#PolicyProfile: “In 2014, I came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student as part of the Future Leaders Exchange program in New York. At the age of 18, I realized the profound differences between the economy, politics, and the overall society of the U.S. and my home country of Azerbaijan. Intrigued by these differences, I started studying economics at Baku Engineering University. I later worked at the Center for Economic and Social Development, a leading economic think tank in Azerbaijan. My work there focused on Azerbaijan’s economic topics, such as state finance and international trade. In 2018, I started writing about policy issues that interested me. Being a country blessed with significant natural resources brings its challenges in terms of development, and as I worked on these subjects, I came to understand that economics alone is not enough to explain multifaceted policy questions adequately. Instead, a more interdisciplinary approach is needed, which motivated me to apply ...