IVLP Alumni: Margaret Thatcher, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Julia Gillard, Ted Heath, Morgan Tsvangirai and Tony Blair- Image Credit: BBC
Last month BBC New Magazine ran a curious story (here) about the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), calling it “a little-known scheme run by the US State Department [that] has demonstrated an uncanny capacity to pinpoint these leaders-in-waiting.” Despite the BBC’s assertion, the IVLP is quite well-known and highly regarded.
The State Department says the following about the program:
The International Visitor Leadership Program annually brings to the United States approximately 5,000 foreign nationals from all over the world to meet and confer with their professional counterparts and to experience America firsthand. The visitors, who are selected by American Foreign Service Officers overseas, are current or potential leaders in government, politics, the media, education, the arts, business and other fields. Among the thousands of distinguished individuals who have participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program since its inception almost seven decades ago are more than 290 current and former Chiefs of State and Heads of Government, 2,000 cabinet-level ministers, and many, many other distinguished leaders from the public and private sectors.
But the article notes that some see something sinister at play here. Specifically, there are those who claim that the IVLP is used by the US Government to jump start the careers of those selected to participate:
And this:
While being selected to be part of an IVLP delegation to visit the US is a nice perk it is hardly a make-or-break career move for an aspiring leader. Rather, it is an attempt by US embassies to identify important leaders (and leaders in the making) in a wide variety of fields (arts, libraries, politics, environment, education, museums and others) and find a way to connect with them. Is it good for the US? Yes, in most cases, but the benefits are not immediate or certain. But it is worth doing for many reasons.
Following a dinner I hosted for a Ugandan IVLP delegation, I wrote about how this program has benefits to Americans above and beyond the confines of traditional diplomacy:
We could use more schemes like this.
- A group of International Visitors from the Sichuan (China) Mountaineering Association celebrating a successful rescue exercise during their visit with the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group in Colorado – Image Credit: US Embassy, New Zealand