The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (commonly abbreviated as SFS) is a school of international affairs within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.. Recognized as one of the world's leading international relations schools, SFS is sometimes referred to as the "West Point of the U.S. diplomatic corps" due to the large number of SFS graduates who end up being diplomats. Founded in 1919, SFS predates the U.S. Foreign Service by six years.Despite its reputation for producing top diplomats, SFS is not exclusively a diplomatic academy and its graduates go on to have careers in a diverse set of private and government sectors. The school's most notable alumni include U.S. President Bill Clinton, CIA Director George Tenet, King Felipe VI of Spain, and U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, among others.The School of Foreign Service was established in 1919 by a Jesuit priest Edmund A. Walsh. The main purpose of the school's founding was to prepare Americans for various international professions in the wake of expanding U.S. involvement in world affairs after World War I. Today, SFS hosts a student body of approximately 2,100 from 80 nations each year. It offers an undergraduate program based in the liberal arts, which leads to the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree, as well as eight interdisciplinary graduate programs. Its faculty include many distinguished figures in international affairs, such as former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and former Prime Minister of Spain José María Aznar.
