Foreign Policy Internship - Spring 2025

Foreign Policy Internship
 

TERM OF INTERNSHIP: Position will be 15-30 hours/week, in-person or hybrid role, and last around a flexible 3-month period aimed to accommodate school semester schedules. The deadline for Spring applications is February 2nd, 2025.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: The National League of POW/MIA Families has played a significant role in US and Southeast-Asian politics to pursue the fullest possible accounting of POW/MIAs from the Vietnam War and associated conflicts since the organization’s founding in 1970. We continue to work with an array of governments to represent the families who still live with the uncertainty of their loved ones status and to pursue policies which represent them. The intern’s responsibilities will revolve around the following:

• Gaining experience in practical application of international relations, policy matters, humanitarian concerns and non-profit office administration.
• Interns will assist the administration wherever required, including research to support policy objectives and monitoring the status of executive and legislative initiatives.
• Interns may be asked to represent the League at various functions.
• Draft, review, and edit proposed legislation as well as inter-agency agreements.
• Review historical documents and research briefs to gather a full understanding of the development of the POW/MIA Accounting Mission.
• When requested Interns handle responsibilities including monitoring congressional hearings, participation in agency meetings such as Department of Defense, State or Veterans’ Affairs and the Armed Forces DNA Laboratory. When directed, communicates with U.S. and foreign officials, the media and the public regarding the POW/MIA Accounting Mission issues.

There will also be an associated final project of the intern’s choosing related to these efforts, such as: conducting research into the effectiveness of certain policies, contextualizing the historiography of the Vietnam War or POW/MIA Accounting Mission, writing an article on current domestic or international affairs, designing an original piece of legislation, or any such project relevant to the intern's educational benefit.

Depending on the intern's qualifications and interest, other tasks will revolve around varied aspects of running a non-profit office, including communication with U.S. and foreign officials, the media, POW/MIA family members, the Veteran Service Organizations, and the public on issues concerning American POW/MIAs from the Vietnam War.
 

Compensation: This is currently an unpaid position.
 

About the National League of POW/MIA Families

The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia was originally chartered in Washington, DC, on May 28, 1970, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, non-partisan, group established by wives and families to advocate for the US Government to push for the immediate release of all POWs, achieve the fullest possible accounting for MIAs, and repatriate any and all remains from Southeast Asia. Today there are still over 1,400 unaccounted-for servicemen and civilians from the Vietnam War. The League consists of a small team located in the Falls Church - Baileys Crossroads area of Virginia just outside of Washington D.C. If you have ever wanted to get involved in archival preservation, non-profit management, US-Southeast Asian Affairs, domestic or international law and policy, or military history and studies, our internships are for you!