Ryan Zoellner

Ryan Zoellner was a junior at Colgate University when he began looking for an opportunity in DC that combined his interest in political science, philosophy of religion, and the Middle East. That search led him to RFI in the summer of 2019 where he became an intern on the Middle East Action Team under the supervision of Jeremy Barker. At the time there was a lot of interest in cataloging the government militia in Iraq. “It was a matter of putting together social media, academic, government, and think-tank sources to be able to do this and I just thought it was so exciting and so cool.” 

Because of his summer work at RFI, Ryan decided to do his undergraduate thesis about Iraq and wrote about the role of religious commitment in political consolidation in Iraq and Kurdistan. He eventually decided to apply for graduate school at Harvard University where he is currently in his second year of Theological Studies with a concentration in Islamic Studies. He is also the associate editor of the Journal of Middle East Politics and Policy. “RFI made all of this possible. If I hadn’t done that summer at RFI, none of this would have happened.” 

The relationship with RFI continued in the summer of 2022 when Ryan worked in Iraq for the Prime Minister’s Office of the KRG. His main focus was an economic diversification project working to establish Kurdistan’s first non-oil export promotion bureau. He also worked with the diplomacy team on outreach to Congress and wrote an operating procedure guide. Throughout the time, he maintained a close working relationship with Jeremy and even stayed with his family for part of his time there. “The RFI internship really is a complete experience. I felt very comfortable in the environment at RFI. It was equal parts working on foreign policy issues and thinking about philosophy and the reason we were doing all this. RFI is very mission driven and very committed to its principles and there’s just not a lot of organizations that truly operate like that.”