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.
Founded at Tufts University by students involved in the Institute for Global Leadership’s (IGL) EPIIC program in 2006, ALLIES has grown 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.
ALLIES holds weekly discussion meetings within each chapter on key civil-military and foreign policy issues, from the structure of American defense spending, to the issues faced by returning veterans, to the psychology of terrorism. Individual ALLIES chapter also organize special speakers and events throughout the year.
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 Turkey, 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, civilian and military students conduct a real-world 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 Workshop on Civil Military Operations (SWCMO) at West Point, the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference (NAFAC) at USNA, and the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University.