As far as my internship goes, I'm in the absolute best one in the group as far as I am concerned. The ICT is a fantastic place to work. (I know you know everything about it, but the syllabus says to describe it, so I will.) There are about three full time interns, one full time employee, and a supervisor. Everyone is working on different topics, but all are obviously related to counter terrorism. Stevie runs a good ship. He isn't too strict and lets us interpret our assignments the way that we choose so long as we stay on task and produce good work. Our job is to produce research for the school that will be used by the faculty in their own work. Currently Boaz Ganor, the head of the program, is producing articles for publication but the general goal of our organization is to disseminate information for other people to use in their research and personal edification. I'm not aware of any organizations or governments that contract with the ICT to produce reports for them, but I suppose it is a possibility. As far as what I want to get from this internship, I am looking for several things. Originally, I just wanted to get experience working in CT that I would be able to put on my resume. However, it looks like I’m going to get much more out of it than that. Aside from the experience, I am currently working on a paper that will be published on the website. This will be my first publication and although it may not be the most prestigious of journals or mediums, I am excited to have something that I can point to and be proud of. If I ever decide to go for a PhD I will have at least two published articles (I will be working on another large project for my Master’s capstone). In addition to this, I have made several contacts that could be useful in the future. I now know Boaz and will try to stay in contact with him. He is fairly well known in the CT field and works closely with American counterparts. Stevie will also likely be doing a PhD in the States at some point and could be a great contact for any future jobs or projects I will work on. Just having people I can ask about research and who to read and what to study is something handy. Even the people I work with and the other people in our group could potentially be a resource as we all begin to enter the job market. Rush has a similar career path in mind as do a few of the other interns. I hate the word “networking” but whether I like it or not, that is what I am doing. This is my first foray into counter-terrorism. While I have studied the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and South Asia in the past, I have never exclusively focused on the issue of combating terror. It has been an interesting experience that I will definitely be able to use in the future. In fact, I am taking a class on CT next semester and hope to be able to use some of the work I have done here to my advantage during the course. Ideally, I would like to do something with CT in the future, either with the intelligence community or with some other government organization. This internship and the seminar course will look very good on a resume and will give me more credibility than I currently have. The organization, overall, is very conservative, but in a good way. We constantly joke about peaceniks how much the Western World kicks ass when it comes to fighting the bad guys, but we don’t let racism or politics enter into the equation. People are constantly wondering on my opinion of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and how it relates to CT. My response would be that decisions made on the government level will affect how many terrorists there are out there and our job is to find ways to mitigate the amount of violence they can cause. I like the CIA model. They don’t make policy; they get the information that allows policy makers to do their job. Likewise, there are terrorists out there and our job is to figure out who they are and how we can stop them. The politics can be left to wiser men than I (though the wisdom of politicians is a subject of much debate). It is nice that everyone in the group has a good sense of humor and because everyone is very secular, no subject is taboo. We run the gamut of jokes from terrorists, Americans, Jews/Israelis, Russians, politicians and more. In a way, I like to think of it as how a doctor must get through the day. I actually know quite a few doctors and they generally have a great sense of humor, though you wouldn’t guess it most of the time. I think in order to deal with sickness and death on a daily basis; you have to be able to laugh. We deal with some pretty horrible stuff and, while most of the joking we do would not leave the room, it is a way to deal with reading about suicide bombings, dead civilians, and other types of hate. So we have a competition to find the hottest terrorist and put her picture on the wall or we discuss which jihadi website we should put an intern’s picture on to have the most effect on their future career. I like this concept because I’m a cynic when it comes to government. I don’t want any part in the electoral process other than my informed vote. My plan is to work with whatever jackass gets elected and do everything I can to make sure that the right decisions are made and the least amount of damage is done. Right now I’m just concentrating on research, but when I enter the workforce, I would rather be doing field work. As a diplomat, as an analyst, or on the ground doing development, I prefer to have a task and do it working with the resources at my disposal rather than politicking and pandering to keep my job.
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