The Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) is an undergraduate organization dedicated to exploring significant topics, events, and policies related to international relations and security while developing relationships that will last a lifetime. ALLIES holds weekly discussion meetings within on key security and foreign policy issues, such as global power politics.
Founded at Tufts University by students involved in the Institute for Global Leadership’s (IGL) EPIIC program in 2006, ALLIES grew to encompass chapters at Tufts, Wellesley College, the University of North Georgia, the United States Naval Academy (USNA), and the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. Following the IGL’s transition to the Initiative for Global Leadership in 2022, ALLIES is now housed in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life.
Founded at Tufts University by students involved in the Institute for Global Leadership’s (IGL) EPIIC program in 2006, ALLIES grew to encompass chapters at Tufts, Wellesley College, the University of North Georgia, the United States Naval Academy (USNA), and the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, with interested students at other civilian and military universities. Following the IGL’s transition to the Initiative for Global Leadership in 2022, ALLIES is now housed in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life.
Students involved in ALLIES work together to plan and execute joint programs each year, including the Civil-Military Relations Conference, a yearly academic conference that has involved speakers such as the Hon. Michèle Flournoy, Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy at the Department of Defense.
Each summer, ALLIES participants from military and civilian schools plan and execute a Joint Research Project (JRP) abroad, conducting academic research on civil-military relations in countries such as Singapore, Türkiye, Chile, South Africa, and Estonia.
ALLIES students also participate in FIELDEX, or the Field Exercises in Peace and Stability Operations, at Tufts University every year. In FIELDEX, students conduct a kinetic simulation of a conflict scenario, featuring political leaders, negotiations, and armed conflict all taking place in real time on a paintball field. FIELDEX provides real-world experience in effective civil-military cooperation for all participants, as many military students are assigned civilian roles and vice versa.
Each year, ALLIES students attend conferences at each others’ institutions, such as the Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA) at West Point, the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference (NAFAC) at USNA, and the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University.
