I'M BACK!!!

Okay, so my apologies for ignoring my blog these last few days. After a busy week last week it was hard for me to get back on the horse. But that is why we have mothers who tell us to update our blogs. So let me give you a rundown of where I stand and what I've been doing.

There were two big events last week. The first, as you know, was last Monday the 28th of January. The Center presented its report, Mobilizing NATO for Afghanistan and Pakistan: Ensuring the Alliance's Future, on Capitol Hill. Two Senators, Shaheen (D-NH) and Graham (R-SC) were our Congressional speakers who spoke and lent support at our event. Senator Graham as you know is Senator McCain's "sidekick" as you typically hear them paired together. We also had five project experts speak:

Bruce Riedel - Senior Fellow, Saban Center for the Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution. James Dobbins - Former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, 2001, Former Special Envoy to the Afghan Opposition and Bonn Conference. W. Bruce Weinrod - Former Secretary of Defense Representative to Europe, Former Defense Advisor to the U.S. Mission to NATO. Robert Hunter - Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, 1993-1998 and Kurt Volker - Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, 2008-2009.

For the event, I worked the sign-in table, only stepping in to hear Senator Graham speak. On our guest list we had the Romanian Ambassador, diplomats/representatives from the Danish, German, Greek, Afghan embassies (maybe more) and we had military representatives from France, Germany, and Spain. Plus a lot of US military personal and people from D.C. think-tanks.

When I heard Senator Graham speak, his focus was on the challenge of the Afghan mission and how the future of the alliance depends on it, “The biggest loss that would come from a failed state in Afghanistan would be the end of NATO as we know it...NATO’s reputation is on the line.”

Senator Graham with Ambassador Abshire, the Center's CEO

Some of his criticisms he had with NATO included the national "caveats" countries place on their forces. These caveats are limitations on where armies can go and what they can do, and there are a lot of them in existence. He urged NATO countries to do away with these "caveats."

The event came and went and I believe we were pleased with the end results. However on Friday we had another event. Dr. Abshire had a speaking engagement at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (big think-tank in DC). I soon found out that he actually co-founded CSIS with the man he was giving his annual speech on: Admiral Arleigh Burke. Burke was a destroyer captain during World War II and rose through the ranks during Korea and so on and so forth. He was apparently known for going over the heads of his Navy superiors when he was Admiral and Chief of Navel Operations by going to the President directly to speak his thoughts. He apparently did this twice with Truman and Ike. This led to a panel discussion afterward with some top Navy officers including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen. The panel was discussing junior officers disregarding the chain of command to speak their minds/give opinions to higher ranking officials. It was a relatively interesting discussion considering who was involved. In addition, C-SPAN was there and I was caught on camera! There maybe better shots of me but I don't want to have to scan the whole 1 hour 37 minute video for short five second shots of the audience.

Me, back left corner on C-SPAN

So that was really the big events of last week. On Sunday, I ate at an Afghan restaurant though and that was an experience. I had this dish that was sauteed pumpkin with a garlic yogurt and meat sauce. Add the meat sauce to the pumpkin and it was actually pretty tasty. Just wasn't very filling. Should have tried it as an appetizer instead of an entree. All in all, it was very good and a nice experience.

This week, we are doing our best to get our report out to whoever we can. I've actually been to capitol hill twice this week dropping off our report to senators who are leaving for a Munich Conference this week. I also mailed a bunch of reports to Munich today. Right now my work is consisting of scanning the web for information for experts in the relevant fields of our report, teachers, heads of defense companies, writers, etc. When we get our full order of reports in this Friday, I'm sure I'll be mailing them out by the hundreds.

The report itself is really nice. It's really a good reference book of what NATO countries have committed to the cause. We have lots of numbers and statistics showing what countries have given and what they could give. So the first part of the report is a bunch of suggestions over what could be done and then we have appendixes of what is already being done. For anyone who is curious, I will give the link to the report itself (click on the caption) and it can also can be found at the Center's website: http://thepresidency.org/

Mobilizing NATO for Afghanistan and Pakistan: An Assessment of Alliance Capabilities

So, to wrap things up, I still am enjoying my time here in DC however the dressing up every single day is going to get old. Dress code may play a major role into what field of international studies I get into, HA! I am becoming a better cook, I can cook chicken breasts now with either rice or pasta as a side. I am also getting better with the ironing. Thank goodness!!! I've also stuck to my gym schedule and have been going on a pretty regular basis. It helps having people to go with.

Ahh.... There was something else I wanted to say... Oh yeah... Getting back into a school routine is proving somewhat challenging. Realizing that I haven't taken notes or had to read for classes since last November is making reading for classes now harder. That, plus the fact I'm exhausted when I get home from work. So, finding a good working routine is still under development.

Anyway, the Super Bowl is this weekend and I'm rooting for the Saints (underdogs). I think that is it. I tried to make this post long since I've neglected it for so long. I'll try to post when I have something interesting to report. But hopefully, I won't slack off again. Oh, and sorry for how many errors are in these posts. I'm really not re-reading them. So yeah... sorry. Okay, well goodnight. It's almost time for bed. Peace.

So... 9-8 is the new 9-5 for interns

So for the past two days I've worked four hours extra, three of them tonight. With our roll-out tomorrow on Capitol Hill pretty much everyone in the Center today was running with their heads cut off. I made a bunch of calls to heads of Defense Companies (BAE, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, etc) and asked for e-mails so I could send invites to them. I also sent emails to schools, think tanks and previous associates/contacts. I probably sent 100 today. We also prepped for the event and made a bunch of packets. I'll be working the sign-in table so hopefully I'll be guaranteed to see/meet everyone who comes in. I know we have a few Ambassadors and other key diplomats coming to the event so it should be fun. I'll have a big report over it tomorrow and I'll send a link to the actual assessment. I'd like to write more, but I'm really tired. Started a gym membership last week and we've gone 5 of the last 7 days. Yes, I'm actually going to the gym and am working out. It's a shocker I know, but I have to start impressing the girlfriend. Alright... night, night.

Weekly Log #2 1/19-1/22/10

Days worked: Tuesday-Friday

Hours worked: 26 hours

Activities:

Tuesday - Proofread NATO Assessment for errors. Researched contact information for D.C. press associations.

Wednesday - Researched NATO Ambassador contact information for e-mail invites. Called French Embassy for contact information. Wrote up "Roll-out" agenda.

Thursday - Attended event featuring PA Gov Ed Rendell discussing America's failing infrastructure at the Center for Public Policy. Wrote up "talking points" for Dr. Abshire's meeting with Gen. David Petraeus. Attended meeting with Deputy Political Adviser for NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation. Wrote up my notes for Randell Event.

Friday - Sent out E-mail invite to NATO ambassadors

Overall Reflections:

Despite missing General Petraeus on Friday my second week really improved each day. Thursday felt like a break-out day for me as I attended an event with Gov Rendell and a meeting with a French NATO adviser. Friday I got to work late to prep for our event on Capitol Hill. Though I'm doing a lot of clerical and logistics work for this event I feel my assignments are really helping me integrate into the center. I've done a couple dictations for my project leader and those seem to really help a lot. Next week is going to be big with the actual roll-out on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

My Address

I know some have been asking for it, so here is my address. It is a little long and complicated.

Boston University Washington Center
Dane Sosniecki
2807 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #206
Washington, DC 20008

Fail...Unfortunately, Epic Fail...

Well Friday came and went and so did General Petraeus. I had class in the morning, but got to the Center before his arrival. Unfortunately, everyone was so caught up in prepping for his arrival that I was sorta left out of the loop. So I stayed at my desk (which is on the first floor while reception and the main part of the office is on the second floor) for the time he was here so I missed him completely. In retrospect I should have just skipped my class and gone in at 9:00; I'll know that for next time. Ryan, the NATO project leader, said the meeting went very well with the General and Dr. Abshire. I believe he briefed the General on our report, and he (the General) was thankful for our work. Dan, who is Ryan's project assistant or number two guy, briefed the General's entourage of Colonels over the highlights of our report as well.
However the day did not end on our sour note. Ryan still had a lot of work for me to do and asked if I could stay late to work on some things. I sent out e-mail invites to almost all the NATO ambassadors and then talked with Ryan and his office mate Matt for awhile. So it was still nonetheless a productive day.
Next Tuesday is our big roll out day for the report. It will be presented by two senators and we have about five people who were "experts" on the report speaking. I'm more than sure that I'll be going to the event on Capitol Hill and I'll do a full report on it this Tuesday. For this weekend, we'll try to find something fun to do, but I also have to do some grocery shopping and unfortunately do some ironing. Peace.

First Business Card!!!

Today is what I would call a breakout day for my internship. It was really my best day so far with what I did and with the help I provided. I slowly feel like I'm becoming a more important part of the team and today really proved it.

I first was sent out on my first event. I went to the Center of Public Policy near Union Station to hear PA Governor Ed Rendell speak about this country's ailing infrastructure. He, Governor Schwarzenegger, and Mayor Bloomberg are apart of this coalition which focuses on rebuilding our infrastructure. It was interesting to hear him speak as I had just heard him on CNN the day before talking about his adventure down to Haiti where he personally brought back over 50 Haitian orphans who were then adopted in PA. He also had talked about the MA election result and stated that he thought the Republicans should fillibuster so they can discuss specifically what their plan for health care so when the bill fails, Congress can start over and work on a more bi-partisan bill.

So really I went in to this event with high expectations as I liked what I heard from him on the news. And his points were very valid about our failing infrastructure and how with each year we delay revitalizing it, the more expensive it gets. I'll be honest if airport security isn't beefed up because of the fear of the invasion of privacy I would definitely not mind alternative, revitalized transportation such as bullet trains or a better Amtrak. Any the way, it was nice to hear the governor speak.

When I returned to the Center I went over with Ryan, the NATO project leader, his "Talking Points" with General Petraeus for tomorrow. I did what's called a dictation and wrote/helped brainstorm thoughts for what Dr. Abshire needs to talk about when he meets him tomorrow. I appreciate the type of work I'm getting this early in the game as it seems to be quite important to our work at the Center.

However, what really put the icing on the cake today was another meeting I got to attend in the afternoon with Ryan and one other guy. We met a deputy political officer for NATO's Supreme Allied Command Transformation. SACT is "NATO's leading agent for change, driving, facilitating, and advocating continous improvement of Alliance capabilities to maintain and enhance the military relevance and effectiveness of the Alliance." Really their job as it applies here is to improve relationships, interaction and practical cooperation with partners, nations and international organisations. Dr. Abshire and Ryan had met the Commander of SACT General Stéphane Abrial (he's French by the way) on Tuesday. Well Ryan wanted me in for this meeting today with the deputy political officer (who's also French) for General Abrial and we discussed among other things, the improving of relations between NATO and the American people. This appears to be at the top of SACT's to-do list and they seem to be looking to us to assist in getting their foot in the door with new operations here in the country. What is really exciting is that this political officer gave me a business card of his, SO.... I have my first "contact" here in Washington HAHA!!! My first business card... I'll probably frame it. I'm sure I have no need to get in touch with NATO SACT but it is cool none the less since Ryan has like 100 cards consisting of Ambassadors and what not. Perhaps I'll get more tomorrow when Petraeus comes.

Looks like there may be a small meet and greet for the General when he comes, but more importantly I may get to sit in on a meeting between our staff and his staff (general excluded) which still would be awesome!!! Here's to hoping for the best, hopefully I'll have a good story to tell for tomorrow. Peace.

The Last Five Days

Experienced my first weekend in DC a couple days ago. Since I'm not 21 I can't hit up the bars yet, but I had a good touring of the city. Saturday I was on a double-decker bus most of the day and saw most of the city. While I have seen a lot of the National Mall, I hadn't seen much of the downtown/uptown area i.e. Embassy Row and Georgetown, so that was nice. Monday we went to the American History Museum which had been renovated for the last two years or so. The displays are really good. The American Presidency and Americans at War are my favorite, but they didn't seem too updated from when I seen them last. It was still fun regardless. I also finally saw The Hurt Locker Monday night and that was really good.

On Monday, Ryan, my project leader, was out of the office so all that I really did was proofread the whole assessment. Luckily, I found a few mistakes out of the 69 pages. Today, there was a lot to do. I'm sending out a lot of letters to people with copies of our assessment and invitations to our roll out event. I even sent a letter of Sec Gates today. My biggest project today was working on sending out invites to the 27 Ambassadors of NATO countries. I had to call the French Ambassador's office to get his e-mail address. It was scary when the assistant picked up the phone and spoke French. Luckily I knew I could start speaking English and she'll switch over, but if I had been younger I might have thought that I called the wrong number and called someone in France. That would have been a disaster.

Anyway, if you have been keeping up with me, you know there is a roll-out event for our paper on NATO's potential capabilities in Afghanistan in a couple days. Well right now I'm working on logistics for the event. Eventually after the roll-out I assume I'll be working on research for the next Afghanistan paper. The roll-out of the paper is on the 26th of January before the 28th conference in London on Afghanistan. Anyway, I have to go to bed. I'll have more to write about after General Petraeus visits our Center on Friday.

Weekly Log #1: 1/13-1/15/10

Days worked: Wednesday-Friday

Hours worked: 18 hours

Activities:

Wednesday - Attended meeting over future of mass ground transportation and national security
Reading on the Center's current and upcoming projects regarding revitalizing NATO in Afghanistan.

Thursday - Conducted online searches of important people's contact information including CIA
Director Leon Panetta, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and General Stanley McChrystal. Wrote an e-mail invitation for our project's "Expert Advisory Group." Proofread letter going to CIA Director Panetta. Typed up letter for Brent Scowcroft. Continued reading paperwork on the Center's projects.

Friday - Wrote an e-mail invitation for our project's "Ambassadors" who assisted in research. Printed out, scanned, and made labels for letters that would be going to Panetta and Gates.

Overall Reflections:

I'm starting my first internship at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress just a few weeks before they present what is looking like to be their biggest project they have ever worked on. This "Assessment" on capabilities NATO members have yet to commit to Afghanistan is attracting big names including General Petraeus who will be coming into the Center next Friday to give his input and to hear what this Assessment has to say. Needless to say, I really am jumping in mid-stream here at the Center and while I still feel somewhat overwhelmed, I know this will be a positive experience come the end of April. My immediate supervisor, Ryan, who is the project leader, is very down to earth and I feel he and I won't have any problems working together. The rest of the staff are also very friendly and close-knit as the Center only employs 30 staffers. I look forward to working at the Center as it seems to be a very exciting time for them. From what Ryan tells me, despite not getting paid, I will be treated as a full time employee and will get a very vast education on the subject material and on working in D.C.

D-Day + 2

I'm watching George W. talk about Haiti right now in the Rose Garden as he and President Clinton will be teaming up for those commercials that we saw for the tsunami a few years back. This Haiti situation is so saddening, I did that $10 dollar text donation thingy, but it's so hard giving financial aid now a days: it's either delayed, or not going to the actually tragedy, etc. I rather go down there my self and help as that is what I feel a future career holds for me, but I know unfortunately I'll get other opportunities.

Anyway, I worked for half a day on Friday as I have a Friday morning class from 10-12. Yesterday, I had written up an e-mail invitation for the "Expert Advisory Group" who gave input for our Assessment. The invite is for our Jan 26th roll out of this Assessment which is being presented by Senators Graham of SC and Shaheen of NH. The more I learn about it the more important it appears to be (I'll discuss that in more detail later). Anyway, this e-mail that I wrote up for our "Experts" was actually sent to them with only minor, technical changes. I thought that was cool. I started writing up another for Ambassadors who assisted on the project and we'll see if Ryan (Project Leader) likes that one as well.

The rest of the day was just doing some minor things: printing letters, label making, mail stuff, etc. However at the end of the day the Center found out that the current commander of US Central Command, General David Petraeus, will be coming in next Friday to give his input on this Assessment. EXTREME!!! Ryan, who brought him in, said this was the biggest figure to come into the Center and he'll be given the report and will give his advice on it, I assume. This Assessment must really have some credibility to it if the commander of CENTCOM is coming in to review it. So I'll be looking forward to seeing or even maybe attending the meeting with Petraeus.

Sometime I'll create a more "official" sounding weekly log for my internship class and put it up here. So yeah...

D-Day +1

I was still obviously out of sync on my second day at the Center, but it ended on a high note. My project leader/guy, Ryan, didn't have too much work for me to do as he was swamped himself and really couldn't give me anything significant to do. While I found addresses/contact info for Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta, during the afternoon I really just laid back and read the Assessments. He did find me some last minute work: I proofread a letter to CIA Director Leo Panetta (and found a mistake) and I typed up a letter and found some important information on Brent Scowcroft. Though I've done some pretty simple work, Ryan was pleased so I'm satisfied. I also learned how to do some leaderhead printing and I learned how to use the phones. I look foward to sleeping in, going to class, only working for 4 hours tomorrow, and the weekend. That's all for now.

Fish Out of Water

Today, I was the most dressed up than I ever have been in my entire life. Express shirt and tie, Macy's Alfani pants and shoes, a navy blue blazer, a top coat and scarf. And I get to do this for the next 3 and half months.

And then I got to my internship...

30 minutes in, I'm in a meeting regarding linking new mobility and resilience/national security. I really had no idea what was going on. Luckily I was just observing because my project leader was hosting the meeting and I was just following him.

I'm actually helping with the Center's "Mobilizing NATO in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Ensuring the Alliance's Future" project. They are set to roll out their findings in a paper which is being released later in January before the large NATO summit at the end of the month. Apparently we're having some big names come to this event we're hosting. For instance my project leader's "need to contact" list includes Gen. McChrystal and SecDef Gates. Don't know if their actually coming, but my project leader, who went to Harvard and is probably no more than five years older than me apparently has a contact list consisting of the previously mentioned, Madeleine Albright, Ahmad Rashid (whose book I read over break) and apparently many others.

He told me that I'll really gain a broad perspective of the whole Af-Pak/Central Asia situation from interning here and that despite not getting paid I will be pretty much a full time employee. If I wanted to gain knowledge of everything going on over there (which I said I was) he said this was the perfect place to intern. Sounds like right off the bat I'll get to do some follow up phone calls to some of the policy experts checking to see if they are coming to this "roll out" that we're conducting come late January. The center said interns will be doing about 60% policy work and 40% clerical which I think sounds great.

Really all today I did was reading on the reports they have been writing up so I could catch up. What they are presenting is an assessment of the capabilities NATO members have yet to commit to Afghanistan. It'll also show the danger posted by al-Qaeda and other extremist organizations that operate out of South Asia. "By putting the threat of domestic terrorism and large regional instability within the context of the effort in Afghanistan, the Center hopes to provide a necessary impetus for greater European political and popular support for NATO deployments."

From what Ryan, the project leader, talked about, logistics for this event in January is at the top of the Center's priorities. He even joked (maybe he was serious) that I probably would be putting the whole event together. Though I may be conducting research for the project; there is still more to go, I'll probably be helping with the event.

Everyone was really nice and ironically I was handed coffee at the beginning of the day. My first impressions were that I will be legitimately helping out the Center and what they are trying to accomplish. At the same time, I'm really jumping in mid-stream and everyone was really busy today. Ryan said after this week things should slow down. Nevertheless it was intimidating and it'll take some time for me to adjust. But I think it'll go well and I'll enjoy it immensely. Hopefully I'll get to steal their big report and get to meet some big names. We'll see.

On another note for the I'm sure many history buffs who are reading this blog, Dr. David Abshire, whom I met today, leads the center. He's co-chairing this project too because he has experence successfully confronting the political crisis within NATO that was created by the Soviet SS-20 missile deployment and NATO's failure to meet conventionl force requirements during the 1980s. There's a fun fact.

Any the way, I can't wait to get a couple more days under my belt so I can get a better understanding of what's going on and what to do. Cya for now.

Welcome to DC!!!

Uh, hi everybody, I'm Dane and this will (hopefully) be my blog.

I'm required to do a weekly log for my internship so I thought I'd make a blog to do it. I'll add a little extra to it whenever I have the time. I honestly don't know how busy I'm going to be this semester so this may be bare. We shall see. I'm going to start interning at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress on Wednesday this week.

The CSPC "...systematically examines past successes and failures of the Presidency and relates its findings to present challenges and opportunities. Lessons learned from past American experiences offer insights on how to deal with these challenges" (www.thepresidency.org). I've been told that I'll be assisting with their foreign policy project dealing with revitalizing NATO in Afghanistan. Outside of that I don't know much else, but I'll be getting an orientation on Wednesday.

I'm staying at the Boston University Washington Center and the location is great, but the dorm is pretty small. I brought too much stuff with me. Oh well. Right now my concerns are getting groceries back to the dorm, cooking, and having to dress up in full business attire for my internship. I'm sure I'll figure it all out; I'm looking forward to a great semester overall. And, and, and I get the privilege of turning 21 in the nation's capital. Sounds like fun.