Expected Mar 2022

Harvard Undergraduate Thesis in Government

煮豆燃豆萁
豆在釜中泣
本是同根生
相煎何太急
Sep 2021

Harvard Graduate Capstone Project in Regional Studies—East Asia

A U.S.-China-led techno-diplomatic proposal for transitioning the world to sustainable energy. Advised by Ambassador Nicholas Burns: "John is the most impressive student I have taught in his understanding of China."

Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative

I'm a co-founder and former president of www.harvardforeignpolicy.org, where I built a team of 29 to lead the creation of:

  • The world's largest foreign policy program for high school students. Inaugural class of 615 students from 62 countries and 150+ speakers including Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Steve Schwarzman.
  • An annual rotating Harvard-Tsinghua U.S.-China Young Leaders Dialogue in partnership with Microsoft
  • Harvard’s largest undergraduate-led research program (several hundred Harvard undergraduates each semester); past partners include State Dept, Pentagon, White House National Security Council, Intelligence Community, Facebook, and foreign governments on every continent.
  • A leadership speaker series where we've hosted conversations with David Petraeus, Robert Gates, Wendy Sherman, Steve Hadley, William McRaven, among others.
  • FORTHCOMING: An interdisciplinary foreign policy forum bringing together Harvard students and faculty from all disciplines—medicine, law, business, engineering, the arts, etc.
  • FORTHCOMING: Jointly-organized foreign policy summits in partnership with top foreign universities


Harvard-Tsinghua U.S.-China Young Leaders Dialogue
第一届哈佛-清华中美青年领袖对话

Led Harvard's undergraduate foreign policy group to jointly organize with Tsinghua University's Student Association for Global Affairs—the first partnership of its kind at the undergraduate level between the U.S. and China's leading universities. In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of U.S.-China rapproachement, a joint communiqué is being drafted to address the most important issues between the U.S. and China for the next 50 years.


Jun 2021

Harvard Undergraduate International Relations Scholars Program

Led the creation of the largest program of its kind in the world for students interested in foreign policy. Inaugural class of 615 scholars from 62 countries; more than 150 speakers contributing across 4 days.

Moderated keynote conversations with Dr. Henry Kissinger (U.S. Secretary of State), Eric Schmidt (Google/Alphabet), Graham Allison (Harvard Kennedy School), Steve Schwarzman (Blackstone), Joshua Cooper Ramo (Kissinger Associates), John Brennan (CIA Director), Robert O'Brien (U.S. National Security Advisor), and Tamir Pardo (Mossad Director). Other guests included Leon Panetta (SecDef/CIA Director), Michèle Flournoy (Under Secretary of Defense for Policy), and Gen. John Allen (Brookings).

Full guest list and coverage by the Harvard Gazette

Graham Allison (top left); Henry Kissinger (bottom)

Steve Schwarzman (top right); Joshua Cooper Ramo (bottom)

Eric Schmidt (top)

Eric Schmidt: "I really admire what you are trying to do here. This is exactly the kind of effort that I think is going to make the world a better place, and I could not say more supportive things about, collectively, the audience and the people you have assembled."

Conversations on Leadership in Foreign Policy

Hosted among others:
  • David Petraeus (CIA Director)
  • John Bolton (U.S. National Security Advisor)
  • Robert Gates (CIA Director/U.S. Secretary of Defense)
  • Wendy Sherman (U.S. Deputy Secretary of State)
  • H. R. McMaster (U.S. National Security Advisor)
  • Nicholas Burns (U.S. Ambassador to China)
  • Steve Hadley (U.S. National Security Advisor)
  • William McRaven (Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command)
  • Jared Cohen (CEO, Jigsaw, Alphabet)
  • Kent Walker (SVP, Global Affairs, Google)
  • Ben Rhodes (Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor)

Harvard Foreign Policy Research Program

Created Harvard’s largest undergraduate-led research program, expanding from zero to hundreds of Harvard undergraduate researchers on 51 total projects for the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Mission to NATO, Belfer Center, House Intel, House Foreign, USTR, White House NSC, Facebook, USAID, UN, Space Force, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, USCYBERCOM; foreign governments of Sudan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Peru, Ukraine, Pakistan, Sweden, Egypt, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, and many more.