Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (known at the university as SFS) is a school within Georgetown University which specialises in international affairs. It was founded in 1919 by the dean, a Catholic priest and fanatical anti-communist called Edmund Walsh, who whilst at Georgetown had worked at the US War Department on a programme “designed to mobilise higher education’s resources for the war effort".[1] Walsh is described by his biographer as a "proponent of American exceptionalism" who "viewed the [American] nation as a beacon of liberty and equality for the world.”[2] During the 1930s Walsh publicly opposed Roosevelt’s New Deal measures and during the cold war he endorsed a nuclear first strike on the basis that the Soviet were inherently immoral.[3] Expressing an ideological zeal common amongst neo-conservatives today, Walsh advocated what he called “the argument of strength justly and righteously employed.[4]
Curiosity: the Edmund Walsh... SFS is headquartered in... the Walsh building! on the GU campus.
Former Deans
- Keogh – was a "former" CIA operative who transformed the SFS in to a prime recruiting ground for the CIA and similar organizations.
Affiliations
- Georgetown University – SFS is one department within this university
- CSIS – a think tank where many SFS reside
