Analysis| When recruiting the diplomats of the 21st century, start at community colleges

This post was written by Nicholas Shafer of Global Community College Transfers, one of Meridian’s DiplomacyRISE partners. It was originally published in “The Diplomatic Pouch” at Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.    This piece is part of ISD’s blog series, “A better diplomacy,” which highlights innovators and their ideas for how to make diplomacy more effective, resilient, and adaptive in the 21st century. Diplomacy is, at least in a democracy, about representing the people. Across the U.S. foreign affairs workforce, there is a crisis of representation– as of 2020, the Senior Foreign Service was 80% white, with only 6.2% Black...

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Public Diplomacy Strengthens Democracies

It has been one year since the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the day still looms over the diplomatic community. Dozens of countries and international institutions condemned the violence. Foreign leaders and diplomats followed suit with many calling it for what it was – an attack on democracy.      Eleven months later, U.S. President Biden emphasized the need to restore democracy in all its facets, calling it the defining challenge of our time at the inaugural Summit for Democracy in December 2021. However, his tone remained largely optimistic, saying, “Democracy — government of the people, by the people, for the people — can...

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Arts and Culture Advocacy: The Unsung Heroes of American Society

Whether it’s a podcast you listen to on your commute or your book club’s latest pick, we consume arts and culture daily through various mediums. As we adapt to a post-pandemic world, the arts and culture are in a new renaissance. Despite the devastating losses in the field over the last 18 months, artists and creators around the world showed their resilience and innovation, leading to new ways of engaging with the arts and using their creativity to design solutions to challenges brought on by COVID-19. The arts and culture have been a cornerstone for our global society’s sanity...

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