Mia Clarke is a junior global affairs and peace studies major from Indianapolis. This summer, she interned with the Arms Control Association, building upon her previous work as a research assistant with the Catholic Peacebuilding Network.
The organization is housed in the Keough School's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and directed by Keough School faculty member Gerard Powers.
My interest in peacebuilding started in the classroom. But it was this summer’s internship with the Arms Control Association (ACA) that showed me what that policy work actually looks like on a daily basis and helped me understand the bridge building and dialogue needed to sustain that important work.
Throughout my coursework at Notre Dame, I have developed a strong interest in nuclear policy. During my sophomore year, I worked as a research assistant on the Catholic Peacebuilding Network’s Project on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament. In that role, I engaged with students and professors from around the country and world to promote dialogue about what it looks like to realize the Catholic Church’s teaching on disarmament and just peace in an increasingly divided and conflict-driven world.
During one of our webinars, Kelsey Davenport, a Keough School graduate who serves as the ACA’s director of nonproliferation policy, spoke about the prospects for diplomacy, dialogue and conflict in Iran just weeks before the United States resumed strikes. I was intrigued by her commentary and how it helped me understand and interpret news about the rapidly evolving conflict with greater confidence and clarity. So when the ACA ultimately offered me an opportunity to intern for the summer, that experience was still top of mind, and I said yes.
My summer internship with the Arms Control Association was defined by connection, and by bridging the gap between generations, organizations and audiences.
Summer highlights included attending the ACA’s annual meeting, which convened experts from think tanks and governments, and meeting with other young people interested in nuclear policy at a conference hosted by the Carnegie Endowment. I also had the opportunity to write and to work with a professional editor for the magazine Arms Control Today. In addition, I researched and wrote for the ACA’s fact sheets and supported its policy team’s responses to developments in the Iran conflict, the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia and the 2027 National Defense Budget. It was a summer defined by connection, and by bridging the gap between generations, organizations and audiences.
These themes of connection and bridge building have stayed with me. I saw firsthand the important roles that think tanks play in dialogue around policy issues. At their very best, these institutions faciliate connections. They connect the public with experts to ease fear and misinformation; connect policy makers with experts and constituents to guide decisions; and connect members of different political parties to pursue dialogue in neutral spaces that have become increasingly hard to find and defend.
One impactful example of that bridge building came toward the end of my internship, in the form of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War. This three-day gathering in Rome, co-sponsored in part by the Keough School and its Kroc Institute, convened a diverse group of experts including Nobel laureates, professors and AI specialists. Among the attendees were the ACA's executive director Daryl Kimball, CPN’s coordinator, Professor Gerard Powers and my close friend and fellow Notre Dame student Lillian Post. I had the privilege of hearing each of their perspectives on the gathering and the related Rome Declaration on AI and nuclear weapons, and of researching the declaration’s origins and the precedent that informed it.
One question that stood out to me was how to engage younger generations in this effort. While the majority of experts agree that we need greater engagement from young people in nuclear policy, they often disagree on how to cultivate it. Many of my conversations after the declaration centered on the need to cultivate hope-based engagement with younger generations that also acknowledges and accommodates the variety of other threats young activists face today.
Ultimately, I used these perspectives and conversations to inform my own post on the ACA’s blog, which synthesizes my suggestions for how to adapt this call for disarmament to meet the needs of a younger generation, and how hope-based appeals can offer a more viable alternative than traditional fear-based ones.
In the process of outlining and drafting that piece, I worked to embody the spirit of connection and dialogue I most admired in my colleagues, an approach that I believe is increasingly valuable to facilitate problem-solving and consensus in a fractured and polarized political landscape.
I see my work this past summer as the first of many opportunities to bring together the perspectives of experts and practitioners as I work to make my own personal contributions to the larger work of nuclear disarmament.
Read Related Post
Junior global affairs and peace studies major Lillian Post, who has also worked with the Catholic Peacebuilding network, shares her experience taking a course with its coordinator, Professor Gerard Powers, which allowed her to attend a major conference on AI and nuclear weapons.
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on August 24, 2026.