I learned last night that a friend, fellow international relations scholar, and net benefit to humanity, Alex Petersen, was killed in a Taliban attack at a café in Kabul.  I didn’t know Alex very well.  We met a few times and were connected by our membership in Young Professionals in Foreign Policy and our mutual friends.  I didn’t have to know him well personally to have been awed by him intellectually and professionally.  Alex had devoted his life to the study of international relations in all its forms, and threw himself into it with ravenous abandon.  That the world could lose someone so young, so accomplished, and so focused on the betterment of humanity is beyond heartbreaking.  When I found out about his murder, I heard this piece in my head.  It is a Russian Orthodox version of the Lord’s Prayer.

More about Alex Petersen here, courtesy of Josh Rogin.