The Council on Foreign Relations Hosts Listening Session with FSU Students

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) held a listening session on Monday, March 4, at 3 p.m. in the DeVoe L. Moore Conference Room (Bellamy 150E) with Florida State University students as part of a year-long listening tour CFR is conducting nationally. 

CFR Director Matthew P. Goodman poses questions regarding international affairs to FSU students.

CFR leaders Director Matthew P. Goodman and Associate Director Allison J. Smith spoke with students about their perspectives on American leadership and involvement in the international economy, specifically with regard to trade, foreign aid/development assistance, and economic security. 

“Overall, our visit to Florida was hugely productive, and we came away with a much better sense of how a cross-section of people across the state feel about trade and other aspects of US engagement in the international economy,” said Goodman, Director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at CFR. “This will be of great help as our project on ‘Reimagining American Economic Leadership’ progresses over the coming months and years.” 

In addition to serving as Director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at CFR, he’s also a Distinguished Fellow for Global Economic Policy and leads a cross-cutting program on global economics at CFR that works to develop new approaches to trade and other international economic policies. Prior to joining CFR in September 2023, Goodman was senior vice president for economics and Simon chair in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Previously, Goodman served as director for international economics on the National Security Council staff, working on the G-20, APEC, and other presidential summits. Before joining the White House, he was senior adviser to the undersecretary for economic affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He has also worked at the Albright Stonebridge Group, Goldman Sachs, and served as U.S. Treasury attaché in Tokyo. Goodman holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BSc from the London School of Economics. 

Allison J. Smith is the Associate Director for Global Economics at the CFR. She works with Director Goodman on the Council’s collaborative initiative on international economic policies. Previously, Smith worked as a consultant conducting anti-money laundering investigations at a major financial institution. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked as a paralegal in the areas of commercial litigation and criminal defense. Smith holds an M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in international relations and a B.A. in Russian from Beloit College. 

For more information about the Council on Foreign Relations, visit www.cfr.org.