International Center for Defense Studies (ICDS) - Internships

CDS welcomes applications from any outstanding candidate with the potential to make a significant contribution to our work. Those with relevant education and/or experience in our areas of research, especially current postgraduate students, are particularly welcome to apply given the heavy research focus of our internship programme.

As an operationally-independent organization affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, ICDS provides successful applicants with practical experience in conducting research for a wide range of consumers, including top government officials. Our interns are thus able to do substantive work with both analytical and practical impact. Working closely with ICDS experts appointed as supervisors, interns receive regular feedback on their writing and other tasks while gaining a deeper understanding and awareness of various foreign, security and defence policy issues. They also enjoy access to invaluable networking opportunities throughout the academic, diplomatic, government, and policy communities in Tallinn, the Nordic-Baltic region, and beyond.

ICDS internships are unpaid and can be either full- or part-time positions located either in our Tallinn office or connected via remote work arrangements, depending on an individual’s interest, the needs of a given research programme and/or supervisor and on available infrastructure. The exact nature of an intern’s work will depend on the issue area but generally includes research, writing, and administrative tasks such as assisting with events’ organization and conducting social media outreach. ICDS prefers hosting resident interns in the period of June to December, however different time-frame can be considered too, particularly in relation to remote work arrangements.