Art of Diplomacy Lecture Series
Throughout the 2015-2016 school year, The Foreign Policy Institute (FPI) held a series of four speaking events with distinguished speakers and accompanying commentators from SAIS faculty or FPI. The events have been, and will continue to be, unique in that they are organized into a coherent series whereby attendees will gain an understanding of several different aspects of the diplomatic field from interviewers helping the speakers to draw out lessons learned from their careers.
Our objective is to increase SAIS students’ understanding of modern diplomacy as an art by exposing them to recent and current practitioners. We want to teach students how modern diplomacy is conducted, what the challenges that speakers have faced are, and how they used diplomacy tactics to approach them.
Previous session themes
Public Diplomacy’s role in U.S. Foreign Policy
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Date: November 3, 2015
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Speaker: Ambassador Stuart Holliday
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Interviewer: Dr. Daniel Serwer
How effective is the United States at countering ISIS’s narrative? How can it do better? How does public diplomacy further American foreign policy goals around the world and what should its role be in our increasingly connected and social global society?
Conducting American Foreign Policy in the Middle East & South Asia
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Date: November 17, 2015
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Speaker: Dean Vali Nasr
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Interviewer: Ambassador Shirin Tahir-kheli
What is the future of the region? What is the state of American diplomacy today? What have been your experiences as an advisor to senior policymakers and world leaders, and how have they affected your outlook on diplomacy?
Recovering Diplomatic Agility
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Date: March 8, 2016
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Speaker: Ambassador Chas Freeman
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Interviewer: Dr. Daniel Serwer
How does diplomacy further American foreign policy goals around the world and what should its role be in our increasingly connected and social global society? What tools are currently being utilized in American foreign diplomacy? What tools should be?
Challenges in Environmental Diplomacy
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Date: April 18, 2016
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Speaker: Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Reifsnyder
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Interviewer: Dr. Lynn Wagner ('91, PhD '98)
What are the challenges in conducting environmental diplomacy? How does it differ from the usual practice of US diplomacy? How are historic agreements, such as the recent Paris agreement, negotiated?
Journalism and Diplomacy (Bologna, Italy)
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Date: October 28, 2016
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Speakers: David C. Unger and James Mann
How have current and previous American executives handled diplomacy during their presidencies? Do presidential candidates Clinton and Trump stray from this dynamic? How does one navigate journalism within China? How does one navigate journalism within Washington, DC?