On April 2, MTSU’s Middle East Center welcomed Robert S. Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria. He spoke to students in the Business and Aerospace building about what pursuing a career in foreign relations entails. 

Ford served as the Syrian ambassador through the Bush and Obama administrations before joining the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., as a distinguished diplomat.

He broke his talk down into a few categories: languages and related programs, government careers, non-government or private careers and networking. 

In order to have a successful career in foreign relations, it’s important to be able to have complete and complex conversations in other languages, Ford said.

“If you want to work in the Middle East, my strongest advice to you is get the foreign language down before you start the career,” Ford said.

He highly recommended finding a foreign-based language program to get on-the-ground experience. Ford mentioned two options: the Critical Language Scholarship and the Boren Awards.

The Critical Language Scholarship is an all-fees paid educational exchange that offers many language and cultural opportunities overseas. The Boren Awards fund undergraduate and graduate students studying abroad.

Finding a government job in foreign relations is “harder than it ever was before” due to the government cutting funds to programs like the International Rescue Committee and the US Agency for International Development, Ford said. He predicts that foreign relations jobs will dwindle in the coming years. 

However, the military and the Intelligence Community — the government agencies that handle foreign affairs and national security — are still actively hiring for foreign positions. There are also UN and European-funded programs that will most likely not be cut, Ford said.

Working in foreign affairs requires a broad set of skills, including project management, budgeting, writing, analysis and being interpersonal, Ford said.

“These jobs require that you go out and meet people, talk to them, often in a foreign language, and then you come back with the information and share it with an American team,” Ford said. “It is really important to be able to write very fast, very clearly and in a way that gets key points across right up front.”

For those interested in working in both non-government and government organizations, networking is essential. Ford recommended figuring out a list of names of prominent people in your field of study, checking out news stories about them and their websites and trying to reach out to them.

Particularly in the Middle East, foreign relations deal heavily with humanitarian matters.

Ford was a vocal supporter of the Syrian uprising, a series of conflicts against the Syrian government’s authoritarianism that led to a civil war. As the war escalated, the Syrian government became more brutal, arresting and torturing thousands of people. 

“So, I spoke out about it,” Ford said about the uprising. “Saying that the government’s repression is making things worse, and it’s violating all kinds of international laws about human rights and the integrity of the body.”

Integrated studies student Margaret Robertson said she hopes to get involved in international affairs in the same way — by giving a voice to those in need.

“I’m passionate about advancing gender equity in regions where women’s voices are often silenced,” Robertson said. “I hope to pursue a career in global development that amplifies those voices and drives sustainable, systemic change.”