Call for Applications: Summer Scholar Fellowship Program

The Fellowship aims to produce research, analysis, and lessons learned that expand the intellectual foundations of security cooperation. The fellowship will prioritize research proposals which closely align with the missions of both USIP and DSCU. International applications are welcome.

USIP-DSCU will fund up to four Summer Scholars for a three-month, non-residential fellowship to conduct research in the summer 2025. USIP will partner with DSCU and the Young Institute to offer the fellowship to doctoral students conducting evidence-based and policy-relevant research on topics related to security cooperation.

Priority Areas

• USIP and DSCU are seeking applicants that are undertaking doctoral research that closely aligns with the priority research areas for this request for applications:
  • Connecting Security Cooperation with Peace and Stability: How can security cooperation (including arms transfers and military training) play an active role in establishing a safe and secure environment as the first phase of peacebuilding?
  • Deepening Global Partnerships: How can they design more comprehensive Security Cooperation relationships that support lasting global partnerships and good governance, based on common values, security needs, and more contextually informed assessments of the partners’ threat landscape and future sustainability requirements?
  • Whole-of-Society and Whole of Government Strategies in Civil-Military Relations: Can an enhanced role of civil society in informing the planning and design of Security Cooperation programs in the partner and allied nations improve security cooperation outcomes?
  • Security Cooperation through Regional and International Organizations: How can security cooperation promote the operability and stabilizing capacity of regional and international organizations?
  • Security Cooperation’s role in addressing root causes of instability: How can security cooperation conceptualize, securitize, and address the most relevant factors that directly impact fragility and instability beyond the transfer of military capabilities and equipment, and how can they ensure that security cooperation itself does not contribute to instability?
  • Building the foundations of effective integrative deterrence with partners and allies (Possibly a US-centered perspective): How do they build partner defense planning and sustainment considerations into a more holistic US defense strategy that more accurately assesses readiness for current and future threats, including capacity building in the new strategic environment?

Funding Information

• Summer Scholars will receive stipends of up to $15,000 paid directly to the individual in three tranches, contingent on the submission of monthly progress reports.

Eligibility Criteria

• The competition is open to Ph.D. candidates who have successfully completed all required classwork and comprehensive exams.
• Non-U.S. citizens are eligible to apply.
• All materials, including the application and all progress reports, must be submitted in English.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Master’s students or other students pursuing graduate coursework are not eligible to apply.

For more information, visit USIP.