Last fall, we had the opportunity to return to the classroom as
students. We were invited by the American Political Science
Association to take a course titled Congress and the Making of
Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. The course, which was taught by
professor Charles Stevenson, met twice weekly during September and
October, prior to the start of APSA's Congressional Fellowship
Program in November. The course was designed to give APSA
Congressional Fellows and SAIS students an overview of the role that
Congress plays in the foreign policymaking process. Since both of us
teach a course on Congress, much of the course was an excellent
refresher for us. But it also differed in important ways from the
courses we teach at our respective schools. It is these differences
that deepened our understanding of Congress and the foreign
policymaking process and provided an important introduction to our
work as APSA fellows on Capitol Hill.