Members of the 2009 Class from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar – Image Credit: Cornell University
Earlier this month the president of Cornell University, David Skorton, published an excellent essay in the Huffington Post on the role that higher education can – and should – play in public diplomacy (full essay is here). I have written about how higher education is often overlooked in current analyses of public diplomacy (the focus is often on communications and social media – see here). Skorton makes a compelling case to reverse that trend to include higher education:
Study abroad and international student attraction are traditionally at the core of this work but Skorton also notes the role of faculty-to-faculty linkages and the establishment of American campuses in other countries (much of this activity is focused on Qatar, the UAE, etc). But he rightly emphasizes that all of this work must be carried out in the context of a true partnership:
He notes that sustained government funding is required but that higher education must use their own funds as part of this effort for what he rightly notes is “the common good.”
Author
James Ketterer
James Ketterer is Dean of International Studies at Bard College and Director of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program. He previously served as Egypt Country Director for AMIDEAST, based in Cairo and before that as Vice Chancellor for Policy & Planning and Deputy Provost at the State University of New York (SUNY). In 2007-2008 he served on the staff of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education. He previously served as Director of the SUNY Center for International Development.
Ketterer has extensive experience in technical assistance for democratization projects, international education, legislative development, elections, and policy analysis – with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. He has won and overseen projects funded by USAID, the Department for International Development (UK), the World Bank and the US State Department. He served on the National Security Council staff at the White House, as a policy analyst at the New York State Senate, a project officer with the Center for Legislative Development at the University at Albany, and as an international election specialist for the United Nations, the African-American Institute, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is currently a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association and has also held teaching positions in international politics at the New School for Social Research, Bard College, State University of New York at New Paltz, the University at Albany, Russell Sage College, and the College of Saint Rose.
Ketterer has lectured and written extensively on various issues for publications including the Washington Post, Middle East Report, the Washington Times, the Albany Times Union, and the Journal of Legislative Studies. He was a Boren National Security Educational Program Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and in Morocco, an International Graduate Rotary Scholar at the Bourguiba School of Languages in Tunisia, and studied Arabic at the King Fahd Advanced School of Translation in Morocco. He received his education at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Fordham University.
Areas of focus: Public Diplomacy; Middle East; Africa; US Foreign Policy
