Martin Mont

As a Development Intern at The New England Aquarium, I am gaining valuable experience in institutional fundraising within a nonprofit and museum setting. My role focuses on fostering meaningful relationships between the organization and its volunteer leadership, as well as loyal supporters. This internship offers exposure to nonprofit philanthropic giving strategies, processes, and writing.

I conducted a research project on Congressionally Directed Spending, where I demonstrated its long-term financial impact on the Trusts perpetuity by developing a comprehensive financial model. Additionally, I authored a memo advocating for the implementation of a debt sustainability and risk analysis into the private borrower policy to foster a more equitable and stable private lending environment.

As global water scarcity intensifies due to climate change and population growth, water diplomacy has emerged as a critical strategy in international relations. Traditionally centered on bilateral and multilateral negotiations over transboundary water bodies, classical water diplomacy, with its principles of no significant harm and cooperative management, has facilitated historical agreements such as the Indus Waters Treaty and the Nile Basin Initiative. However, this classical approach narrowly focuses on contiguity of partner states has limited the discourse on water diplomacy. This paper explores a branch of water diplomacy termed “Water Partnership Diplomacy”. This approach integrates elements of soft power to expand the scope of traditional water diplomacy. This paper will analyze water partnership diplomacy through the narrowed scope of US foreign policy, specifically USAID’s water initiatives. By leveraging humanitarian aid, capacity building, and economic development, USAID’s water projects often foster cooperation and stability, even in regions where the U.S. lacks direct geographic ties. To assess the presence of this strategy, this paper examines two case studies: the Jordan River Basin and Egypt’s Nile River. These case studies illustrate how USAID’s initiatives address water security challenges and promote regional stability in the Middle East and North Africa in the same ways as classical water diplomacy. This study highlights how Water Partnership Diplomacy addresses both the issue of non-contiguity and preventative action, which has limited the literature on water diplomacy. The findings underscore the potential of integrating soft power strategies with classical water diplomacy principles to create a holistic framework capable of navigating the intricate dynamics of 21st-century water management and international relations.

A study on the consequences of the Federal Reserve Bank’s monetary policy on debt servicing costs and exchange rates, within underdeveloped states who possess large aggregates of Dollar denominated sovereign debt obligations.