Nikki: I recently started a new role at the University of Pennsylvania in DC, where I’m supporting the relaunch of their Global Policy Programs. Previously, I had been with the DC office of the Krach Institute for technology and international affairs. I managed their strategic partnerships with both industry and governments – U.S. and around the world.

I came at the world of tech and international affairs through higher education. Citizen Diplomacy is part of it - students, researchers, staff, all may interact with global actors. Tech leaders and industry giants can also play a role.

Nikki: It’s that core belief that anyone can play a role in strengthening cooperation. It’s how individuals can facilitate those relationships and advance understanding and shared interests across the globe, on an individual level – not through governments or formal agreements. It can be through students interacting through international exchanges, or business and industry relationships – but all based on the understanding that anyone can be a diplomat.

Nikki: I came to it through Sister Cities, which came into being during the Cold War when more formal relations between the U.S. and our counterparts in Europe began to break down. During this time we were able to continue communication between citizens, and Sister Cities really came into its own at that time. 

When I was an undergrad at Arizona State University, I did a research project with Dr. Keith Brown on Sister City relationships and outlooks and professional development outlooks and opportunities at our Sister City organization in Tempe, AZ, which has been very strong in citizen exchanges and citizen diplomacy for decades. I was very inspired by that work, and it helped shape my desire to continue working in that field of international exchanges and education. In fact, I’ve continued working with Dr. Brown as a research consultant, evaluating Sister City relationships between the U.S. and Russian and U.S. and Ukrainian Sister Cities, before and since the onset of the conflict, and studying the role of individual citizens in the three countries in helping promote peace when formal diplomatic relations are strained.   

Nikki: There are great possibilities for citizen diplomacy to operate. On the humanitarian side, consider the relationship between civil society organizations – for example, nonprofits in health and wellness or education - for countries that are going to be affected by conflict. A lot of the Sister Cities work on the ground with some of these civil society organizations. One of the programs that our Sister City in Tempe did with an organization in Timbuktu, Mali, involved coordinating with various centers dedicated to improving women’s health and childhood education.

Nikki: There are economic development organizations that work with dedicated economic affairs officers, particularly in the bigger cities: Chicago and New York City, for example, have well-developed economic affairs offices. Universities, of course: At Krach, and now at Penn, I’ve been working on tech diplomacy, which you wouldn’t normally think of as an option. Particularly in the DC area, recently we’ve seen so many universities pop up with outposts here. We’ve just seen Virginia Tech pop up with an incredible AI campus here, Texas A&M, Arizona State (my alma mater), for example. There are lots of opportunities to work with universities – student exchange programs or broader strategic global partnerships. Look into tech as well, more on that civil service, community-based organizations – Tech for Good, Digital literacy, civic innovation, shattering digital divides – a ton of great organizations, foundations work in those areas that touch people globally.

Educational exchange organizations like the Institute for International Education or Global Ties US, or the State Department’s international visitors program are all important elements. If you’re coming from an organization like State that helps fund those programs, it would be a great opportunity for someone to work as a program implementor on the other side. On the state and local level there are hundreds of organizations maintaining these kinds of programs, on both the nonprofit side and the government side. 

Nikki: On the professional development side, we can continue to emphasize how transferrable skills are for our members who have been in those career channels for a long time and how important those skills are. Strategic partnership building, stakeholder development, program management, cross-cultural communication, strategic communications, all can be transferred and used in a citizen diplomacy career to facilitate connections and introductions and awareness.

 

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Bill Wanlund is a PDCA Board Member, retired Foreign Service Officer, and freelance writer in the Washington, DC, area. His column, Worth Noting, appears occasionally in Public Diplomacy Today and the PDCA Blog; it seeks to address Public Diplomacy and related topics of interest to all.