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Growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain: Personal Statement

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Growing up behind the Iron Curtain - St. Petersburg - deep within the Soviet Union, my father and I would hold our regular clandestine meetings, hovering over an AM radio, listening to our only link with the outside world and Voice of America. I was a boy, then, and yet, as I look back now, reading from the Economist, Foreign Affairs or the Herald Tribune, I remark inwardly on how fortunate I was to be able to have a world view that includes the other side of the Curtain. In my first years at university, I thought of my American classmates, who were fully immersed in the ideals of the West: could they truly appreciate the depth of Rousseau's thoughts or the importance of Locke's ideas? Socialism was a word to them, a concept they were to be tested on. For me, for better or for worse, it had been my roots; my heritage.

As the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain fell from its rusted hinges, my family and I emigrated to the United States. The experience was one of complete cultural reversal, an immersion in a renaissance of ideas I had only …show more content…
Particularly, I look forward to developing my understanding of international law and international politics, with a pronounced emphasis on human rights and development. The IPE program is dynamic and broad in its scope, encompassing many subjects. My own Bachelors degree in Government, Diplomacy and Strategy with a specialization in International Affairs and Middle East Politics shares with IPE an equally composed of several branches of learning. Veritably, Government, Diplomacy and Strategy covered all aspects of international affairs, including an overview of the history of international relations, international political economy, conflict resolution, international law, micro and

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