A Discussion around Cultural Diplomacy

The School of International Service of American University, along with its co-sponsors the Public Diplomacy Council and MountainRunner Institute, is hosting a half-day conference on Monday, November 8 at American University to explore the role of cultural diplomacy, Diplomacy 2.0 and Now Media, and the importance of "listening" as part of our diplomacy strategy.

“Cultural Diplomacy as a Listening Project?” will bring together stakeholders in the cultural diplomacy, including members of the policy community, diplomacy professionals, and academic researchers, to explore the challenges to, and potential for, listening across different approaches to cultural diplomacy.

It should be a terrific conversation, for directions and details, check out the event website.

Global Competence: Asia Society Calls for More Sister Schools

In a landmark publication published this fall, Ready for the World: Preparing Elementary Students for the Global Age, the Asia Society calls for significant improvements in the approach U.S. schools take to open the minds of elementary students. The guide lays out a complete framework on how schools, administrators, and teachers and integrate global competence in their work.

The authors lay out a 10-point outline that they call a Vision for Global Education, which calls for “dynamic interactions and exchanges with sister schools to enhance learning and create understanding.” This is a chance to connect your sister cities program with the local education system. Check out Sister Cities International's sister schools toolkit.

Any interested reader will find the guide accessible, but I see it as an important tool to articulate the needed reasoning for increased integration of global topics in the classroom. Both readers outside the education system and those professional educators will find this useful.

I was especially impressed with the opening of the preface by Tony Jackson, the Vice President of Education at the Asia Society:

Consider a girl entering kindergarten in the United States. Though her classes may be full of students from around the world, chances are global issues and cultures will not be consistently woven throughout her coursework. Unlike young children in other nations who begin learning a second language in elementary school, she will probably learn only one language, English, until high school. When she starts her career, she will likely live and work in a world where China is the largest economy and the world’s largest cities are all outside the United States. Will her American education prepare her for the challenges and opportunities of a global economy?

Well said. Elementary School? Middle School? High School? College? We are not doing enough to expose, engage and educate the current and next generation to the rest of the world. Kids across the globe know English, U.S. major foreign policies, and definitely American pop culture. What do our kids know about Africa’s emerging democracies, Asian cultures, or contemporary history of South America? Very little - we need to get moving!

The Start Line Approaches - 2010 Race & Festival for World Peace

Now's the time to make up your mind - what are you doing this weekend for world peace? Here's your options:

1> If you live in the greater Washington, DC area - sign up at www.raceforworldpeace.org/ and meet up at 20th & Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday by 9am for the start of our 5K run/walk through the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. In addition to cash prizes for runners, we have an array of free giveaways for runners/walkers during the post race awards ceremony and through out the cultural festival that follows.

(Live in DC but you are out of town this weekend? No worries. Sign up anyway and we'll count your registration as a donation and support for our cause. You do like world peace, don't you?)

2> If you don't live in the WDC metro area, host your own event. You don't need police barriers and permits. You need one or more friends. Pick a meeting point near your house and walk (or run) on Saturday. If you register your "virtual race" with the Sister Cities International office ahead of time, we'll send your group free race t-shirts. Contact our race director, Anna Valero, to register your hometown run/walk.

Congratulations to Fort Worth, Texas; Accra, Ghana; Casablanca, Morocco; and Stuttgrat, Germany - all of whom are hosting virtual races. Let us know if you are on-board!

3> Jogging isn't your thing? That's fine, do you like sitting? C'mon by for our FREE FESTIVAL from 10am-2pm at 20th & Pennsylvania Avenue for a mix of music, dance, and spoken word, as well as cultural booths, food, and fun kids activities.

So,what are you doing this weekend for world peace?

Reframing a "D" in the 3 Ds

The White House announced a major development strategy to run complementary to the strength of our defense and diplomacy efforts. (Hence the three Ds - defense, diplomacy, and development). If this turns into increased aid programs and exchanges dollars over the next few years, it has the opportunity to recalibrate how much of the developing world thinks of us (using much less money than the other two Ds).

There are many policy papers and ideas generated in DC, but this is how things get started and can translate into progress abroad. We'll see how it plays out.

Check it out the new strategy.

Pardon my delay, I was being censored

For my blog followers, I spent the past week in China at the World Cities Scientific Development Forum and participating in meetings with some local officals and NGO leaders. (Hence, the flurry of posts.) All in all, a very productive trip. However, I attempted to post to this blog in "real-time" on a number of occasions from China and found it odd that the Blogger site was down for maintence at the exact time I was trying to post...every day. Then it finally struck me. The site isn't down, it was being blocked.


City to city partnerships and citizen diplomacy between the U.S. and China are growing stronger and richer each month. But, this experience was a reminder. Some larger bilateral issues reach beyond the local level and still need to be addressed. We want everyone's voice to be heard.

Sister Cities in Beijing

Sister Cities International delegation at the World Cities Scientific Development Forum, September 10-11 in Beijing, China.

Sister Cities in China, part 1

A delegation of 10 sister cities leaders spent Sept 7-9 in Shanghai, China as part of the People's Friendship Association conference. Nearly 700 individuals from around the world convened to discuss partnerships in China. Lots of networking, connecting, and sharing ideas about exchanges and projects.