455: What It’s Like to be a Foreign Policy Speechwriter With Andrew Imbrie, Center for Security and Emerging Technology [Main T4C Episode]

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Dr. Andrew Imbrie is a Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. He worked as a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and as a senior advisor to Secretary John Kerry. In addition, Andrew also served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, where he was a speechwriter for Secretary of State Kerry. Andrew teaches foreign policy speech writing and rhetoric at Georgetown University. His new book is entitled: Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World. Finally, Andrew graduated from Connecticut College in 2006, and majored in the Humanities. Moreover, he received his M.A. from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in international relations from Georgetown University.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE

• What CSET is, and why it works on national security issues (3:48)
• How many speeches per year Andrew wrote for John Kerry (7:38)
• How to “find the right spot” in the professional world (9:10)
• How being a foreign policy speechwriter impacted Andrew’s life (11:18)
• How one of Andrew’s speeches addressed a controversial moment in U.S. foreign policy (14:22) 
• What Andrew’s speechwriting process is like (17:09)
• How to build a “bridge of understanding” (23:30)
• What advice Andrew has for aspiring speechwriters (24:44)
• Why speechwriters should be very attentive of their speaker’s mannerisms (27:25)
• What the similarities are between speechwriting and music (28:00)
• What John Kerry was like to work with (30:18)
• What big question Andrew’s new book tries to answer (35:48)
• How being a liberal arts student helped Andrew prepare for his career (39:20)
• Why you should listen to Andrew’s T4C Espresso Shots episode #426