Title: Geography, Intelligence, and Foreign Policy: A State Department Geographer’s Perspective

Speaker: Brooke Marston, M.S. '14

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Talk summary: The Office of the Geographer and Global Issues is a little-known group with considerable influence on the American geographic community. Established over 100 years ago in the aftermath of WWI, the office conducts all-source research and analysis on current foreign policy issues, coordinates between policymakers and the Intelligence Community, and provides guidance to federal agencies on questions of international boundaries, sovereignty claims, and cartography. During this lecture, Brooke will speak about her career in the office and how geography and intelligence are key focal points for understanding complex, politically sensitive, and often fast-breaking multilateral challenges facing diplomats.

Speaker Bio: Brooke Marston is a cartographer and foreign names specialist in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Geographer and Global Issues in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. She is the Department’s member to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, serves as chair of the Board’s Foreign Names Committee, and represents the United States at the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. She is president of the North American Cartographic Information Society and an active member of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Mountain Cartography. Her work has taken her to the United Kingdom, Croatia, Austria, Poland, and New Zealand. Brooke holds an M.S. in geography from Oregon State University and a B.S. in geography and B.M. in oboe performance from the University of Colorado Boulder.