From Eisenhower to Obama: Citizen Diplomacy Marches On (Part 2)

A few posts ago I mentioned the U.S. Summit on Global Citizen Diplomacy. This was the second convening of citizen diplomacy leaders since President Eisenhower's initial call to action in 1956.

Summit produced a range of materials, breifings, and presentations on Faith-based groups, the role of the private sector, how state governments are engaging in citizen diplomacy, the health field, youth and education, and much more. There are some terrific examples within these publications. You may also be interested in the Summit's final report, which calls for a 10-year initiative to engage more U.S. citizens in our work.

I was pleased to to-chair a Task Force on Community-based Organizations with Sherry Mueller, the President of the National Council for International Visitors. We were asked to seek out some of the best programs in the community-based citizen diplomacy sector. After a competitive application process, the task force selected 10 programs to showcase:

• Boulder Kisumu Sister City
• Duluth Sister Cities International (DSCI) & La Crosse Dubna Friendship Association (LDFA)
• National Committee on United States-China Relations
• Rochester International Council, Inc.
• San Diego-Tema Sister City Society
• Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy
• Vanguard Leadership Group
• World Services of La Crosse, Inc.
• World Affairs Council of Oregon
• WorldChicago

These programs are featured in a summit summary for our task force. Read about these stellar programs. Congratulations to these programs and the many others which were commendable but didn't happen to make the final selection.

Also, I want to add my appreciation to the supporters of this event, most importantly the U.S. Department of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and major corporate funders, including Verizon Wireless, Townsend Vision, American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, Visa, and the many others.

It took 54 years between the first summit and this one, when will the next one be?