The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

8 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Welcoming Visitors, Building Bridges BY SHAWN DORMAN I Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. My own limited experience with the IVLP convincedme that it was a great tool to expand relationships and build bridges between countries, between various embassy departments and among visitors sharing common interests. While serving as a political officer at Embassy Jakarta in the late 1990s—a time when Indonesian students were leading a pro-democracy movement that ultimately helped push the Suharto regime from power in 1998—I welcomed the chance to nominate five youth leaders representing an interfaith alliance to the program. I have stayed in touch with two of the alums, and here’s what Edward Tanari said recently when I asked what he took away fromhis experience almost 20 years ago: “After returning to Indonesia, we were t is my great pleasure to introduce this month’s focus on the International Visitors Leadership Programon the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Like baseball and apple pie, what’s not to love about a program that brings potentially influential visitors from around the world to the United States to get an up-close and personal view of our country via “citizen diplomats” in numerous U.S. cities? From its beginnings in 1940 till today, some 200,000 people have taken American journeys through this program. Partici- pants travel in small groups andmost often have a chance to see several U.S. cities dur- ing what is usually a three-week trip. The program is sponsored and run by the Department of State, managed out of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and implemented by dozens of partner organizations and community- basedmembers deploying thousands of volunteers to welcome the visitors. IVLP participants are nominated by U.S. embassy staff. Our tour of the IVLP is led by Global Ties, which used to be the National Coun- cil of International Visitors, a nonprofit that works with partner organizations nation- wide to implement the program. FSO Rob- ert Zimmerman introduces us to the IVLP and shares 12 stories fromparticipants. Global Ties President Jennifer Clinton and Senior ProgramMan- ager Jelena Putre offer a look to the future of the program, and ideas for sustaining and renewing it. motivated to formalize a powerful civil society in Indonesia. We each took on roles in various fields. Three of us (including me) took a political path. One chose to work with nongovernmental organiza- tions, and one took the path of election organizer (under the Suharto regime, elec- tions never took place democratically). The civil society program in the United States was very beneficial for the youth activ- ists for learning and for motivating us to rebuild Indonesia for a better future.” All five went on to serve their country in various leadership capacities in govern- ment and civil society. There can be no question that offering a personal U.S. experience to potential foreign leaders at a formative age is a potent contribution to international understanding with unique benefits for the visitors and their countries as well as for the United States. In Speaking Out, James Rider suggests an approach tomeasuring the success of public diplomacy programs. Through an interviewwith retired Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Richard Longworth, author of a 1977 “Primer for Diplomats,” FSO Cecile Shea spells out the value of diplomacy. Please take a look at our 2016 Editorial Calendar and see if any topics spark your interest. Reach out to us if you’d like to write for a particular issue, or let us know if you have an idea for another article. We accept submissions for Letters, Speaking Out, Reflections, Features, Local Lens, FS Know-How and FS Heritage all year long, so do be in touch (journal@afsa. org) and add your voice to the conversa- tions. n 2016 Editorial Calendar Jan-Feb: Mental Health Care for the Foreign Service March: Women in the FS April: Migration May: Life after the FS June: The FS Career July-Aug: Corruption Sept: AFSA Awards and Dissent Oct: The U.S. Elections Through a Foreign Lens Nov: In Their Own Write Dec: Russia, 25 Years After the Fall of the USSR