Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, our leaders increasingly realize that our power, position, and principles are under assault from adversaries we had once hoped to transform into friends. Cohosted with The Public Interest Fellowship, the Security and Strategy Seminar (SSS) is a graduate-level seminar in Washington, D.C. focused on distinct challenges to the American position in the world with an emphasis on policy and cohort-building. SSS seeks to identify, educate, and launch a vanguard of competition-oriented young professionals into policy-relevant institutions advancing a new era in American strategic thinking.
In 2025-2026, SSS will consist of four separate, simultaneous year-long seminars. Three tracks will focus on different strategic challengers to the United States: the People’s Republic of China, Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The fourth track will focus on tools needed to compete with these adversaries through studying Defense Strategy and Policy. Taught by leading scholars in the field, each seminar will consist of 15 evening sessions that meet from September to May and will afford participating fellows an opportunity to gain a breadth of knowledge on critical subjects, forge relationships with senior scholars and practitioners, sharpen analytical frameworks through written and oral arguments, and build a cohort with their peers. Although each seminar focuses on a different aspect of the competition, each will address the same framing questions:
- What does a new era of strategic competition look like?
- Why is such a competition necessary and what are its stakes?
- What are our rivals’ objectives and how do their leaders achieve them?
- What are our goals and how do we achieve them?
Fellowship Cohort
Each selected SSS fellowship cohort is a professionally diverse and first-rate class of highly committed junior to mid-level professionals (25 to 35 years old) already working in policy-relevant institutions. Past and current SSS cohorts have included think-tank analysts and researchers; Congressional staffers; active-duty military officers; and staff members from the Department of State, Department of Defense, White House Council of Economic Advisors, and Department of Homeland Security, among others.
Applications for 2025-2026 are closed.
Featured Past Instructors and Fellows
Elliot Seckler
Michael Abonyi
Anne Lord
Angela Stent
Jonathan Schanzer
Testimonials
Vince Cone
As a former college chapter president, Security and Strategy Seminar fellow, and current professional chapter member, I've experienced firsthand the range of AHS's exemplary programming and its steadfast commitment to promoting America's role on the world stage. The quality of its chapter officers, professional members, and staff are unmatched by any other national security-focused membership organization. I, along with many of my peers and colleagues, am far better equipped to tackle the foreign policy challenges facing our country today because of the invaluable work by AHS and its alumni.
Elliot Seckler
My involvement with AHS began in 2016 and has spanned nearly a decade-from leading a chapter in college and graduate school, to participating in the Security and Strategy Seminar, and now as a professional chapter member. AHS has been central to developing my interest and career in foreign policy and national security. Events at Johns Hopkins shaped my thinking on America’s global role, and throughout my time with AHS, I’ve built lasting relationships and found a supportive, dynamic community. Through programs like SSS and the professional chapters, AHS has given me opportunities to connect, publish, and engage deeply with the most pressing national security issues. I’m confident my ongoing involvement with AHS will continue to prepare me-and my peers-to make meaningful contributions in the field.
Wilson Shirley
The Alexander Hamilton Society offers the serious education, impressive networks, and lasting friendships that America’s great universities once fostered. Joining the Northwestern student chapter was one of the best decisions I made on campus, and staying involved through the Security and Strategy Seminar in DC and now the New York chapter has been one of the best decisions I’ve made as a professional. If you want to deepen your understanding of America and all the good it does in the world, get involved with AHS.