Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking: Junior diplomats

Many career paths are open to the graduate of a well-designed Conflict Transformation degree within the fields of negotiation and diplomacy. 

Aspiring diplomats can take a solid core set of Conflict Transformation courses and branch to international relations for electives, as recommended by a combination of organizations, including the Institute for Global Affairs, which also offers an internship program[1]--and if a CTPS student hoping to be a diplomat is advised well, that internship can count for elective credits. 

In the past, career civil servants in the US State Department served without partisan orientation except for serving in the interests of the United States. In 2025, however, that began to fundamentally change, so that lower-level diplomatic staff who might have served without any significant adjustment when the party in power changed from Republican to Democrat or vice-versa, suddenly were largely fired or pressured to take early retirement. Radical shifts rightward in rhetoric, erasure of some histories, and new expectations at almost every level have changed the nature of working for the US in any capacity that deals with an international environment. 

That noted, there are still opportunities[2] listed in US State Department Foreign Service, Civil Service, and Limited Non-Career Appointments[3] (LNA, often 15-60 month contracts).

Foreign Service[4] is the flagship component of the State Department's overseas operations, which, for better or worse, makes it likely the most vulnerable to political pressures from the administration. Many of the competencies[5] required for this work dovetail precisely into many CTPS degree competencies, such as: 

"Negotiation:

To recognize divergent and overlapping interests; to recognize advantages and disadvantages of agreement and available options; to advocate, influence and/or persuade others using information, facts, and reasoning rather than emotion; to resolve disagreements; to maintain or develop mutually beneficial working relationships with counterparts in the process."

Under the LNA there is a special category, the Consular Fellows Program,[6] that might be of interest to the CTPS graduate who has language proficiency in Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, or Portuguese and is hoping to work overseas. Benefits may include student loan forgiveness.

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[1] https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/announcements/2024/08/job-opening-research-and-communications-intern/

[2] https://careers.state.gov

[3] https://careers.state.gov

[4] https://careers.state.gov/career-paths/foreign-service/

[5] https://careers.state.gov/career-paths/foreign-service/competencies/

[6] https://careers.state.gov/career-paths/foreign-service/limited-non-career-appointments-lna/consular-fellows/