Applications are now open for the fully funded 2025 McCain Global Leaders Program for mid to senior- career professionals worldwide!

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Closing Date: 21 February 2025

Applications are now open for the fully funded 2025 McCain Global Leaders Program for mid to senior- career professionals worldwide!

Overview

To adapt to and meet the needs of an ever-changing and complex global environment, the McCain Institute will determine a global thematic focus area as well as technical areas of focus for each region and recruit participants who work on relevant issues related to each theme. Throughout the 12-month McCain Global Leaders program, the Leaders will participate in programming that is both regional and global with the goal of connecting them to a highly relevant and targeted professional peer group in their home region, as well as a broader and diverse network of global peers.

2025 Global Theme: Advancing Democracy and Human Rights

The McCain Institute recognizes the ever-changing and complex global landscape as it relates to great-power competitions, the spread of authoritarianism, threats to democracy, abuse of human rights and growing challenges to the health of our planet driven by climate change. It also recognizes that 2025 will bring unprecedented change and challenge to the global community because of recent and upcoming elections occurring around the world as well as conflict occurring in numerous regions. The McCain Institute will seek to identify a diverse cohort of leaders who are working to advance democracy and human rights in their home countries through a variety of professions and projects.

Eligibility

Leaders are selected through a competitive, open recruitment process. There are up to 25 Leaders per annual cohort broken into 4 regional groupings. Though there is no age requirement, Leaders are typically between the ages of 25 and 45. Leaders should possess a strong track record of serving a cause greater than oneself as well as experience working directly on the global theme of defending democracy and their respective regional theme. The McCain Institute emphasizes diversity in the form of gender, ethnicity, persons with disabilities, political viewpoint, economic background, and education.

Cohort 2025 Programming Schedule

Leaders will participate in three impactful in-person events, which will be enhanced by online learning. They include expert-led practical skills trainings and an integrated leadership development curriculum inspired by Senator McCain’s legacy and emphasizes peer-mentoring and group problem-solving.

Summer 2025

The McCain Leadership Curriculum: Throughout the McCain Global Leaders program, Leaders participate in a curriculum that is administered for both online learning and in person. The curriculum is designed to incorporate lessons and experiences from Senator McCain’s life, to reinforce and augment in-person engagements and to focus on community building and group problem-solving. A central tenet of the curriculum is a dynamic peer-mentorship model, through which the Leaders support each other’s journeys directly. The curriculum will help each leader chart their own journey as a changemaker while also imparting real-world skills that will assist leaders as they take on some of the most difficult challenges facing their home country and region.

Fall 2025

(Annapolis, M.D. and Washington, D.C.): The first in-person event of the program, the Leadership Experience, brings together all participants for the first time at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and in Washington, D.C. The 10-day long program exposes leaders to the principles that guided Senator McCain’s leadership approach and connects them with experts in their core thematic areas and with key decision-makers. Leaders will also work together and with experts to establish their own leadership philosophy and goals.

Winter 2025/2026

The Changemaker Tour (Host Country in Each Region):The second in-person event of the program convenes each regional cohort and members of the Global Advisory Council for five-day regional study tours that provide exposure to the global theme of defending democracy in a host country and focuses on developing targeted regional connections and networks, while providing the opportunity to discuss solutions and ideas related to the theme. Leaders will be encouraged, but not required, to explore regional professional collaborations – the McCain Institute will actively support any resulting collaborations. There will be one Changemaker Tour for the participants in each respective region. Past Changemaker Tours have occurred in Colombia, Poland, Singapore, and South Africa.

Spring 2026

The Legacy Experience (Vietnam):The capstone program of the 10-month journey will, for a second time, bring all Leaders together in a country of significance to Senator McCain’s own leadership journey. The Legacy Experience will take place in Vietnam and examine the journey and relationship between Senator McCain and the people of Vietnam. During this seven-day trip, Leaders, MGL Alumni and members of the Global Advisory Council will convene to reflect on their experience during the program, share how their own leadership philosophies have evolved, explore professional collaborations, outline the next steps of their leadership journey, and learn about the resources that they can access as program alumni.