04:50 +0000

Schar Study Abroad Immerses Students in U.S. Mexico Border Policy, Security, and Immigration Andrew J Schappert Mon, 04/08/2024 - 16:04

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Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

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Members of the Schar School study abroad contingent gather in front of a mural at the National Autónomous University of México. Professor Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera is at center.

Following the coattails of President Biden’s highly publicized visit to Brownsville, Texas, a cadre of graduate students from ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government arrived for a week of academic activity along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Mexico City.

Unlike a parallel trip to the same region at the same time by the Schar School’s International Relations Policy Task Force (you can read their story at this page), “our trip was about the U.S.-Mexico relations during a time of elections,” said Professor Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a foremost expert on border and immigration policy who accompanied the students.

“Border developments are perhaps the most consequential policy issue of this time,” said Michal McElwain Malur, director of external programs at the Schar School, who assembled the itinerary and helped lead the trip to the border for a second year in a row.

“Since the inception of its study abroad program, the Schar School has prioritized providing students with opportunities to explore consequential policy problems facing the U.S. today.”

“We spent one whole day at the border, specifically at the border wall, and we spoke at length with a local editor about border security,” added Correa-Cabrera. “It was important to see this issue through the eyes of someone who covers it for newspapers for a population that relies on accurate information.”

Along the way they met with top industry and government leaders on both sides of the border, with whom they freely discussed the ongoing issues that keep the U.S.–Mexico affiliation at the top of international headlines.

“Putting a face to the border was fascinating,” said Davis Kaderli, a Master of Public Policy student and participant on the trip. “What I actually saw isn’t what the mass media often portrays. It is much more complex than the majority of Americans understand.”

For instance, while in Brownsville, Texas, the students heard harrowing stories of inadequate services provided to Americans in need along the border. In Boca Chica, during a visit to the sprawling SpaceX campus, students met with residents in government partnerships and discussed their views on how SpaceX impacts their community.

“The meetings we had gave insight and were candid discussions,” said Chris Williams, a student in the Schar School’s Master of Global Commerce program. Williams added that anybody immersing themselves in a degree with a global perspective should seek out study abroad opportunities.

A significant component of the trip was a visit to the political capital of Mexico City and the National Autónomous University of México (UNAM), where students engaged in conversations with decision makers and attended lectures.

“Mexico is having elections in June this year,” Correa-Cabrera said. “The U.S. is having them in November. We put these elections in context for the students.”

Upon arriving in Mexico City, the students received a briefing from Miguel Siliceo, the senior economic advisor to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

On International Women’s Day, the cohort of students was officially welcomed by the president of the federal senate of the Republic of Mexico, who recognized them from the Senate floor, followed by a meeting with a Mexican senator. The students said they gained insights from Mexican officials and policymakers on mutually shared challenges, as well as new avenues for cooperation and engagement.

“We had ridiculous access on this study abroad, from [President López Obrado’s] senior economic advisor to a legislative briefing at the Mexican federal senate by the vice president of the Senate,” said Willaims.

Students met with a panel of diplomatic staff at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico and received an interactive briefing on the challenges in the upcoming presidential election.

“The five speakers at the embassy was my favorite session,” said Anduela Johnson, a student in the Schar School’s Master of International Security program. “It was interesting to hear how they are managing security issues and balancing economic implications.”

“They see the relationship with the U.S. and our shared border differently. The entire experience was a true joy,” said Johnson. On topics ranging from security and trade policy to the challenges of the upcoming election with two female candidates, each discussion sparked fascinating discussions and means for collaboration between the sets of students.

“My favorite part of this trip was hearing many perspectives,” said Gabe Dole, one of the undergraduates on the trip and a student in the Schar School’s Government and International Politics major. “I really valued the range of perspectives we heard.”

“The Schar School of Policy and Government offered two complimentary study abroad programs to the U.S. Mexico border this spring,” said Malur. “The fact they were both at the border is a testament to the Schar School being a policy school and offering our students the opportunity to hear and see firsthand policy debates and consequences of policies in action.“

Study abroad opportunities are important to a Schar School education, no matter the level or degree program. Trips include programs in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. To learn more about the school's study abroad programs, visit this site.

Not only did the Schar School students receive a shout out from the Senate floor, they were invited to a briefing in a committee room and to sit at Senate desks.

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Graduating Schar School Student Carter N. Coudriet Envisions a Pathway that Does Not Yet Exist

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:23:49 +0000

Graduating Schar School Student Carter N. Coudriet Envisions a Pathway that Does Not Yet Exist Andrew J Schappert Tue, 12/12/2023 - 13:23

In This Story

Ellen Laipson

Kenneth A. Reinert

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Carter N. Coudriet enjoyed collaborating with multiple faculty members as a graduate student in the Master of Global Commerce and Policy program.

As Carter N. Coudriet readily points out, his “dream job probably doesn’t exist yet.” But that does not mean that he does not have an excellent job, one that he doubts he would have gotten were it not for his time at the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV.

Coudriet, who graduates in December with a master’s degree in global commerce and policy, works as an export compliance specialist in the Bureau of Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce. In his role, he helps to ensure that dual-use items—those that have both commercial and security applications—are being utilized by other nations in a way that does not pose a security threat to the United States. His position directly builds on his work at the Schar School, where he studied the security implications of international trade.

Coudriet chose the Schar School because he wanted to study how trade fits in with security. He says security is as much about microchips, supply chains, and sanctions as it is about missiles and conventional weapons. The Global Commerce and Policy program offered an ideal setting for discussing and challenging the limitations of hard power and of free trade.

“I brought to my classes a security-minded skepticism of pure free-trade discussions,” he said. “The United States is clearly a beneficiary of global trade, and protecting global trade sometimes requires more aggressive tactics to ensure that others adhere to international rules and norms.”

Coudriet worked closely with a diverse array of faculty to further his intellectual framework. His academic career has a natural arc, in which various activities seamlessly grew and led to additional opportunities. After writing a brief in his Intelligence Analysis Class taught by Professor Ellen Laipson and Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael Morell, Coudriet continued to work with Morell to revise the piece and get it published in The Cipher Brief. Throughout this collaboration, Coudriet was astounded by the amount of time that a two-time former acting director of the Central intelligence Agency was willing to give to a graduate student and by how seriously Morell took his ideas. For her part, Laipson, the former vice chair of the National Intelligence Council, added Coudriet as a Student Fellow at the Schar School’s Center for Security Policy Studies (CSPS). As a fellow, he helped organize CSPS’s fall 2022 symposium on the Arctic.

At the macro level, Laipson valued the energy and passion that Coudriet brought to the conference; more tangibly, she valued his suggestions for speakers and panels. At the symposium, Coudriet asked a question of one of the panelists, on human capital development in the Arctic, which then became the basis of an independent study he undertook with Professor Ken Reinert. Reinert has offered to work with Coudriet to try to publish the paper that came out of the semester-long project.

“His research skills are fantastic, and he applies these in creative ways to help us better understand the human elements in the growth and development of the Arctic,” Reinert said of Coudriet.

All of this leads back to the aforementioned perfect job. For Coudriet, that would be at the Arctic-focused nexus of trade and national security. He is fascinated by the extent to which this region can emerge as more than a hub for natural gas and minerals and ultimately develop an economy and trade centered around human creativity and entrepreneurialism. Such a move could have significant geopolitical ramifications, including potentially weakening the relative influence of Russia and increasing that of the seven market economies that already have a substantial footprint in the Arctic. Many have focused on the shipping routes to the Arctic that will emerge as the ice in the region continues to melt; others have focused on Russia’s collaboration with China to build liquified natural gas production facilities.

Coudriet has so enjoyed working with Schar School faculty to examine the security implications of this trade and economic arms race that he hopes to continue collaborative research on the Arctic postgraduation. Wherever his intellectual fascination leads him professionally, he says has been given a “gift” of an extraordinary education.

“One in which my professors taught me that I could have a career thinking about the kinds of things that I think about,” he said.

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Kenneth A. Reinert

Kelly Hansen — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 07:30:34 +0000

Kenneth A. Reinert Kelly Hansen Mon, 10/05/2020 - 03:30

Professor of Public Policy; Director, Global Commerce and Policy Program

Contact Information

kreinert@gmu.edu
Phone: 703-993-8212
Fax: 703-993-8215
Mason Square, Van Metre Hall, Room 627
3351 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
MSN: 3B1

Personal Websites

http://reinert.gmu.edu

Biography

Kenneth A. Reinert is a professor of public policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV. He received a School of Public Policy Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003 and currently serves as director of the Global Commerce and Policy Program.

Reinert has published more than 80 papers in professional journals and edited volumes in the areas of international trade, economic development, and environmental policy. He is author of An Introduction to International Economics: New Perspectives on the World Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2012, 2020) and No Small Hope: Towards the Universal Provision of Basic Goods (Oxford University Press, 2018), and coauthor of Globalization for Development: Meeting New Challenges (Oxford University Press, 2012). He is editor of the Handbook of Globalisation and Development (Edward Elgar, 2017) and coeditor of Applied Methods for Trade Policy Analysis: A Handbook (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and the two-volume Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy (Princeton University Press, 2009).

He received his PhD in economics from the University of Maryland and held the positions of senior international economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission and associate professor of economics at Kalamazoo College. He has consulted for the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the OECD Development Centre, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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Areas of Research

Economic Development
Economic Policy
International Development
International Economics
Latin America
Microeconomics
Political Economy
Trade Policy
Applied Trade Policy Analysis
Globalization
Basic Goods Provision