AEI internships provide students with an opportunity to learn from some of America’s most renowned scholars, economists, political scientists, and foreign policy specialists conducting research on today’s prominent public policy questions. The Institute provides an intellectually stimulating environment, rich with critical thinking, scholarship, and lively debate.
AEI internships are available in the Fall, Spring, and Summer to experienced undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent graduates. A minimum 3.0 GPA is required; however, most successful candidates have at least a 3.5 GPA.
Due to the volume of applications, only candidates selected to move forward in the interview process will be contacted.
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility (COSM) seeks two driven, research-oriented interns for spring 2026. The interns will work closely with COSM scholars and staff to research, identify, and promote policies that improve opportunity and mobility for low-income Americans. COSM scholars study the determinants of economic mobility and human flourishing in America through empirically driven and policy-informing research.
The COSM interns will...
The Asian Security and Technology intern at the American Enterprise Institute will conduct research in support of Fellow Ryan Fedasiuk. The Asian Security and Technology portfolio focuses on US defense policy and security issues in the Indo-Pacific, including U.S.-China technology competition, China’s approach to industrial policy, and integrating policy and innovation.
Key responsibilities may include:
- Monitoring key developments in critical technology...
Academic Programs connects undergraduate institutions, faculty, and students across the country to the work of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the broader public policy world. The Academic Programs intern is responsible for supporting the planning and execution of program events at AEI and on college campuses, compiling internal surveys, and aiding the team in preparation for the 2026 Summer Honors Program. Other responsibilities might include researching college campuses, managing databases, and providing logistical support for events hosted in Washington, DC, and virtually.
Founded by AEI scholar Ian Rowe, the FREE Initiative champions the vital roles of family, religion, education, and entrepreneurship in equipping the rising generation of young Americans. FREE’s mission is to help young people recognize and exercise their personal agency through these four institutions. Key priorities include building a network of leaders committed to fostering agency in their communities, launching a high school curriculum focused on youth agency, and expanding partnerships through outreach and events.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks a communications and marketing systems intern to assist with promoting AEI’s research to its constituents. This includes using our automated email marketing system to prepare and send articles and newsletters, using our customer-relationship management database to gather appropriate mailing lists, researching and updating constituent contact information, and helping with other special projects. While some data entry is required, the intern will also work on broader projects such as facilitating marketing automation, curating email content, and analyzing and improving the effectiveness of AEI’s email communications to its...
The Editing Services department at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is responsible for editing and coordinating publications, event materials, and other projects and assisting with the promotion of scholars’ work. An intern in this department will assist team members with copyediting and proofreading, coordinating AEI book promotion, maintaining archives, and completing other communication-related tasks. Candidates should have excellent editing and writing skills, strong attention to detail, knowledge about media and current events, great organizational skills, and an interest in communications and marketing. Experience working with publications and with editorial style guides (especially...
Intern in the press office of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a distinguished Washington, DC, think tank. Learn about strategic media communication, track our scholars’ research, and familiarize yourself with the media landscape.
AEI is a great place to learn about the interaction between government and media. Join a select intern program that offers unique learning experiences such as exposure to research in foreign policy, politics, economics, technology, and education; instruction...
The education policy team’s data intern will support the team’s cutting-edge research at the intersection of data, education policy, and technology. The data intern will research a variety of topics, including by:
• analyzing and drawing meaningful interpretations from state and national education data sets;
• using statistical modeling to estimate causal effects;
• using web scraping to construct novel education data sets;
• applying text analysis, machine learning, and other techniques to analyze unstructured data; and
• creating visualizations and written reports to communicate results.
The American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center seeks an intern to support the research of Senior Fellows Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter on domestic housing, historical and current mortgage lending policies, and financial policy reform.
Primary assignments will include helping maintain the center’s various indexes and large databases; supporting research through data management, retrieval, and analysis; editing and contributing to scholarly papers, articles, and op-eds; creating and formatting charts and tables, graphic displays, and presentations; and performing other general...
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) education scholars Beth Akers, Frederick M. Hess, Nat Malkus, and Robert Pondiscio research and write on the politics of education, higher education financing, school reform, and related education policy issues.
The intern for AEI’s education team will assist with various long- and short-term projects by conducting primary-source research for reports and op-eds, editing, working with datasets, and providing...
The American Enterprise Institute seeks an intern to assist with research and writing on a wide range of national security and defense issues. Interns will support the work of Senior Fellows Elaine McCusker, Todd Harrison, and William C. Greenwalt, Nonresident Senior Fellow John G. Ferrari, Nonresident Fellow Dustin Walker, and the Defense Futures Simulator.
Key responsibilities may include:
- Conducting quantitative...
The American Enterprise Institute seeks an intern who will assist Distinguished Senior Fellow Danielle Pletka and Senior Fellow Marc A. Thiessen in research tasks for regular opinion columns, long-term projects, and events. Typical research will relate to the Middle East, China, America’s role in the international community, and occasionally domestic politics.
The intern will assist with research for the What the Hell Is Going On? podcast. The intern will also provide research and communications support for Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies Kori Schake on...
The American Enterprise Institute seeks interns to work with two scholars covering topics in international security and South Asian studies. The interns will support Senior Fellow Sadanand Dhume’s regular column and book research on South Asian politics, economics, and security. Projects will focus on India but may also include Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and other regional topics. Tasks will include gathering news clips from Indian and international news sources; researching Indian politics, economic issues, and demographics; fact-checking and editing articles; and producing literature reviews. The interns may also be asked to help with individual research tasks pertaining to...
The American Enterprise Institute seeks an intern who will assist Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy. Dr. Eberstadt focuses on global demographic trends, human capital, and economic development, with a current emphasis on China, Russia, and developing nations. He also researches North Korea, poverty in the United States, foreign aid, global health, and mortality. The intern will do quantitative analysis, background research, fact-checking, and editing for articles and ongoing projects. Experience with Python, R, or Stata and familiarity with Microsoft Excel are required. Professional working capacity in Mandarin is preferred. Candidates who...
The Critical Threats Project (CTP), led by Senior Fellow Frederick W. Kagan, tracks and analyzes current and emerging challenges to American national security in concert with its partner organization the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Interns will support analysis of the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, Iran’s Axis of Resistance, and Iranian regional activities and domestic politics. Interns will be responsible for monitoring regional media, translating, assisting with and conducting research, orally briefing analysis, and contributing to CTP's daily Iran Update. The internship includes educational modules for developing intelligence analysis tradecraft.
The Critical Threats Project (CTP), led by Senior Fellow Frederick W. Kagan, tracks and analyzes current and emerging challenges to American national security. The internship will work with Africa Team Lead Liam Karr to focus on supporting the project’s research efforts on US national security interests in Africa, including state powers state powers such as China, Iran, and Russia, as well as non-state groups like the Islamic State and al Qaeda. Research will include open-source tracking and analysis of key state and non-state actors and related political and security dynamics across the continent, with a special focus on the Horn of Africa, West Africa, and the Great Lakes region. Interns will...
The Asian economics interns at the American Enterprise Institute will conduct research in support of Senior Fellow Derek Scissors. The Asian economics portfolio includes researching and media monitoring of Chinese outward investment and corporate activity. Intern duties will include fact-checking and supporting ongoing projects. Candidates who are able to participate in the program on an in-person basis for 25-40 hours a week are encouraged to apply.
The ideal candidate will possess:
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The Asian securities intern at the American Enterprise Institute will conduct research in support of Senior Fellow Dan Blumenthal. The Asian securities portfolio focuses on US defense policy and security issues in the Indo-Pacific, including China’s military modernization, Chinese coercion and influence in Asia, and cross-Strait relations. Candidates who are able to participate in the program on an in-person basis for 25-40 hours a week are encouraged to apply.
Key responsibilities may include:
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The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) seeks an intern who will assist Senior Fellow Kevin R. Kosar and other scholars in AEI’s Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department. Dr. Kosar researches the US Congress and election reform, focusing on how electoral systems affect Congress as an institution.
The intern will assist with Dr. Kosar’s work on Congress and elections by reading and analyzing scholarship; collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data on Congress and elections;...
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Events team ensures that the more than 1,200 public and private events held annually at AEI’s headquarters are executed flawlessly. AEI scholars and staff turn to the Events team to maximize the quality of all aspects of events, including setup, audience attendance, audiovisual production, catering, registration, metrics, and billing. As the Events intern, you’ll play a crucial role in supporting AEI’s mission to foster insightful dialogue and executing impactful events that shape the future of public policy.