SCUSA West Point US Foreign Policy Conference

I was lucky enough to attend the US Military Academy's Student Conference on US Affairs in the fall of 2019 as a representative of Union College. I was assigned to the Trade, Jobs, and Globalization roundtable where we ultimately formulated a foreign policy recommendation to be sent to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. It was a unique and enlightening experience to negotiate with other students from different universities, backgrounds, and even nationalities. We were eventually successful in creating a strategy to further global efforts in renewable energy and technological innovation strategies by creating a quasi-TPP system. Our ultimate goals were multifaceted which included the creation of a clean energy and innovative-friendly free-trade agreement, seeking to incentivize nations to reform their economic structures in order to gain accession, typically through pro-market and neoliberal adjustments.  The result of such an agreement would further deepen the integration of global value chains, resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes and socioeconomic development worldwide, as well as the popularization and institutionalization of economic values including reciprocity, multilateralism, and free-trade.