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When Kenneth Kligge ’00 double majored in international affairs and government & law, he didn’t foresee being thanked for his work by the U.S. secretary of defense a mere five years later.
“I’ve briefed members of Congress, assistant secretaries of several departments and agencies, and even the former deputy secretary of Homeland Security,” he says. “The National Defense University has given me a great opportunity to work with top officials from all across the government. I think anytime a person gets to have a ‘chat’ one-on-one with a Cabinet official, it is humbling.”
He works for the Strategic Policy Forum, which brings together members of Congress and senior executive branch officials for strategic-level crisis simulation exercises. As a senior research and policy analyst, he identifies national and homeland security issues, examines them, and develops an exercise based upon that research
Kligge says he is glad to help the government as it works diligently on finding solutions for national security issues.
“I’d like to think that my exercises enable the policy-makers to examine threats from different angles, which then allows them to write more effective policies,” he says.
Lafayette planted the seed that brought Kligge to enter this field.
“What drew me to this job was my ability to actually use the expertise I developed through my formal education and put it to good use,” he explains. “Bill Best’s Technological Catastrophes class was one of the most influential classes I had, and by extension perhaps he was the professor who most influenced me. This was the first time I really looked at nuclear arms reduction as something interesting. That class set into motion my thesis [on arms control] and what I studied in graduate school.”
Kligge also credits Lafayette with preparing him for one of the big challenges of his career.
“The single largest thing that my college career taught me was how to work with people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and expertise,” he says. “Everyone comes in with different experiences, constituencies, and backgrounds. I have to look at and take all of these into account while I’m working toward a singular solution or way forward when I’m writing an exercise.”
Kligge eventually would like to shift from informing policy-makers to becoming a policy-maker.
He fondly recalls his time in the Kirby House social living group as the most memorable of his college years, noting that the members were a major factor in his life at Lafayette.
With any free time he has, Kligge likes to go hiking or ice skating with friends. He also enjoys cooking.