On the Matter of Imposter Syndrome

Yes, it's pervasive. No, it does not go away -- not really.

Over the past few days the hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World was enjoying a visit to Indiana University in Bloomington — specifically, the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. I was there to attend and speak at their 11th annual America’s Role in the World Conference on a panel entitled “Foreign Policy in an Age of Change.”

The conference was both interesting and informative. I learned a lot about the current American approaches towards global health and space governance. I learned that the Indiana University campus is awfully pretty when the trees and tulips start blooming in Bloomington. The picture above tells the obvious story. Here are a few more pics:

Back to the conference. I was impressed with the seriousness the Hamilton Lugar students brought to the event. Their questions at the panels were analytically sharp and earnest. Even for a crusty old prof like myself it was as inspiring as the Fletcher students I interact with regularly.

Before each panel, a Hamilton Lugar student would describe their own experiences studying international affairs or interning in a job related to the field. All of the student vignettes were interesting, but one student’s remarks stood out to me in particular. One graduate student had interned in Washington and discussed her sense of isolation at times because of where she came from compared to her colleagues in DC. She talked about fighting a strong sense of “imposter syndrome” while working as an intern, expecting it to subside as she proceeds with her career.

I empathized with the student, but she left before I could tell her something very, very important about a career in international affairs:¹ for most people, most of the time, imposter syndrome never goes away.

I say this from experience. I’m now at the age where my bio sounds pretty solid. I’m a distinguished professor! I’m an academic dean! I’ve written books — many of them without any pictures!

Do I feel like an imposter? All the damn time! I’m supposed to be a dean now, which means I’m supposed to possess sufficient reservoirs of executive functioning abilities. Let’s just say that there are days when I’m not feeling those abilities all that much.

Even ignoring the dean role, imposter syndrome is still my constant companion. Even as a public intellectual — and remember, I wrote a book about this topic — professional success means one is asked to appear on bigger stages with folks who possess more impressive credentials. I am constantly surrounded by peers and colleagues who are either smarter or more experienced or both. Worse, the more one is asked to be a public intellectual, the greater the anxiety that one’s intellectual capital stock has been maxed out.

Heck, I felt like an imposter on the state at the Lugar Hamilton School, because I was paired with Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Here’s her bio from the ARW conference:

Thomas-Greenfield brings decades of diplomatic experience to the ARW stage. As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, she served in President Biden’s Cabinet and on the National Security Council, shaping U.S. engagement on global security and humanitarian issues.

Her distinguished career includes service as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, an Ambassadorship to Liberia, and other leadership roles in the State Department’s Foreign Service. She has represented the United States in postings across Africa, Asia, and Europe, and her expertise spans diplomacy, development, and multilateral negotiations. Her global leadership and commitment to diplomacy have made her one of the most respected voices in international affairs.

After retiring from government service, Thomas-Greenfield led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group and was a Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at Georgetown University. She is currently a senior advisor to the founder and executive chairman of APCO Worldwide, and a member of the board of directors for the Council on Foreign Relations.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she also pursued doctoral studies. Her honors include a Presidential Rank Award, Secretary Distinguished Service Award, the American Foreign Service Association 2025 Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy, plus numerous other awards. She has honorary doctorates from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Liberia.

That’s a pretty badass career — way, way more badass than my string of academic appointments.² I thought that at least I had been a professor and Thomas-Greenfield had not. Even that slim reed was a mirage, however: she taught political science at Bucknell before entering the Foreign Service.

Did I feel like an imposter sharing the stage with Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield? I sure did.

But I still went on that stage and rambled for the appropriate amount of time. Because the dirty secret about imposter syndrome is that the only people who don’t have it are the people who should have it.

The rest of us just learn to live with it a little bit better as we grow older.

1. Probably for most careers, but let’s stick to the bailiwick I know pretty well.

2. There is also the obvious point that I’ve done what I’ve done as a white male, whereas Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield is neither. To quote John Scalzi again on this point, “in the role playing game known as The Real World, ‘Straight White Male’ is the lowest difficulty setting there is.”