48 min
#17: Think tanks, navigating your early career in IR and a call for a courageous Swiss foreign policy with Anna-Lina Müller Bariscope
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- Politics
**timestamps below** For the final episode of this three-part series we have the great pleasure to welcome Anna-Lina Müller, Co-Director of foraus (the leading grass root think tank on Swiss foreign policy) since Spring 2022. After starting medicine at the University of Zurich and realising that it simply wasn’t for her, she switched to political science and history. During her bachelor studies Anna-Lina co-founded DiscussIt, an association that organizes political podiums in over 40 partner schools in Switzerland ahead of votations. In 2021 she completed her masters degree in political science and government at the University of Oxford having focused in her thesis on the political consequences of gender-specific job automation. Prior to being appointed Co-Director of foraus, Anna-Lina worked at the Swiss Federal Departement for Foreign Affairs, the UN in Nairobi, various NGOs in Athens and South Africa and think tanks in Zurich, Brussels, Oxford and Berlin. Anna-Lina has covered in her work asylum policy, the conflict in the Middle East, security related questions such as piracy in East Africa, democratic change, welfare politics, EU-Swiss relationships and currently Swiss neutrality. We took full advantage of Anna-Lina’s incredibly broad experience and asked her what it takes to build your own organisation, if moving abroad can be lonely, how Switzerland can have a more courageous foreign policy in a polarised world and how think tanks can contribute to bringing ideas from academia to policymakers and citizens. We promise you'll learn so much from Anna-Lina for example that even at Oxford University « they’re only cooking with water ».
Enjoy and stay critically curious,
Lea & Lukas
Foraus: https://www.foraus.ch/en/
Anna-Lina on Twitter: @AnnaLinaSophie
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***timestamps***
*02:30: Why did you decide to study political science?
*05:55: Was there a political event that politicised you?
*08:10: Everything Anna-Lina has learned from co-founding DiscussIt
*13:13: What motivated you to move abroad for your studies? And why Anna-Lina doesn’t plan her career ahead
*18:00: Strategies that might help you when moving abroad
*20:23: What are the advantages of a broad approach compared to specialising in a certain field?
*24:10: How does foraus operate?
*26:53: How do you ensure a constant flow of volunteers supporting foraus’ grassroots approach?
*29:30: Why do we need think tanks when we have universities? And what are the limits of think tanks compared with academia?
*33:20: Anna-Lina’s view on neutrality and her participation in the neutrality expert group of federal councillor Ignazio Cassis
*36:35: How can Switzerland be more courageous in foreign policy?
*41:15: A call to all of us to stand up for democracy
*45:45: 3 tips to your 20 year old self?
**timestamps below** For the final episode of this three-part series we have the great pleasure to welcome Anna-Lina Müller, Co-Director of foraus (the leading grass root think tank on Swiss foreign policy) since Spring 2022. After starting medicine at the University of Zurich and realising that it simply wasn’t for her, she switched to political science and history. During her bachelor studies Anna-Lina co-founded DiscussIt, an association that organizes political podiums in over 40 partner schools in Switzerland ahead of votations. In 2021 she completed her masters degree in political science and government at the University of Oxford having focused in her thesis on the political consequences of gender-specific job automation. Prior to being appointed Co-Director of foraus, Anna-Lina worked at the Swiss Federal Departement for Foreign Affairs, the UN in Nairobi, various NGOs in Athens and South Africa and think tanks in Zurich, Brussels, Oxford and Berlin. Anna-Lina has covered in her work asylum policy, the conflict in the Middle East, security related questions such as piracy in East Africa, democratic change, welfare politics, EU-Swiss relationships and currently Swiss neutrality. We took full advantage of Anna-Lina’s incredibly broad experience and asked her what it takes to build your own organisation, if moving abroad can be lonely, how Switzerland can have a more courageous foreign policy in a polarised world and how think tanks can contribute to bringing ideas from academia to policymakers and citizens. We promise you'll learn so much from Anna-Lina for example that even at Oxford University « they’re only cooking with water ».
Enjoy and stay critically curious,
Lea & Lukas
Foraus: https://www.foraus.ch/en/
Anna-Lina on Twitter: @AnnaLinaSophie
—--
***timestamps***
*02:30: Why did you decide to study political science?
*05:55: Was there a political event that politicised you?
*08:10: Everything Anna-Lina has learned from co-founding DiscussIt
*13:13: What motivated you to move abroad for your studies? And why Anna-Lina doesn’t plan her career ahead
*18:00: Strategies that might help you when moving abroad
*20:23: What are the advantages of a broad approach compared to specialising in a certain field?
*24:10: How does foraus operate?
*26:53: How do you ensure a constant flow of volunteers supporting foraus’ grassroots approach?
*29:30: Why do we need think tanks when we have universities? And what are the limits of think tanks compared with academia?
*33:20: Anna-Lina’s view on neutrality and her participation in the neutrality expert group of federal councillor Ignazio Cassis
*36:35: How can Switzerland be more courageous in foreign policy?
*41:15: A call to all of us to stand up for democracy
*45:45: 3 tips to your 20 year old self?
48 min