// Diplomatic Courier
Sep 18, 2014 // Are you effectively measuring your digital efforts? By what means are you claiming success? These are just a few of questions that frequent the minds of most digital departments of commercial brands and advertising agencies, but seem to arise even more often for those involved on the digital side of national and international policy; an arena typically still working on gaining better digital footing. In fact, embassies, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations can certainly benefit by adapting successful, primary methodology utilized in the commercial world in a few easy steps. However, it all begins with having the proper mindset.
Jun 13, 2014 // During a recent digital panel discussion among diplomats in Washington, D.C., the word “emojis” came up and perplexed the audience. Emojis are combinations of keyboard characters that form various pictorial representations of mood. Popularly used today by young Technorati, they are indicative of digital culture or “digiculture” around the globe. But whether one speaks of the ubiquitous emoji or the rise of mobile messaging apps or emerging wearable technology, we are only at the beginning of a rapidly changing communication dynamic that says as much about technology as it does about the attitudes and behavior with which it interacts. A very real challenge for most diplomats in 2014 will be to keep abreast of digital behavior and to forecast trends in order to use them more effectively.
// Diplomatic Courier
Lauren O’Leary, a director in APCO Worldwide’s New York office, works with a range of national and international public and private corporate, consumer and NGO clients, specializing in strategic media relations campaigns, with more than a decade of expertise. // Diplomatic Courier
Lauren Zane is an undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary majoring in Government. Lauren's focus and research is in international security, democracy, and global development. // Diplomatic Courier
// Diplomatic Courier
Lauren Boyes is the founder of the Relocation Analysis Project, a student-run project at W&M’s Global Research Institute. She is also an incoming analyst at Deloitte. // Diplomatic Courier
Lauryn Lee Hallet is a cybersecurity consultant at HeadMind Partners. // Diplomatic Courier
Vanina Laurent–Ledru is the Director–General of Foundation S // Diplomatic Courier
Mar 07, 2023 // Space seems far away but technology brings it closer and closer-and the environmental impacts of our activities in space are also starting to hit closer to home. Cleaning Earth's outer atmosphere is just as important as cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, writes Lauren Lee Hallet.
Sep 21, 2012 // The presence of illicit small arms and light weapons (SALW) in Central Africa has dealt a major blow to the stability of human security in Africa. Covertly traded SALW such as AK-47s, rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades have exacerbated existing conflicts and fueled humanitarian atrocities that have been perpetuated through the excessive availability of these weapons and their tendency to fall into the wrong hands. This issue proves particularly prevalent in North Kivu, a mineral-rich province on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC and its century-long history of conflict have given rise to a longstanding resource war for control of the nation’s vast mineral wealth.
Nov 15, 2019 // The challenge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is comparing its unethical implications with the technological advancement that it would bring humans.
Jan 06, 2020 // The right to protest is under assault in most of the world today, from the most democratic to authoritarian. Protests have become increasingly criminalized by governments and decried as criminal in the press.
Dec 10, 2019 // It is 2030. Everyone around you wears masks. Children cannot go outside to play and there are set times when you can go outside safely. You want to go driving to the nearest supermarket but are unable. The government only permits you to drive on certain days and at certain times. There is no accessible public transportation where you currently live. You watch as the smog in the air condenses around the city and wonder, how did we get here?
Apr 28, 2020 // How do we reform a broken democratic system to reflect the modern world and more diverse societies? Is it possible to create a more equitable democratic system that reflects the citizens’ voice? The answer to creating a more equitable democratic system is in the far-off past and in Greek democracy, citizens’ assemblies.
Apr 28, 2020 // As COVID-19 spreads, there has been speculation about a new vaccine that could possibly be available next year to help contain the virus. The development of the vaccine has brought back into question if everyone should be inoculated to prevent outbreaks of known infectious diseases. Watching the spread of the pandemic and understanding how unprepared the world is for illness at this magnitude, illustrates vividly the value of vaccinations. Their benefits and history bear repeating, especially today.
May 24, 2022 // Climate displacement and migration are a real and pressing problem, having already surpassed conflict as the leading cause of internal displacement. Suitability analyses can help ensure relocation is sustainable and just, writes Relocation Analysis Project founder Lauren Boyes.
May 30, 2017 // The robots aren’t coming—they’re already here. The Oxford English dictionary defines artificial intelligence as “The theory and development...
Jan 12, 2017 // You would be forgiven for worrying that a robot might steal your job. Entrepreneur Daniel Nadler predicts that between 33 and 50 percent of...
Apr 22, 2020 // The past four months have been a case study in successful and failed communications from government leaders as the novel coronavirus turned into a global pandemic. To be sure, the lessons learned today will become instructive tools for our leaders of the future—particularly if pandemics and global crises increase in frequency and reach. So, nearly four months into this pandemic, what have we learned about good communication from our leaders?
Mar 12, 2024 // The World Health Organization calls climate change the greatest health threat facing humanity—yet discussions on climate were concerningly absent at Munich.
Sep 15, 2012 // On September 11th, a tragic enough day for the U.S., anti-American violence rocked the Middle East, and in the process, U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three staffers were killed in an assault on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Almost immediately, pent-up election year political vitriol began to fly in the U.S. A U.S. Ambassador had not been killed on duty since 1979, when Jimmy Carter was President, furthering talking points comparing Obama’s foreign policy to Carter’s legacy of failure. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney launched an attack on Obama for being “soft” on foreign policy, and was in turn roundly criticized by both parties for his politicizing statements so soon after the tragedy. In the mess of all the political sniping, some very real—and dangerous—facts about incidents were overlooked.
Mar 25, 2012 // Susan Lehrman is no stranger to the Diplomatic community in Washington. A consummate philanthropist and businesswoman, she has also served...
Oct 11, 2022 // Diplomatic Courier and World in 2050, in partnership with Gallup and Cerebral, present the 2022 Wellbeing Forum on October 11, 2022, at Gallup Headquarters in Washington, DC. The meeting follows the theme: “From Surviving to Thriving: Wellbeing for the Individual, Systems, and Society.”
Apr 26, 2017 // Presenters: Duane Dickson, Vice Chairman of DeloitteLauren Maffeo, Content Editor (GetApp) of Gartner Digital MarketsAntoinette Poschung, Ma...
Feb 18, 2023 // These days smartphones are ubiquitous and indispensable. We are generally aware of their privacy issues, but there is a nexus between state spying and commercial data gathering that threatens to end privacy, writes Joshua Huminski in his review of “Pegasus" by Laurent Richard & Sandrine Rigaud.
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Dec 13, 2016 // Donald Trump has been lauded for keeping his promise to workers at air-conditioner manufacturer Carrier, keeping at least 800 jobs from goin...
Nov 06, 2013 // After 15 years of one of the African continent's most complex conflicts, the Democratic Republic of Congo is on the path to peace, as the M23, the leading rebel group that has been fighting the government of the country, announced on Tuesday that its troops would disarm.
Mar 08, 2013 // In recent years we have seen a plethora of companies invest or reinvest dollars into a sector that is gaining attention in boardrooms across the globe: the economic empowerment of women. Development experts, including former Secretary Hillary Clinton, Isobel Coleman, Nickolas Kristof, Sheryl Wundunn, and Jeffery Sachs, have been pioneers in connecting women’s economic empowerment to growth trajectories for emerging markets. A recent study from Intel, World Pulse, UN Women, and the U.S. State Department showed that doubling the number of women and girls with access to the web in three years could potentially contribute an estimated $13 to $18 billion to annual GDP across 144 developing countries.
Jun 20, 2022 // COVID-19 has decimated the global economy with few areas being harder hit than the travel and tourism sectors. In his review of the WEF’s “Travel and Tourism Development Index” report, Brennan Rose examines the future of tourism.
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Jan 24, 2011 // The abolition of former Tunisian President Ben Ali’s despotic regime has galvanized unilateral diplomatic support from the world community,...
Apr 08, 2021 // The U.S. will take a small step towards an improved diplomatic relationship with Iran when talks concerning the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal begin for the first time since the beginning of the Biden presidency.
Aug 11, 2012 // The austerity measures recently approved by Jordan’s parliament will put pressure on the Hashemite Kingdom’s ill-equipped private sector to provide jobs. Those decisions will not launch Jordan full swing into the Arab Spring theater—at least not immediately—but they might rattle what has been a fairly mild protest atmosphere. Cuts to the government’s operational spending and a hiring freeze are just two items on a menu of measures to shed $423 million from expenses—not to mention corruption charges hanging over the throne, cabinet, and parliament—that are putting Jordan’s long-term health at stake. Battling the bulging public sector is the right move in the general sense, but it must also be done in the right way. It remains to be seen whether the government has the fortitude to combat endemic corruption in the public sector. If it does so, that could open the door for the underemployed youth, theoretically leading to a much-needed cultural shift in the Jordanian bureaucracy.
Benjamin Verdi is YPFP’s 2020 Cybersecurity & Technology Fellow, and a Global Innovation Manager with Grant Thornton International Ltd. The views expressed in this column are his own and are not those of his employer. // Diplomatic Courier
Mar 18, 2014 // A review of the Council on Foreign Relations’ launch of the Interactive Guide on Child Marriage
Dec 12, 2016 // The international community must do more to share the burden placed on primary refugee host countries.On September 2, 2015, the world came t...
Jun 13, 2012 // Something strange happened to Barak Zemer in New York City – or rather, did not happen. Hardly a suspicious looking man – 5-foot 7 inches, mid-30s, receding hairline with wispy black hair, slight curvature of the spine and hunch to the shoulders from years of hauling a backpack as a tour guide – Zemer stood outside a shopping mall clutching his signature backpack. A Jerusalemite, it was his first time visiting the United States. He watched people file in and out of the mall. He waited. After two minutes, he finally realized no security guard was going to search his bag. He walked inside. He shopped.
Mimoza Ahmetaj is former Minister of EU Integration in Kosovo, former MP, previously served as Ambassador to Brussels and Slovenia. Currently, she is Ambassador in Strasbourg. She is regular column writer on foreign policy and EU integration. // Diplomatic Courier
Jun 21, 2018 // On 12 June, the governments of Macedonia and Greece announced that they reached an agreement to change the former’s name. This decision come...
Apr 04, 2011 // Eight years after the bloody civil war that split Côte d’Ivoire in two, hard fought efforts to unify the Government-controlled south and re...
Jul 04, 2023 // When liberal democracies lose sight of their core values, the institutional checks and balances underpinning their existence deteriorate. Truth and freedom are inextricably linked, so accepting this post-truth climate as acceptable in politics threatens democratic collapse, writes Chris Patten.
Jun 01, 2012 // The United States clean energy industry certainly cannot count on Congress these days, but at least it has Ghana. With clean energy momentum stymied on Capitol Hill, Foggy Bottom and Arlington have stepped in to provide some steam for a somewhat floundering industry. The Department of State has struck numerous deals with countries like Ghana to promote clean energy initiatives, which benefits the U.S. firms poised to take advantage of newly liberalized, barren overseas power markets. The Department of Defense, with its deep pockets and a mandate to get 25 percent of its power from clean sources by 2025, also has the tools to emphasize clean energy technology.
Mar 06, 2011 // To the 300,000 visitors winding their way through UN headquarters’ gutted, scaffolding-laden monuments each year, the latest oversight repo...
May 29, 2014 // The economic growth of a nation, under certain conditions, can lead to a simultaneously expansionist foreign policy designed to ensure the establishment of its commercial and military influence in strategic regions of the globe. The astonishing economic growth that has characterized the Chinese economy over the last two decades will likely continue to have political implications for the economic and geostrategic ambitions of the West, a region carrying huge loads of debt with no long-term resolution of this problem yet in sight.
Feb 18, 2019 // “Change is constant and everything inconvenient will change,” declared Chris Luebkeman, Global Director of Arup Foresight at last year’s Glo...
Sep 03, 2013 // Celebrating only five years of independence and following recent fanfare surrounding its struggle to achieve recognition by 100 members of the United Nations, Kosovo may not necessarily be the first country that comes to mind in contemporary discussions of women in diplomatic leadership. Often characterized in terms of its one-way relationship (or lack thereof) with neighboring Serbia, the country has much more to offer than its anecdotal history of ethnic conflict would suggest—specifically in lessons of development as a post-conflict nation in the often overlooked regions of southeastern Europe.
Nov 27, 2012 // In one of the best-publicized instances of hacking in recent years, “hacktivists” compromised not only Stratfor’s company and proprietary information, but also the personal information of hundreds of thousands of individual clients and subscribers. The Players Strategic Forecasting, Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is a private firm that provides governments and others with independent geopolitical intelligence analysis. Founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas, Stratfor publishes daily intelligence briefings for paying subscribers as well as modified analytical products for public consumption. The company says that it “uses a unique, intelligence-based approach to gathering information via rigorous open-source monitoring and a global network of human sources.” That information is then evaluated by its analysts who “make the complexity of the world understandable to an intelligent readership, without ideology, agenda, or national bias.”
Aug 15, 2016 // For more than 12 hours after the initial salvos that announced the coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Republican president...
Dec 30, 2020 // With 70% of the world’s population moving to the urban sphere in the coming decades, innovating in the transportation realm will be paramount. Here we cover the innovations that are transforming this landscape and accelerating us in ways that previous generations only dreamed about.
Oct 31, 2021 // On this World Cities Day, we stand at the cusp of a rare opportunity to reinvent how our cities operate as the urban agenda focuses on recovery. COVID-19 has changed humanity, society, and the planet. Back to the old normal is not an option. We have to invest in a different future where we seriously address how we shift our economic order, which is materially expansive, socially divisive, and environmentally hostile. To be successful cities will need to be empowered to operate.
Jun 15, 2012 // On June 6th, the international NGO Vital Voices presented its annual Global Leadership Awards at Washington, DC's Kennedy Center. An organization renowned for its educational and financial support of female leaders worldwide, Vital Voices celebrated this year’s awards along with the launch of a new book written by the organization’s Global Partnership President and CEO, Alyse Nelson - Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World. The book’s foreword by Secretary Hilary Clinton, as well as Hilary Clinton’s annual appearance at the Global Leadership Awards, attests to the NGO’s legitimacy and far-reaching potential. Although Secretary Clinton could not make it to this year’s ceremony, her daughter Chelsea Clinton presented an award in her stead, accompanied by other famous activists, journalists, and politicians. The event kicked off on Tuesday evening at the House of Sweden on the Georgetown waterfront, where speakers such as Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, lauded Nelson for her contributions to the organization. During Nelson’s time as President of the Vital Voices Global Partnership, the organization has expanded its network to include over 12,000 women leaders in 44 countries. Ambassador Verveer stated, “I’m very proud of Alyse,” and relayed the story of Nelson’s travels to the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women in Bejing, where she heard Hillary Clinton’s famous declaration, “Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.” Verveer attested that Nelson “told herself that day she would dedicate the rest of her life to helping women around the world, and she has truly done that.”
