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The U.S.–ASEAN Institute for Rising Leaders Fellowship

At the ASEAN–U.S. Special Summit in May 2022, the White House announced that the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington will host a newly-created U.S.-ASEAN Institute for Rising Leaders Fellowship annually.

In August 2023, the inaugural year of the Fellowship brought 31 mid-career public service professionals — up to three from each of the 10 ASEAN countries and two from the ASEAN Secretariat — to Johns Hopkins SAIS for a leadership development program. Read more here.

The second cohort of the Fellowship will be held in May 2024 for three weeks, and will focus on strengthening leadership, decision-making, and communications skills, as well as building Fellows’ understanding of contemporary international issues such as emerging technologies, and maritime security, and energy transition and climate change.


ASEAN White House group image

The inaugural cohort of the U.S.-ASEAN Institute for Rising Leaders during their visits to the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters and The White House.

Fellows will have the opportunity to learn about U.S. approaches to these issues, as well as U.S. views on the Indo-Pacific—through interactions with faculty, thought leaders in the public and private sector, and experts on U.S. engagement in the region. They will also discuss U.S. models and best practices in public management while building leadership capacity in areas such as citizen engagement and resource management.

The program will consist of classroom and extracurricular activities to help mid-career leaders develop these skills, drawing on faculty from SAIS and other divisions of the university, and experts from the policy community. During the first cohort, for example, Fellows had high-level engagements with experts from the U.S. Department of State, the National Security Council at The White House, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The World Bank, and U.S. Coast Guard, various think tanks, and an array of academic experts.

Participants should be high-achieving mid-career officials. Suitable nominees will generally have at least 10 years of government service, public policy advocacy, non-governmental organization management, or similar experience; and will have demonstrated a track record of leadership, with experience working on issues that relate to regional or global policy challenges. The program is open to officials from any ministry or organization. Participants must be proficient in spoken and written English.

Johns Hopkins SAIS is pleased to partner with the ASEAN Committee in Washington (ACW), which will work with member states to nominate candidates for the fellowship. Johns Hopkins SAIS will then convene a selection committee to determine the final cohort. At least one Fellow will be selected from the ASEAN Secretariat.

Governments and other interested parties are encouraged to engage with the ASEAN member country missions in Washington no later than February 16, 2024, to recommend suitable candidates for this Fellowship. As the selection committee seeks to build a cohort that reflects ASEAN’s diversity, recommendations of outstanding female candidates or those from underrepresented communities are particularly encouraged.

The second cohort of the U.S.-ASEAN Institute for Rising Leaders Fellowship will come to Washington, DC in May 2024. With the generous support of private donors, Johns Hopkins SAIS will cover the costs of the program for selected candidates.

U.S.-ASEAN Institute group image

The inaugural cohort of the U.S.-ASEAN Institute for Rising Leaders gathered for an opening reception at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, (2023, August 8).


For general inquiries, contact Johns Hopkins SAIS at [email protected].