The Next Generation of Public Diplomats

What impact do youth have on public diplomacy? From tackling issues of education inequality and violent extremism to serving as cultural ambassadors through people-to-people exchange programs, PD news headlines this week showcased the importance of engaging millennials in world affairs. In Zambia, 50 teenage girls participated in a negotiation workshop where they learned how to advocate for their interests “the Harvard way,” building key skills that will “help Zambian schoolgirls stay in school and avoid getting pregnant;” while in the United States, more than 70 international youth leaders met with President Obama to discuss an action agenda to counter ISIL and violent extremism. Meanwhile, exchange programs between Canada and France, and Jordan and the United States enabled the participants to “create bridges and new linkages that bond these young leaders together as colleagues and as friends for years to come.”

• #Youth4Peace Global Youth are Tackling the Root Causes of Extremism – Share America
• Can't Afford School? Girls Learn to Negotiate the Harvard Way: #15Girls -NPR
• Exchange Students form Friendships – The Whig
• From Entrepreneur to Citizen Ambassador –PR Newswire
• The Young Survivors of Boko Haram – The New Yorker

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Photo The ZionView View | CC BY-NC 2.0