|
ANIRUDH SURI '06 WINS CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT JUNIOR FELLOWSHIP
Anirudh Suri '06 won a Carnegie Endowment Junior Fellowship
this year, and will be going to Washington, D.C., to work with Ashley
Tellis, a Senior Assistant in the Carnegie Institute South Asia
program. Suri, from New Delhi, India, was a double major in economics
and political science at Haverford, with an international relations
focus, and a peace and conflict studies concentration. He aspires
to be a Foreign Service Officer for his home country, and in the
past has won the prestigious Singapore Airlines Youth Scholarship,
and the Starr Foundation and Pannini scholarships. Tellis, a key
advisor to Condoleezza Rice and Nicholas Burns, helped broker the
United States/India nuclear deal, and worked on U.S./India relations.
Suri will be a research assistant on strategic relations
projects involving China and Pakistan, contribute research to reports
for House and Senate committees, contribute to drafts of Op-Eds,
speeches, and editorials, and have chances to co-author monographs,
etc. He'll also be part of a team organizing conferences involving
the Foreign Minister and Defense Minister of India. He'll do that
for a year, and also split his time in another job as an assistant
with the McKinsey management counseling firm, a specialist in merger
management, international finance and global economic strategies.
"For example," Suri explains, " let's
say GE faces losses in certain world areas, they call in McKinsey
to look at the issues and make recommendations for change, and for
government strategies as well...or New Jersey has a deficit problem—this
is just a for-instance—we suggest alternatives..."
He is fascinated by the interplay of global finance,
politics, and social forces. Discussing his own country, he explains
how India has been able to progress so quickly as a democracy, because
of its "inclusive" society, as opposed to authoritarian
societies like China. "It is more responsive to the needs of
its people, although they encompass different groups. I mean the
freedoms of entrepreneurship on a grassroots basis...lots of room
for individual technologies." He also jokes that Indians' familiarity
with English didn't hurt either when it came to outsourcing communications
jobs like computer and cell phone technical information for American,
English, Canadian, and Australian markets. "[India] is better
in the ID services sector and the knowledge economy as well, because
of these factors..."
Anirudh's successful application to the Carnegie think
tank came after his nomination by Haverford (his advisor was Linda
Bell, chair of the economics deptartment). He made what he calls
a "personal statement" on U.S./ China relations on the
subject: "China is Not Necessarily a Threat, if Managed Properly."
"We should not push China on the Taiwan question," he
smiles. "Not at this time, certainly. The U.S, should not be
putting military bases in the Asian Pacific. Or increasing our naval
presence...fairly obvious stuff," he says.
|
