Miriam Cochran, M.A., Class of 2011

Miriam Cochran joined an NGO in Iraq last summer, taking a career move that combines her aspirations for humanitarian work with her interest in Middle Eastern issues – which were the focus of her Master’s thesis at AGS. She writes about the journey that took her from the US where she did her undergraduate studies, to France where she earned her M.A. in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS, to Iraq, on the ground.

“I am originally from the US. I studied International Relations at UC Davis and had wanted to be a foreign policy advisor. I spent a year abroad in Bordeaux as a junior in college, and that's where I confirmed my love of France. I went back to study at AGS and stayed on after I completed my Master’s degree. I have lived in France for nearly seven years and am now a French citizen.

In June 2016, I started a job in Iraq with an NGO, Mercy Hands for Humanitarian Aid, as their Representative Coordinator. As part of my work, I meet with people from different intergovernmental organizations and NGOs on a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly basis: WFP (World Food Programme), UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Save the Children, NCCI (NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq), and others.

The first month here was difficult, but slowly I have been learning about the humanitarian situation and how things work (UN, government, international community, local NGOs). It's extremely complicated - more than I could have imagined. As everyone here is preparing for the humanitarian catastrophe that will result from the military operation to retake Mosul, I am finally joining in and trying to participate in the planning.

The information that I learned at AGS in Dr. Habibi's Middle East classes help me to put everything in context. And my methodology class comes in particularly handy when writing grant proposals.

Though I've joined the humanitarian world a bit late in life (people here are very young - especially in the NGO world), people are generally pretty accepting.

Our organization is expanding its fields of activity, and I am hopefully going to help in launching some education and health projects. So many ideas, so hard to get funding. I am glad I am starting with the perspective of a local NGO, because I am sure it is a very different experience working for an IGO or a UN agency.

In the long term, I would ideally like to be working in either protection or conflict resolution/management. At the moment I think I would like to stay around the Middle East, but perhaps eventually come back to Paris and work at an NGO on their Middle East desk.

AGS brought me a great education. I learned so much at AGS from my professors. I feel that I grasped a better understanding of international politics and how the world has evolved, particularly over the last 50 years.”

Update on September 29th, 2017:

"On July 31st, 2017 I started working at Civipol Conseil as a Project Manager. Civipol is a private company that acts as a service and consulting company for the French Ministry of the Interior. An example of the type of work I am doing is managing the administrative and financial aspects of some Ministry civil society protection projects that are funded by the European Commission. This puts me in contact with many people in the Ministry of the Interior (including gendarmes and police officers) in several departments (DGSCGC, DCI, DGGN, DGPN, and more acronyms you never knew of before). I am also working on a European police project involving five countries, which puts me in contact with foreign ministries and police.

My bachelors degree is in International Relations with a focus on secutiry, so my current position is partly due to my educational background (and interests). AGS was a continuation in this area, and thus also supported me in taking this job. I learned a lot at AGS about different types of international organizations, and state interaction with them. I also learned about the European Union and interaction between states within the Union at AGS, but more importantly at the Université de Paris Sud, where I obtained by dual Masters."