Cultural Diplomacy – IPDGC Smart Power

Creating connections with cultural programs

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021Cultural Diplomacy, PDx, public diplomacy

By Sydney Teabout

For this PDx podcast, GW senior Sydney Teabout speaks to Nancy Szalwinski, Director for Cultural Programs at the US Department of State.

Ms. Szalwinski has had almost two decades of experience with the U.S. Foreign Service. Her experiences have taken her to several posts in Latin America and also to Eastern Europe and Australia.

In the conversation, Sydney learns more about the goals of cultural programs and how they are part of U.S. public diplomacy.

Enjoy the PDx episode through this LINK.

Sydney Teabout is a student in the SMPA 3350 Public Diplomacy class taught by Public Diplomacy Fellow Emilia A. Puma. She is a senior studying Journalism and Mass Communication as well as American Studies.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not express the views of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication or the George Washington University.

Building Enduring Networks: The ECA

April 1, 2021April 2, 2021Cultural Diplomacy, PDx, public diplomacy

By Brian O’Rourke

Established in 1961, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs works to establish cultural exchanges between the United States and other countries around the world. Through academic, professional, athletic, and artistic exchanges, the ECA allows people from around the world to experience life in the United States and Americans to experience life in a variety of other countries. Through these exchanges the ECA fosters deep, meaningful relations between countries and is able to advance diplomacy through genuine connection between cultures.

In this PDx interview, GW third-year student Brian O’Rourke talks to Acting Assistant Secretary Lussenhop about the importance of cultural exchange programs in US diplomacy at large and the role of public diplomacy in strengthening relationships between countries.

Matthew Lussenhop serves as the Acting Assistant Secretary of the ECA. He has served as a Foreign Service Officer since 1990. His career in Public Diplomacy has extended from serving as Public Affairs Counselor in the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan to the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy to Belgium. And he has held positions in various US embassies including Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Muscat, Oman; Rabat, Morocco; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Manila, Philippines.

Lussenhop also discusses the importance of cultural exchange programs in US diplomacy at large and the role of public diplomacy in strengthening relationships between countries. He explains how the ECA’s cultural exchange programs have been impacted by COVID 19 and his own experience as a Foreign Service Officer.

Enjoy the PDx episode: Building enduring networks: The ECA

Brian O’Rourke is a student in the SMPA 3350 Public Diplomacy class taught by Public Diplomacy Fellow Emilia A. Puma. He is an undergraduate student in International Affairs and Political Communication, Class of 2022.

The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the interviewer. They do not express the views of the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication or the George Washington University.

Public Diplomacy Council and U.S. global engagement

November 9, 2020November 9, 2020Cultural Diplomacy, Exchanges, Global Communication, IPDGC, PDx, public diplomacy

Dr. Sherry Mueller heads the Public Diplomacy Council, a non-profit organization that supports the practice, academic study and advocacy for public diplomacy. The Council looks at the engagement by U.S. Government, especially the State Department and U.S. international broadcasting, but it also observes and learn from the experience of other nations.

Dr. Mu eller talks about the Council, its activities and membership.

She promotes the role of PDC as a champion for better US engagement: “I’m a real believer that for any organization, it’s not enough to deliver good programs and services, you’ve got to try to impact the policy environment within which you function.”

At the same time, PDC is looking to encourage and support a new generation of professionals in the field: “If we’re not drawing new young people into the field and into professional associations that serve that field, we’re missing what I would call an opportunity for multi-generational leadership.

“In my view, it’s, it’s so important that any vibrant organization have active members of every generation, and the real art of leadership is bringing those generations together, getting them to work well together, and to tap into their complementary talents and skills.”

Please enjoy the conversation between PDx interviewer and SMPA graduate Victoria Makanjuola and Dr. Sherry Mueller HERE.

The importance of citizen engagement in PD

September 28, 2020September 28, 2020Cultural Diplomacy, PDx, public diplomacy, Youth

Also, the US State Department presents 2020 Citizen Diplomacy Awards

B&W photo of Learning Life founder — Paul Lachelier

Our interconnected world is ever-changing, and if recent months have shown, having global connections does not always mean better understanding and cooperation among people and their governments. Diplomacy has been always been a practical approach to addressing these moments of disconnect and tension. However, non-government organizations have sometimes led the way by spearheading programs that get citizens involved in diplomacy.

PDx interviewer Victoria Makanjuola talks to Paul Lachelier, founder and director of Washington, DC-based non-profit lab Learning Life. The mission of the organization is to promote lifelong learning and citizen engagement. By using innovative approaches, Paul explains, Learning Life seeks to encourage and provide ways to know more about the wider world – especially amongst communities who do not always have that economic or social access – finding ways to “democratize opportunity” with programs such as International Mentoring and Family Diplomacy Initiative.

To find out more about Learning Life and its programs, go to their website or write to email@learninglife.info

Here is the latest PDx podcast with Paul Lachelier: Learning Life and the sharing of democracy.

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Also happening on Wednesday, September 30, is the U.S. State Department presentation of the 2020 Citizen Diplomacy Award to Mr. Mohamed Amin Ahmed, Founder, Chairman, and Executive Director of “Average Mohamed”. Average Mohamed is a counter ideology organization dedicated to stopping extremism and hate. The mission of Average Mohamed is to use ideas to defeat ideas, to find local solutions to global problems, and to promote peace, anti-extremism, and democracy to kids where they are: on social media.

Read more about the Citizen Diplomacy Award: https://www.state.gov/citizen-diplomacy-award/

2020 International Women of Courage award

March 10, 2020July 9, 2020Cultural Diplomacy, Events, Women

The Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication (IPDGC) is awed and inspired by the recipients of the Secretary of State’s 2020 International Women of Courage (IWOC).

Together with the GW Elliott School of International Affairs and the Gender Equality Initiative, IPDGC was proud to co-host a panel discussion with three of the 2020 IWOC awardees at the school.

The IWOC award honors women around the globe who have exemplified exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment, and social progress, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. This is the only Department of State award that pays tribute to emerging women leaders worldwide.

Following the official award ceremony and meetings in Washington, D.C., the IWOC awardees embarked on an International Visitor Leadership Program to visit American organizations and businesses and collaborate with their leadership on strategies and ideas to empower women both in the United States and abroad.

IPDGC Director Dr. Janet Steele delivered welcome remarks at this event. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Shirley Graham, Director of the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs.

More with videos and photos from the event on the IPDGC website, here.

The full cohort of artists for the Dance Motion USA with DMUSA staff and Jay R. Raman, Director, Cultural Programs Division at U.S. Department of State.

Listen to the latest interview on our PDx podcast: Jay Raman

August 2, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC, PDx

GWU graduate student Chanson Benjamin talked to Jay Raman, soon-to-be Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and former Director of the Cultural Division at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the Office of Citizen Exchanges. Jay spoke about his foreign service career and the importance of cultural diplomacy.

Listen to the PDx interview with Jay on Soundcloud.

Futbol Diplomacy

April 5, 2019April 5, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC

By Melody Magly, GWU student (B.A Political Communication, SMPA 2020)

Caption: U.S. Soccer star Alex Morgan with young footballers in Tanzania.

As an undergraduate student studying abroad through the GW Madrid program, I was ready for a real culture change — especially in how I absorbed sports.

The soccer (futbol) team Real Madrid was everywhere once I got there: on scarves, on jerseys, on bumper stickers, and on hats. My favorite spot to study was right next to their stadium (Estadio Santiago Bernabeu) in a coffee shop with green bowls. My time studying abroad also happened to coincide with the Copa Libertadores Final game, which took place in Madrid and not El Salvador last year.

According to El Pais, the original November 2018 match of River Plate vs. Boca Junior was rescheduled when the original game in San Salvador broke down in violence. Restaging the match in Madrid cost $726,000 in extra security. There were about 4,000 police officers on patrol at Santiago Bernabeu at the time of the match, but it was expected to bring $42 million in revenue. Though huge sports events like this don’t happen very often, it made me interested in how sports play a role in policy relationships between countries.

I recently spoke to Matt Ferner, a Program Officer in the Sports Diplomacy section of the U.S. State Department, about how programmatic sports exchanges can play a role in international relations. The U.S. Sports Diplomacy office is under the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (exchanges) umbrella, and through its programs, bring foreign sports teams and coaches to the U.S. and sends American athletes and coaches abroad to learn about only sports techniques, and also U.S. culture.

“Sports are an avenue to promote certain life skills or values that we hold and it’s a way to bring in people, including women, girls, people with disabilities, and other people who wouldn’t have such opportunities,” said Ferner.

The Sports Diplomacy section is a small office of about six to seven employees who act as the chief liaisons between foreign diplomats and the U.S. State Department in the planning and execution of all U.S. sports programs abroad. Their work varies from bringing a group of Tanzanian soccer coaches to the United States, to bringing American soccer players to Europe.

“Sports is an avenue that diplomats can use even when the overall relationship with a country isn’t great. It can be used in many more situations,” Ferner said.

Global sports events, like the FIFA Women’s World Cup, are also an incredible opportunity to highlight these relations. Ferner spoke about using the FIFA WWC as an opportunity to expose girls abroad to American women’s soccer superstars like Alex Morgan, while also showcasing how more American girls play soccer at their schools and recreationally.

Ferner highlighted that women coming to the U.S. on sports exchanges also learn more about Title IX, and use that an inspiration to bring empowerment programs like that back to their home countries.

“We think by bringing folks to the U.S, people in other countries will gain a different perspective about Americans. We can break down stereotypes about what the U.S. and Americans are like and help them take greater charge of their own lives, too.”

From high-profile sports events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Copa Libertadores to small high school exchanges, sports diplomacy helps participants and countries score many goals.

Listen Up! New PDx interview: Jonathan Hollander

February 14, 2019February 18, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC

Jonathan Hollander, Battery Dance Company

Here’s the latest interview on PDx with Jonathan Hollander, President and Artistic Director of the Battery Dance Company in Manhattan, New York City. A trailblazer in the field of dance beginning with his founding of Battery Dance, Jonathan has also been recognized as a outstanding choreographer, a festival organizer, and all-round supporter of global outreach and promotion of U.S. dance through his work in cultural diplomacy.

Listen to his interview here: PDx Explained

Meet IPDGC’s current Public Diplomacy Fellow

December 19, 2018January 16, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC, public diplomacyLeave a Comment

Karl Stoltz is the GW Visiting State Department Public Diplomacy Fellow for the 2018 – 2019 academic year. He joined the Foreign Service in 1986 and has served in Washington, D.C., Europe, Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.

Before joining GW’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication,Karl served as director of the State Department Office of Citizen Exchanges, located in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from 2016 to 2018. He led a 50-person team overseeing the State Department’s cultural and artistic, sports, professional fellow and high school youth exchanges worldwide, including major exchanges of young entrepreneurs from Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.

Karl also served in Washington, D.C. as director for public diplomacy in the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2008 to 2010 and as regional exchanges coordinator in the same region from 1995 to 1997.

Overseas, Karl was deputy chief of mission, the second-ranked position, at two U.S. embassies — in Copenhagen, Denmark from 2013 to 2016 and in Yangon, Myanmar from 2005 to 2008. In the former, he was also responsible for U.S. relations with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, two regions closely linked to global climate change issues today. In the latter, he helped guide the U.S. through a time of severe regime repression and fostered the democratic forces that are playing a greater role in the country today.

Karl served overseas as minister-counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 – 2013 and the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 2001 to 2005. In South Africa, he helped establish the African Regional Media Hub, engaging journalists across the continent, and several Young African Leaders programs. In Malaysia, he launched six American Corners in provincial centers and a new Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program that has brought hundreds of American college graduates to Malaysian schools to teach students in remote locations.

Karl was also cultural attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia from 1998 to 2001, during that country’s transition to democracy. He was a public affairs officer in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from 1992 to 1995, where he helped manage U.S. relations with the nations of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and in Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand from 1987 to 1989, where among other duties he served as the spokesperson for the U.S. Antarctic Program.

His first appointment as a Foreign Service officer was as an assistant press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia from 1990 to 1992, working primarily with Russian media during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Karl will return to Moscow in summer 2019 to serve as minister-counselor for public affairs, working closely with the U.S. ambassador to Russia to manage media, educational and cultural relations with the government and people of Russia.

Karl has a B.A. in Russian Studies and History from the University of Virginia and has done graduate study at Middlebury University and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Karl worked for Capital-Gazette Newspapers in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

He is married to Tania Garry, originally of Wellington, New Zealand. They have one son, Ryan, who is an undergraduate at Wake Forest University, and a 15-year-old cat who has a Ph.D. in human psychology and a M.Sc. in litter box management.

Listen here for a conversation with the 2018-19 Public Diplomacy Fellow at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication: https://go.gwu.edu/5cc

Panda Diplomacy

July 20, 2018January 14, 2019Asia, China, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacyLeave a Comment

By Colleen Calhoun, Mary Anne Porto and Libby Schiller

Exotic animals have long been seen as symbols of power and democracy. Dating back to the times of Ancient Rome and Emperor Octavius, large animals such as lions, rhinoceroses, etc. have been used as leverage in bureaucracy.

Animal diplomacy is not exclusive to the Chinese. In the era of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, Egypt gave Giraffes to foreign nations. Queen Elizabeth II gave two black beavers to Canada in 1970. The Chinese originally gave Pandas away as gifts, but in 1984 the government decided to begin a 10-year loan system with annual payments.

Today, there are more than 25 zoos worldwide that have Pandas.

With the new loan system, China has reached out to countries in an attempt to foster relationships. More so now, China has been using Panda diplomacy to pursue economic and political ambitions as well. The Edinburgh Zoo received its pandas in 2011, setting up a deal to pay an annual fee to the Chinese government to help giant panda conservation projects in the wild. Not only is China reaching out to countries using Pandas, they are benefiting from the relationships as well. Similarly, Japan also received two pandas in 2011, and the two countries hoped it would improve relations caused by dispute over islands and their sovereignty.

China has been successful in their efforts because Pandas are very cute and many
countries would like to have them in their zoos. Pandas are a soft power tool that the Chinese have been using to increase their scope around the world. More so than diplomatic relationships, China has seen more growth in economic relationships with Panda diplomacy.

According to a BBC article, Scottish exports to China have almost doubled in the past five years. Similarly, Panda loans in Canada, France and Australia coincided with trade deals for uranium. The article also said, “If a panda is given to the country, it does not signify the closing of a deal – they have entrusted an endangered, precious animal to the country; it signifies in some ways a new start to the relationship.” This shows that China is not looking to give countries Pandas and complete a one time deal. They are looking to foster long-term relationships, especially regarding economics.

As a soft power tool, the Chinese government can use cute, cuddly Panda to increase economic growth, not only for the time-being, but over an extended period of time.

There are many challenges facing those who wish to replicate animal diplomacy efforts of the past. Animal advocates have challenged the practice as they say it commercializes animal lives and puts stressors on already vulnerable endangered species. Others want more transparency about where fees for loans go. Countries who choose to do so should consider making their funding more transparent and perhaps shifting away from a funding model all together, instead focusing on just awareness, to reduce criticism.

Countries should also consider the logistics of their animals, making sure the animals are able to travel and not endangered. They should also ensure that the animals are representative of their countries and reflect positively on them.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author(s). They do not necessarily express the views of either The Institute of Public Diplomacy and Global Communication or The George Washington University.