King's College London

Whitney Grespin, PhD candidate at King's College London's Defence Studies Department and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College, was just elected to the Council on Foreign Relations' Team Member Program.

The Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Program offers promising young leaders in government, media, nongovernmental organizations, law, business, finance, and academia the opportunity to participate in a sustained conversation on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The program allows these younger members to interact with seasoned foreign policy experts and participate in a wide variety of events designed especially for them. Each year, a new class of term members between the ages of thirty and thirty-six is elected to serve a fixed five-year membership term. The Term Member Program is supported by a generous gift from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

In addition to taking part in a full range of CFR activities, term members also enjoy an array of special events with high-profile speakers, including an annual Term Member Conference, roundtables, workshops, trips to financial and governmental institutions across the country, and a week-long study trip abroad every two years. The Twenty-Second Annual Term Member Conference featured CIA Director Mike Pompeo, CENTCOM Commander Joseph L. Votel, and Futurist Ray Kurzweil. Concurrent breakout-session roundtables with CFR Fellows offered term members the opportunity for in-depth conversations on critical issues, ranging from Iran and the war against the self-declared Islamic State, to emerging markets, clean energy technology, and cybersecurity. The conference also included sessions on innovation and development in Africa and the future of civil-military relations.

In the spring of 2016, a term member delegation visited Mexico for a week-long series of briefings and meetings with government officials, and with leaders in business, academia, local communities, and nongovernmental organizations. Other recent trips have included visits to the National Security Council, Central Intelligence Agency, Capitol Hill, West Point, Annapolis, and Seattle, Washington.