James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program

About the program

Each year, the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace holds a rigorous national competition to select approximately 15 graduating seniors to serve as research assistants. They are matched with senior fellows to work on a variety of international affairs topics. Junior Fellows have the opportunity to conduct research for Carnegie publications, participate in meetings with high level officials, contribute to congressional testimony and organize briefings attended by scholars, journalists and government officials.

James C. Gaither Junior Fellows spend 10-12 months (beginning September 1st) at Carnegie in Washington, DC. Positions are full-time and include a salary and benefits package. We encourage you to review our website (http://carnegieendowment.org/) for more information on each program/project listed below.

As an organization dedicated to pursuing global engagement and peace, we believe that Carnegie’s work is enriched and should be informed by a diverse array of perspectives. We encourage all candidates to apply and are welcome to all backgrounds

2026-27 Programs or Projects

• Democracy, Conflict, and Governance
• American Statecraft
• Nuclear Policy
• Technology and International Affairs – Strong writing skills and research skills are essential.
• Middle East – Strong reading fluency and the ability to perform academic as well as on-line research in Arabic essential. Strong background in Middle East politics and/or history is a huge plus.
• International Security and Political Economy [to work with the International Security and South Asia Programs] – Quantitative data analysis and GIS skills are required. A strong mathematical background is a plus. An academic background in international relations theory or international political economy along with an interest in military issues is essential.
• Asia Program – Mandarin Chinese language skills, particularly reading comprehension, are essential. An additional foreign language is a plus.
• Russia and Eurasia – Excellent Russian and/or Ukrainian reading skills required.
• Africa Program
  
• Global Order and Institutions
• Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics – Data skills (such as helping create graphs or tables for Carnegie publications) are a plus. Applicants should have completed coursework related to sustainability and climate issues. A foreign language or regional expertise is a plus—the program seeks to bring an international perspective into US debates on climate change.
• Europe – Fluency and the ability to perform research in a European language other than English are a plus. Background knowledge of European politics is essential

Eligibility

• All applicants must be eligible to work in the United States for 10-12
  months from September 1 through at least June 30 following graduation.
• Applicants must be graduating seniors or students who have graduated during the last academic year. Anyone who has started graduate studies is ineligible for consideration (except in cases where the student has completed a joint bachelor’s/master’s degree program).
• Strong academic credentials and co-curricular involvement (independent research, research assistantships, student organizations, etc.) in areas relevant to the chosen assignment field.
• Foreign language competency or even fluency is required for some of the project areas (as noted above).

Selection Criteria

Applications are judged on the quality of the written essays, related academic study and, work experience, research experience, grades, strong letters of recommendation, and interviews (for national finalists). The nomination committee will look for strong evidence of the applicant’s preparedness to conduct research in the proposed field. Excellent writing skills are essential, along with the specific criteria listed in the various programs described above.

Application procedures

The Gaither Junior Fellows requires institutional nomination. To apply as a UW-Madison nominee, submit the following materials to awards@iris.wisc.edu by the campus deadline: Monday, December 15, 2025.

1. Applicants must compile and submit the following as a single pdf to awards@iris.wisc.edu by the deadline:
   • Completed Gaither Junior Fellows Program UW-Madison application form
   • An essay (personal statement) of up to two pages; double spaced. The personal statement should discuss why you are applying for this job, what you hope to learn from it, how you think your experience and working style would serve you well as a research assistant, and why you have chosen to apply for the program you are applying for.
   • Resume/C.V. (preferably 1-2 pages)
   • Two letters of recommendations. These recommendations can come from anyone the student feels can best speak to their abilities as a potential Gaither Junior Fellow.
     • Junior Fellows provide essential research assistance to our senior scholars. This often requires sophisticated judgment and independent work. Recommendations will therefore be especially useful if they speak to the student’s analytical and writing skills, self-discipline and maturity, and, where relevant, subject matter expertise.
     • Writers should email their signed letters on institutional letterhead directly to awards@iris.wisc.edu by the deadline above.

• • Transcript of undergraduate records (unofficial preferred).

• • A writing sample of three to five pages, double spaced. This sample may be either a full-length piece that falls within the size range or an excerpt from a longer work.
    • The writing sample must be accompanied by a brief explanation of no more than half of one page explaining why the student chose that sample. The explanation is not included in the three to five page limitation noted above.
    • The writing sample can be on any topic. However, we recommend that the student choose a writing sample that is relevant to the program they are applying for, either in subject matter or style of analysis. For more information on what each Carnegie research program is working on, we recommend visiting https://carnegieendowment.org/programs-and-projects.
    • A works cited page is not required. However, in-text citations (either footnotes/endnotes or parenthetical) should be included with the writing sample.
    • The writing sample will replace the substantive essay for the 2026-27 application cycle

Those considering applying for the Gaither Junior Fellows Program are encouraged to reach out to awards@iris.wisc.edu to register your interest so that we can support you in the application process.

Key Application Changes from 25-26 to 26-27:

• The personal statement has been expanded from a 1-page limit to a 2-page limit. We encourage students to use this additional space to discuss why they are applying to be a junior fellow, what they hope to gain, why they chose to apply to the particular program that they did, and why their experience and working style will suit them as a potential junior fellow.
• The substantive essay has been replaced by a 3–5-page writing sample. The writing sample must be accompanied by a brief explanation of why the student chose the writing sample. The explanation is not included in the 3–5-page limit.
  • The topic is flexible. We encourage applicants to pick writing samples that show off their analytical style and/or their subject matter expertise.
  • A works cited page is not required. However, the writing sample should include in-text citations.
  • More details are available on the application itself.
• We have provided some additional guidance to recommenders on what aspects of the recommendation are most informative for us.

Why?

• It has become clear to us that AI-driven large language models (LLMs) are capable of producing a high-quality essay in response to a junior fellow essay prompt. Carnegie does not believe that attempts to place a ‘ban’ on using AI on the substantive essay would be effective.
  • Carnegie does not necessarily want to ban all AI use either. Carnegie believes that junior fellows who possess both traditional junior fellow skills and the ability to use AI effectively would make excellent research assistants.
• By making these changes to the application, our program believes this will allow our scholars to better review potential junior fellow candidates given that the substantive essay may no longer accurately reflect the student’s ability to think, write, and research.
• Another important consideration was nominating official partners. While many ideas were considered, the program did not want to make changes that would significantly increase the workload of the nominating official or place an undue burden on the nominating official to ensure that AI was not used to write a substantive essay.
• These changes are finalized for 26-27. However, we plan to evaluate their effectiveness prior to releasing the 2027-2028 application materials.