On Tuesday, February 25, the office of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he will be joining the Columbia Institute of Global Politics for a one-year appointment.

On Tuesday, Mike Pompeo’s office released a statement announcing that he will join the Columbia Institute of Global Politics (IGP) as a 2025-2026 Carnegie Distinguished Fellow. Pompeo served as the 70th Secretary of State during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, from 2017-2021. Distinguished Fellows are appointed for one year, working with students and faculty at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) to “inform and advance IGP policy work.” 

As a fellow, Pompeo will be a member of a cohort that includes individuals from varying policy backgrounds, such as CNN Anchor Christiane Amanpour and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn. Fellows interact with members of the SIPA community as well as the University at large to advise and engage with everything from large public events to individual class discussions. 

In the announcement, Pompeo commented on his appointment, affirming that he is “thrilled to join the Institute and to provide a unique voice defending traditional American values and the Founders’ vision for our great nation, alongside the necessity to support our allies across the world.” He also speculated as to why he was chosen to join the cohort: “I suspect that [Columbia’s] outreach was intentional in the sense that they were seeking to bring onto campus…someone with a view that is very different than most of the faculty on their staff,” he said.

While Pompeo disengaged from Donald Trump after refusing to acknowledge claims that the 2020 election had been rigged, he is still an avid supporter of many popular conservative policies and ideals, such as cuts to “DEI programs.” Notable achievements from his tenure as Secretary of State include normalizing Israeli relations with the United Arab Emirates and furthering a “tough on China” narrative. At SIPA, he plans on bringing these perspectives and more to his work, stating that he is excited to further Columbia’s goal of “learning through investigation and the exchange of ideas.” 

Mike Pompeo via Gage Skidmore on Flickr