>> JOHN MOSKOWEN: My name is John Moskowen [assumed spelling],
a 2004 Graduate of Penn State, and I work at the U.S. Department of State
and the Special Representative for Afghanistan, Pakistan's Office, I'm a Special Advisor,
and I work on issues related to trying to achieve applicable settlement
of the Afghan conflict and also to shape the trajectory for a relationship with Afghanistan
and Pakistan following the end of our combat operations there in 2014.
Obviously, something that when we come to work every day you never know what's going to happen,
you never know what issues you're going to have to deal with,
but overall I think the trajectory is one of improvement.
We have changed fundamentally the situation on the ground in Afghanistan,
the Taliban's momentum has been halted,
and similarly in Pakistan's travel areas we've been very successful at targeting and removing
as a threat people from Al-Qaida, which was the organization of course
which attacked us on September 11.
Well, it's definitely not nine to five, you know, being several time zones away
from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as we're leaving work at the end
of the day they're just waking up there going about their day.
And as we've learned over the past few months you never know what's going to happen.
You come to work one day thinking you're going to focus on trying to finish a certain project,
a meeting that's coming up at the White House that you need to prepare, and so it's a matter
of scrambling, trying to assess what's really happening on the ground,
getting all the facts right, and then working to shape and develop not only the policy response,
but the public response of the Administration
and that the State Department and others will have.
So that's a big aspect of what I do, but then there are also several long-term projects
that you work on, there's a regular rhythm
to how the national security bureaucracy works in Washington.
Regular meetings at the White House that people, like my boss,
[inaudible] Mark Grossman are going to, and it's just a matter of helping prepare them,
ensure that they have the information that they need to have an informed discussion,
and helping really frame and prepare the process to make decisions when it needs to make them
to continue to advance our policy.
I think the travel, the opportunity to meet with foreign officials, foreign people,
really get out and see different societies, you know,
the interesting things is there are 50 countries fighting alongside us in Afghanistan
in our coalition, and so that's really provided a rich opportunity to travel across the world
and visit everywhere from places, like India to Brussels
where NATO is headquartered, to Moscow, Beijing.
So it's been a real joy and a great opportunity for me to not only travel
and visit all these places on business,
but then also spend some time seeing them and meeting with the people.
Really, you know, you can't find a more interesting place than Afghanistan or Pakistan
to visit, and I think the rich history, the rich culture, despite all the challenges
that those countries face, it's just a really interesting, neat place.
I think the best challenge was sort of pacing yourself
and being patient with the system and the process.
A lot of what we do in terms of national security work is consensus based decision-making
of the U.S. Government, which is really important, you know, we're making
or helping senior level people make very challenging and difficult circumstances -
decisions with significant impacts, not only for the lives of Americans and our national security
but also in terms of spending in some cases of hundreds of billions of dollars.
So it's important for that process to be well thought out and informed,
but it can also be complex and lengthy and you really have to remain persistent and focused
and patient to work through all that decision making.
You know, the great thing about working on foreign policy
and national security issues is they, you know, what we increasingly focus on is a wide range
of things, you know, during the cold war it used to be a very discrete set of issues,
but since then it's brought in to include everything from economic development
and assistance and communications and trade issues, climate change,
to still traditional security issues.
So you can enter and work - government, work on these issues with a wide variety of backgrounds.
What's really just important I think is that you be passionate about the issues
and that you be prepared to be persistent about the process.
There's no clear way sometimes into a government agency.
There's a lot of bureaucracy even though things have been streamlined
over the past several years, that's still a very elliptic standard process of applying
for a job, waiting for security clearance.
And so you just have to be persistent and focused, but it really helps
if you can get your foot in the door, have that first summer internship experience,
whether working at a government agency or a think tank,
a nongovernmental organization, just something in Washington.
It's a very tight knit community, lots of people know each other, so just getting your foot
in the door really helps you begin to develop that network and build relationships
that will help serve you and get you on the right path.
Well, I went to Penn State University, I was a 2004 graduate,
and I had degrees in International Politics and also Media Studies.
And I knew when I came to Penn State and originally I guess in 2000, when I showed up,
that I was interested in foreign policy and national security issues,
and then obviously the events of September 11th happened and so that really increased a lot
of attention and focus on the issues that I was already interested in,
so I was able through Penn State to get my first job in Washington, D.C., a summer internship
at a think tank called the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
and it was just a wonderful, great first summer experience.
I worked for a really talented expert on a variety of issues.
He was working on a project on Afghanistan at the time, which I worked on,
also the debate about Iraq, whether or not there needed
to be an intervention there, was beginning.
So I really - that was my first opportunity to sort of get my feet wet a bit and sort
of experience life in Washington and work on these issues.
And then as a result of that experience I was able
to in subsequent summers while I was a student here at Penn State go back to Washington
and work at the State Department over the summer on various issues, such as Iraq, Afghanistan.
And those experiences were really the foundation, along with the course work
and education that I got here at Penn State, for where I am today.
I went on to Graduate School, I got a Masters of Public Policy
from the Kennedy School of Government.
Spent some time working at the Central Intelligence Agency as a Political Analyst,
before going back to the State Department as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2006.
And I've essentially been with the State Department since then,
although detail with other U.S. Government agencies, so I've spent some time
at the White House Budget Office, I've spent some time with the U.S. Military,
working for General Petraeus when he came into Central Command.
And all these experiences have just sort of built on each other,
and those initial experiences that I had as a Penn State student working unpaid internships
in the summer, back about ten years ago.
I mean, for me, well, I've had a general trajectory and a general sense of I knew
where I was, you know, I knew I was interested in foreign policy and national security issues.
I would have never thought ten years ago that my path would be sort of circuitous.
And so I think really the flexibility and the willingness to try out new things
and just really to understand that it's not necessarily easy to create a clear path
and go ahead and proceed with it, but rather that there will be opportunities that pop-up
and you should seize them even if they're not immediately relevant
to what you think you're interested in doing because they will open doors
and opportunities for you down the line.
And that can be a bit nerve-racking because you enter an organization intent on doing one type
of thing, and you find yourself shortly thereafter doing another and trying
to really ensure that you keep track of your long-term goals but area also flexible enough
to have those broadening experiences, I think that's just really important.