Every Citizen A Diplomat

If you are like me, Mondays need more than a cup of coffee to get your day going.  To help, here is some reading material to fill this yawn and coffee filled morning.

Cheers!

Barack Obama’s vision of American foreign policy

Obama’s Foreign Policy Needs a Domestic Boost

Talking with the Harvard Public Diplomacy Collaborative

Circle the World with Music in Greater Annapolis

Corporate Citizenship Awards Finalists: Beyond the Call of Duty

Obama and the Spirit of Global Development Partnership

Three Reasons Americans Should Support Global Education

Senate Foreign Relations Tired of Development Getting Benched

U.S. Congressional Candidate Set to Make Historic Announcement from Middle East

Act Boldly, Act Globally

More on the State Department’s Language Barrier

U.S.-Russian Military-to-Military Links Set to Expand

More foreign students than ever – Japan to increase the number of foreign students by 300,000 by 2020…wow!

Dorm Room Diplomacy group pairs Penn, Middle East college students

Five Principles Guide Approach to Food Security

An update from Craig Newmark on his work in the West Bank with Kiva and CHF International

Happy Belated Birthday Dipnote!

House Passes Continuing Resolution

NAFSA and Abroad View have just announced the 2009 video contest for undergraduate students to tell their story about studying abroad.  The winner will be crowned with the “2009 Student Diplomat” title and be awarded a nice $300 award.

Eligibility: The contest is open to undergraduate students who have studied abroad or currently studying abroad.

Content: The videos should focus on how the student’s experience has helped to advance their global understanding.  Participants are encouraged to consider how their study abroad experience has shaped them as a global citizen, served as a bridge to cross-cultural understanding, promoted peace, or positively impacted the local community in which they studied.

Length: No longer than three minutes.

Selection Process: After the finalists are chosen by an expert panel of judges, the winning video will be selected through open voting on the NAFSA Web site.

For contest guidelines and how to submit your video, head to www.nafsa.org/studentdiplomat.

Deadline: 11:59 p.m. EDT, November 6, 2009.

Best of luck to all who participate!

Great news…

The Center has just learned that two more cosponsors have been added to H.Res. 569.

This brings the total number of cosponsors to 28 and the total Foreign Affairs Committee cosponsors to 7. Only three more committee members are needed to bring the resolution to a vote in the committee so keep those letters urging your representative to sign on going!

Thanks for all your work so far!

Per the previous post, we had our board meeting in DC last week so my apologies for the lack of communication.

Last Thursday, we hosted a Congressional Reception recognizing the cosponsors of the House Resolution 569.  The turn out was great, the food/wine was delicious, and the conversations and connections were plentiful.  I hope I speak for everyone in attendance that the atmosphere was very hopeful and excited for new things to come regarding partnerships, the National Summit, and collectively promoting citizen diplomacy around the country.  Remarks were given by Congressman Moran, USCCD Board Chair Dr. David Roe, USCCD President Ann Schodde, NCIV President Sherry Mueller, Sister Cities President Patrick Madden, Partners of the Americas President Steve Vetter, and World Affairs Councils of America President Kirk Talbott.  All had positive things to say and were very positive about the future of citizen diplomacy.

The board meetings went well, the board was very excited to move forward with the Initiative and start the ball rolling on the Summit.  Our briefing with the State Dept. only fueled the fire as Under Secretary McHale made an appearance and reinforced their commitment to helping the Center with the Summit.

A great week/weekend for citizen diplomacy.  Hopefully I’ll have more great news to report! Until then, keep on spreading the good word about citizen diplomacy.  We couldn’t have made it this far without everyone’s support. Thank you!

Every Citizen a Diplomat!

Take care,

Derek

Due to a board meeting in DC and travel I have been out of the loop for about a week now, so I may be late in these articles (my apologies), but in case you haven’t seen these yet, they are all worth a quick look! Enjoy.

Senate State, Foreign Ops Pushed to October

Norman Borlaug dies at 95; revolutionized grain agriculture and won Nobel Peace Prize

Passed: S. Res. 273: A resolution commemorating Dr. Norman Borlaug, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Congressional Gold Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and founder of the World Food Prize.

Introduced: H.Res. 739: Honoring the life and achievements of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug for his many contributions to alleviating world hunger. (Rep. Boswell Resolution)

Introduced: H. Con. Res. 183: Recognizing the contributions of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug to the United States and the world

Passed: S. Res. 274: A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Peace Day

As The Peace Corps Turns 50, What Now?

WHITE PAPER, “Public Diplomacy: A View From The Front Line”

Iranians Favor Diplomatic Relations With US But Have Little Trust in Obama

Next generation of Latin leaders doesn’t have U.S. grudge

Obama’s Worldwide Star Power Finds Limits

International students build bridges that help U.S. diplomatic interests

How Helpful Is Cultural Diplomacy?

Clinton Global Initiative to Include Special Programming Focus on Women, Girls

OECD’s “Education at a Glance 2009”

IHEC Blog’s Links of Interest

Noteworthy Articles from Mountainrunner.us

7 Cities Launch Sister Cities Africa Program

Public Diplomacy: sure bureaucracy is a problem but so is absent leadership

U.S. image has improved, but …

Syracuse University symposium to explore cultural diplomacy

U.S Embassy Launches YouTube Channel For Indonesian Viewers

30 Mosques in 30 Days

A View from the Muslim World: Cairo After Obama

Enabling Public Diplomacy Field Officers to Do Their Jobs

Democracy Video Challenge winners on the Today Show, v2 launches today

Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams Delivers Welcome Speech to Peace Corps Staff and Current and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

Muslim Americans answer the call to serve

More Americans know their Muslim neighbours

Video: American Universities’ Engagement in Global Health

The Virtual Student Foreign Service was recently launched by the State Dept

‘Great Decisions’ Taking Place in Muscatine

Something new to the Center’s blog.  We will now be providing weekly links of interest for you.  The links will cover a wide range of articles, blogs, and anything else we think you might find relevant, important, worthwhile, etc.

Without further ado, here are the links for this week, enjoy -

Petition in Support of the Letter to President Obama Urging Him to Convene a National Summit on Citizen Diplomacy

Public Diplomacy Film

Increase Engagement by Encouraging Employees to Volunteer

International Higher Education Consulting Blog

Bringing Pigskin to Land of Ping-Pong

Kenya: UN Ambassador Angelina Jolie visits ‘dire’ camp for Somali refugees

Green Revolution Hero Norman Borlaug Dies at 95

Overseas Study at Indiana University Bloomington: Plans, Participation, and Outcomes

Where in the World is iDrop?

American Council on Education to Recognize Innovative Uses of Technology to Promote Internationalization

Institute of International Education CEO Allan Goodman makes the case for international education

Special thanks to David Comp and his blog for a few links.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for the new week.  Take care!

Derek