Foreign Affairs

GAMBIER, Ohio (October 6, 2004) With the presidential debate season in full swing, U.S. foreign policy is on everyone's lips. That's a topic that daily occupies the thoughts of Christian Brose, speechwriter to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Brose, a member of the Class of 2002, returns to Kenyon to give a lecture on the current debate in American foreign policy on Thursday, October 7, at 8:00 p.m. in Higley Hall.

Brose traces his fascination with both the theoretical and the practical aspects of politics to the events of his senior year. He was writing an honors project on political philosophy and contemplating a career in teaching when September 11 took place. While he went on to graduate with highest honors for his theoretically-oriented thesis, from the day of the attack his passion for practical politics and policy-making grew.

His attraction to practice as well as theory has shaped the kinds of professional writing Brose has undertaken since his graduation. He went immediately to work as an assistant editor at The National Interest, a prestigious quarterly journal devoted to foreign policy topics, where he put his political science major and concentration in humane studies to use. That led to a short stint at The Public Interest, a highly regarded domestic policy quarterly. He found the work satisfying but longed to learn more about how government actually works.

In his current position, the former Lords swimmer is doing just that. As one of three speechwriters to Colin Powell, he revels in "finding out how the wheels turn" in the State Department. In addition to speechwriting, Brose serves as a member of Powell's policy planning staff, where he gets to work with "brilliant people who function as the Secretary's personal think tank. I'm sponging up as much as I can, learning as fast as I can."