America’s Best Asset: American Citizens
Partnering with the World to Address Major Challenges of the 21st Century
The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD), in partnership with the U.S. State Department and in support of more than 1000 U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) conducting citizen diplomacy activities, will convene a historic U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy on November 16-19, 2010 in Washington, DC. The goal of the Summit and ten year Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy is to double the number of American volunteers of all ages involved in international activities at home or abroad, from an estimated 60 million today to 120 million by 2020.
The U.S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy supports current efforts of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Judith McHale to make global citizen diplomacy a national priority. Secretary of State Clinton will serve as Honorary Summit Chair alongside an Honorary Citizen Diplomat Chair. The President is being called upon to speak at the event, the first since President Eisenhower addressed a similar gathering on September 11, 1956 to call Americans to greater involvement in international relations. Fifty-four years later in an increasingly globalized world, the call is as relevant and urgent as ever.
“If we are going to take advantage of the assumption that all people want peace, then the problem is for people to get together and to leap governments – if necessary evade governments – to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other.” -President Eisenhower, September 11, 1956
The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy was established as a national resource to promote, honor and strengthen the vast network of U.S. organizations dedicated to providing opportunities for Americans to engage as global citizen diplomats. Citizen Diplomacy is defined as the concept that the individual has the right, even the responsibility, to help shape U.S. foreign relations “one handshake at a time.” Citizen diplomacy involves volunteers, and occurs through cultural, professional and educational exchanges, study abroad, international voluntary service, connecting classrooms around the world through new technologies, and more. Reaching out across borders via person to person programs and activities, U.S. citizen diplomats create a reservoir of goodwill and relations among the United States and other nations that is sustained even during times of foreign policy disagreements, and are a critical private sector component of our national foreign policy.
The Case for a 2010 U.S. Summit on Global Citizen Diplomacy
National Leadership, Grassroots and World Wide Support
The 2010 U.S. Summit broadens the momentum generated from the work of hundreds of citizen diplomacy organizations and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy.
Since 2004, over 80 community-based meetings have recommended national action to increase citizen activity in international relations.
In 2009, over 200 leaders in international affairs throughout the country met in forums funded by the Gilman Foundation and Johnson Foundation. All strongly endorse the national initiative. Reports conducted by the Brookings Institution and CSIS, among others also urge a revival of citizen diplomacy as a critical private sector component of U.S. public diplomacy.
Thousands of Americans representing all 50 states and citizens throughout the world have signed a letter to the President urging his endorsement of the summit and initiative. Signatures include leaders, faculty, and students from prestigious universities and colleges around the nation, top executive leadership, staff, and members of corporations and organizations around the world, and individuals representing over 60 countries.
House Resolution 569, supporting the work of citizen diplomacy organizations and encouraging the President’s endorsement of the U.S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy, has been signed by 31 members of the United States Congress including members of both political parties and the Foreign Relations Committee.
Components of the Summit
A Challenge to Citizen Diplomacy Leaders
In preparation for the summit, more than one hundred NGO leaders are working in twelve private sector task force groups and to solicit proposals from citizen diplomacy organizations to be presented at the summit. These organizations will respond to a challenge for new, innovative best practices that will increase the number of Americans engaged with the world. They represent international organizations working in the sectors of Business, Community-based Organizations, Development Assistance, Faith-based Organizations, Global Health, Higher Education, International Cultural Engagement, International Voluntary Service, K-12 Education, Sports, Travel & Tourism, and Youth Service.
Reports on five critical issues impacting citizen engagement in international affairs will be prepared and presented.
In response to President Obama’s 2009 call to action to the American people “to take our share of responsibility for global responses to global challenges,” six global challenges will be addressed by summit proposals and participants:
Preserving the Environment, Reducing Poverty and Disease, Increasing Respect for Human Rights, Creating a Globally Competent Society, Encouraging Cultural Engagement, Achieving Food Security, and Securing U.S. & Global Financial Security.
“Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.” -President Barack Obama, November 2009
Outcomes of the Summit
The U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy will:
• Focus national and international attention on the impact of citizen involvement in international activities and demonstrate why citizen diplomacy is a vital public diplomacy tool in America’s outreach to the world;
• Establish the United States as a collaborative world leader in the promotion of international understanding through the interaction of Americans with people throughout the world;
• Showcase 120 new innovative and collaborative programs by U.S. citizen diplomacy organizations that enhance current best practices, leverage new technologies to expand involvement, increase opportunities for international volunteer service in the United States and abroad and engage international partners;
• Energize and inform the private sector and connect potential funders with innovative citizen diplomacy programs and initiatives;
• Establish a set of measurable outcomes in twelve sectors of citizen diplomacy activity by which to track progress and growth; and
• Provide a launch point for the ten year marketing campaign and Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy.
By 2020, the U.S. Summit & Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy will double the number of global citizen diplomats in the U.S. to 120 million and create an American citizenry dedicated to solving global issues through collaboration with their counterparts around the world…one handshake and two smiles at a time.
