CSE Hosts Works in Progress Talk With Wippl

The Center for the Study of Europe (CSE), an affiliated regional center at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, hosted a September 16, 2019 talk with Joseph Wippl, Pardee School Professor of the Practice of International Relations.

Wippl’s talk, entitled “What Did I Learn In Europe, was part of the Center for the Study of Europe’s Works in Progress series, which aims to foster interdisciplinary conversations among Europeanists and others at Boston University. 

Resident as an American student, a CIA professional, and as a retiree in Germany,  Austria, Luxembourg and Spain, with extended periods in Belgium and the United Kingdom for a total of 17 years of my adult life, Wippl discussed what he learned in Europe as well as about being an American.

By living and residing in foreign countries and building relationships with people from other countries, Wippl said you start to see your own country differently than your fellow citizens. It gives context to the study of international affairs and to one’s own life, according to Wippl.

Wippl is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. He spent a 30 year career as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service (NCS). Wippl has served overseas as an operations officer and operations manager in Bonn, West Germany; Guatemala City; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Mexico City; Vienna, Austria; and Berlin, Germany. On assignments in CIA headquarters, he served as the Deputy Chief of Human Resources, as the Senior NCS representative to the Aldrich Ames Damage Assessment Team, as Chief of Europe Division and as the CIA’s Director of Congressional Affairs. Wippl has coordinated extensively with other members of the U.S. intelligence community.

The mission of the Center for the Study of Europe is to promote understanding of Europe through its cultural heritage; its political, economic, and religious histories; its art, literature, music, and philosophy; as well as through its recent emergence as a new kind of international form through the European Union (EU).  Operationally, the center provides a focal point and institutional support for the study of Europe across Boston University through coordination of teaching missions, support of research, community-building among faculty and students, and outreach beyond the University.