georgetown

International Youth Day observed under the theme ‘The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production’ represents the opportunity for youth at home and abroad to reflect on the work, progress and struggles of all youths, regardless of race, class or ethnicity. [...] it is important that Local and Central government provides opportunities and an enabling environment to maximize the potential of youths across all sectors and reduce the challenges that hinders development.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give $15m to programmes this fiscal year covering Japanese politics and foreign policy in the US, in an effort to enhance Japan’s ‘soft power’ in the country. Georgetown University, Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be among the institutions selected to receive the funding, which will be mainly aimed at programmes in the areas of modern and contemporary Japanese politics and foreign policy.

“The basketball games are incidental [to] this,” said Cooley. “It’s the cultural exchange.” In each of the previous cities, the Nanyang Model High team stayed with host families. Along with private training sessions and games, the team has mixed in plenty of sightseeing, including Niagara Falls, Smithsonian museums, and D.C. monuments.

While one basketball team was touring China this summer, former Georgetown University men's and women's basketball players joined together with the United States Embassy in Montenegro to bring the Fourth Annual Basketball Diplomacy program to underprivileged youth in the Balkans.

The trip was initially about much more than basketball — the exhibition games were merely a formality as the Hoya contingent toured the country, met with Vice President Joe Biden and sought to promote sports diplomacy between the world's superpower and its ascending counterpart.

August 21, 2011

‘Sports diplomacy lives!” raved a former national security official traveling with the Georgetown University basketball team on a visit to China timed to coincide with Vice President Biden’s trip this week. That was before a brawl ended the Hoyas’ game against a professional Chinese team tied to the Chinese military.

August 21, 2011

Sports diplomacy, they might say, makes for a great story, but seldom has a genuine geopolitical impact. The legendary Christmas ceasefire and football match between German and British troops in 1914 was followed by the most vicious carnage the world had ever seen.

When an encounter planned to generate good will disintegrates into violence, the important thing is to keep it in perspective and distill the right lessons from the event—not to limit further matches.