National Security Education Program
Strengthening national security through critical language and culture expertise
Students and Educators
Study critical cultures
NSEP initiatives represent an incredible opportunity to realize your goals of in-depth culture and language study. Click here for help deciding which initiative is right for you.
Jobs in the Government
NSEP alumni are in demand in the federal workforce contributing unmatched professional expertise along with advanced cultural and language skills. NSEP award recipients are in demand and staff provide them with assistance finding jobs in the federal government.
Recipients around the globe
See where recent NSEP award recipients have studied abroad
NSEP supports students who are eager to study in and about areas of the world critical to U.S. national security and outside Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Destinations for NSEP award recipients include Egypt, Israel, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, etc. NSEP’s focus on these critical and understudied world regions remains indispensable to the future American capacity to address major national security needs.
NSEP preferred countries
The following list represents regions and countries of interest to NSEP that are critical to U.S. national security.
- Africa
- Angola
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Republic of the Congo
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Nigeria
- Rwanda
- Sierra Leone
- South Africa
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Uganda
- Zimbabwe
- East Asia and Pacific
- Burma
- Cambodia
- China
- Indonesia
- Japan
- North Korea
- South Korea
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- East Europe and Eurasia
- Albania
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Georgia
- Hungary
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Macedonia
- Moldova
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia and Montenegro
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Tajikistan
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
- latin America and Caribbean
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Chile
- Colombia
- Cuba
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Peru
- Venezuela
- Near East
- Algeria
- Bahrain
- Egypt
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Morocco
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Syria
- Tunisia
- United Arab Emirates
- Yemen
- South Asia
- Afghanistan
- India
- Pakistan
Focus on less-commonly taught languages
NSEP emphasizes study of non-Western European languages critical to U.S. national security, such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Russian, and Turkish. NSEP award recipients, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, represent outstanding students and high aptitude language learners who have demonstrated prior and ongoing commitment to language study and a motivation to learn languages well outside the boundaries of Europe and Latin America. They are likely to have some prior experience in the language and are also likely to continue their language study following their NSEP supported program.
Many NSEP Scholars and Fellows have demonstrated proficiency levels in their languages prior to receiving NSEP support; yet because so few Americans have an opportunity to learn less commonly studied languages, NSEP also seeks to identify highly motivated individuals who wish to begin studying such languages.
NSEP Preferred Languages
The list of languages emphasized by NSEP reflects a need for more than 70 languages.
- Albanian
- Amharic
- Arabic (and dialects)
- Armenian
- Azerbaijani
- Belarussian
- Bosnian
- Bulgarian
- Burmese
- Cantonese
- Czech
- Georgian
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian
- Japanese
- Kazakh
- Khmer
- Korean
- Kurdish
- Kyrgyz
- Lingala
- Macedonian
- Malay
- Mandarin
- Mongolian
- Pashto
- Persian (Farsi/Dari)
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Serbian
- Sinhala
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Swahili
- Tagalog
- Tajik
- Tamil
- Thai
- Turkish
- Turkmen
- Uighur
- Ukrainian
- Urdu
- Uzbek
- Vietnamese
Commitment to public service
The goal of NSEP is to enhance the capacity of the federal sector to deal effectively with the challenging global issues of the 21st century. NSEP David L. Boren Scholars and Fellows, Flagship Fellows, and EHLS Scholars represent a vital pool of highly motivated individuals who wish to work in the federal national security arena. NSEP strongly emphasizes the importance of award recipients seeking and gaining employment in Federal Government organizations whose missions and functions are most directly related to national security.
NSEP Alumni in the federal government
NSEP award recipients are deeply committed to serving the U.S. Government. NSEP works closely with each Scholar and Fellow and with U.S. Government agencies to identify employment opportunities and recommend appropriate matches. More than 1000 NSEP award recipients have already contributed to the Federal effort and are recognized across Federal departments as ideal candidates for positions.
NSEP Service Requirement
The goal of NSEP is to enhance the capacity of the federal sector to deal effectively with the challenging global issues of the 21st century. NSEP David L. Boren Scholars and Fellows, Flagship Fellows, and EHLS Scholars represent a vital pool of highly motivated individuals who wish to work in the federal national security arena. NSEP strongly emphasizes the importance of award recipients seeking and gaining employment in Federal Government organizations whose missions and functions are most directly related to national security.
Boren Scholar, 2005
I studied Arabic in Ifrane, Morocco through the SUNY-Binghamton Exchange Program at Al Akhawayn University, where I was able to experience the culture and better understand the political struggles of the Arab peoples in ways that textbooks could never cover. During my study abroad experience, I attended protests in the capital, Rabat, on issues ranging from discontent of Morocco’s lack of involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian situation to the advancement of women’s rights.
Boren Scholar, 2005
I studied Burmese and Thai on a University of Wisconsin-Madison program in Chiang Mai, Thailand, while researching the underworld of drug-trafficking and insurgency in both Thailand and Burma.
Boren Fellow, 2004
I spent six months doing field research in Chad (C. Africa) and one semester of advanced-level Arabic study to help facilitate my stay there. My research looks at the welfare impacts of various economic booms on different socio-economic groups of poorer nations.
Boren Fellow, 2005
Notably, I was able to consult on the LLIS project while I continued to live in Turkey after concluding my Boren Fellowship; I remained in Turkey for over a year and a half. This additional time in Turkey enabled me to further improve my Turkish and expand my research on Turkish civil-military relations. This research resulted in my International Relations MA thesis on "Turkish Interpretations of Westernization: Creating a Cultural Context for Military Influence and Intervention in Politics" (MA degree granted from the Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies).
Living in Turkey renewed my previous interest in anthropology, and I returned to the United States (US) in the fall of 2005 to begin an Anthropology PhD program at Brown University. My research interests include military subcultures and the cultural context of violence, war, and militarization. My current research focus is on the US military, and I recently completed independent summer research at the Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) on the issue of cultural awareness education and training in the US military. Throughout the 2005/2006 academic year, I also was involved in the Watson Institute’s Cultural Awareness in the Military project, which brings together military practitioners and social scientists to explore both the ethical and the practical challenges of instilling cultural awareness in the military.
Flagship Fellow, 2007
As a Flagship fellow, I pursued intensive Mandarin Chinese on the Flagship program at Ohio State University and at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, from 2005 to 2007. I have a BA in East Asian Studies and Chinese and a master's degree in Chinese.
EHLS Scholar, 2007
I am a native speaker of Urdu born in Karachi, Pakistan, and a U.S. citizen since 2003. I hold a Masters degree in Journalism from the University of Karachi, and graduated from the EHLS Georgetown University program in June 2007.