Founded in 1978, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, an integral part of the Walsh School of Foreign Service, brings together diplomats, other practitioners, scholars and students from across and beyond Georgetown University to explore global challenges and evolving demands of diplomatic statecraft, to better understand the nexus of theory and practice, and to enhance and expand an appreciation of the role of diplomacy as a critical tool in national policy. 

Latest from ISD

• SHAFR - Institute for the Study of Diplomacy Workshop on Historians and Public Engagement

  JUNE 19, 2019

  ISD’s workshop on public engagement, in collaboration with the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), brought more than 50 scholars, policymakers and other practitioners to Georgetown on June 18 and 19. The goal was to discuss how historians can engage more effectively with the media, the policy world, and communities around the country. ISD Director of Programs and Research Dr. Kelly McFarland organized the event, working with a committee of SHAFR historians to build on discussions held at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center in 2017. How do historians – and history – inform current world views? From the policy community, speakers included Mark Jacobson (professor of history at Amherst College and a former senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense) and Christian Ostermann (director of the History and Public Policy Program at the Wilson Center), with a keynote talk by Derek Chollet (senior advisor for security and defense policy at The German Marshall Fund and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs).

• “The State of the State Department” – A Special ISD Screening and Discussion

  APRIL 3, 2019

  On April 3, ISD held a special screening and panel discussion on “The State of the State Department,” part of the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions series on world affairs. After the screening, Ambassador (ret.) John Feeley, a Georgetown Fellow, moderated a panel discussion with Ambassador (ret.) Jeffrey DeLaurentis, SFS Centennial Fellow and ISD Distinguished Resident Fellow in Latin American Studies; Ambassador (Ret.) Nancy McEldowney, Director of the MSFS program at Georgetown; SFS Centennial Fellow Catherine A. Novelli, former Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment – and president of Listening for America; and Anne Gearan, White House and foreign affairs reporter for The Washington Post.

• 2019 Raymond “Jit” Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy

  FEBRUARY 21, 2019

  On February 21, 2019, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy awarded Ambassador Thomas A. Shannon the 35th annual J. Raymond “Jit” Trainor Award for Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy. Fellow diplomats, ISD board members, Georgetown University faculty, and students from the Center for Latin American Studies and Certificate in Diplomatic Studies programs gathered at Georgetown University for a dinner to honor Ambassador Shannon and celebrate his nearly 35 years in the Foreign Service. He served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the third highest ranking position at the State Department.

• The Essential Diplomat

  FEBRUARY 6, 2019

  Georgetown's Centennial Forum on the Future of Diplomacy, held on February 6, 2019, included several ISD speakers on "The Essential Diplomat," a panel discussion moderated by ISD Adviser and former Rusk Fellow Bernadette Meehan. ISD Director Barbara Bodine; Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Distinguished Fellow in African Studies, Uzra Zeya, Senior Non-Resident Fellow; and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte engaged in a frank discussion about the role and challenges of US diplomats, and the service they provide to the world. A full video of "The Essential Diplomat" discussion is available here.

• Georgetown Students Take On Syrian Conflict in Annual Crisis Simulation

  As Syrian peace conference stakeholders, students earned course credit and learned why peace and stabilization have been so elusive. [read more]

• ISD working group report on "The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems."

  NOVEMBER 28, 2018

  On November 28th at the Mortara Center for International Affairs, ISD unveiled its working group report on "The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems." In front of a packed room, ISD Director Barbara Bodine provided an overview of the report, while Jeremy Mathis, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Policy at Georgetown, and Heather Conley, Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic and director of the Europe Program at CSIS, discussed the vast contradictions inherent in the New Arctic. You can find the full Arctic working group report here."

• RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE and America’s Image and Policies Abroad

  OCTOBER 31, 2018

  The Oct. 27, 2018 attack on worshipers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue was a stark reminder that hate crimes and religious persecution threaten not just individuals and communities, but undermine fundamental human freedoms. A new ISD report on “Religious Intolerance and America’s Image and Policies Abroad” examines the rise in domestic hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, and other faith communities in America – and how the impact of domestic religious intolerance and bigotry extends far beyond the U.S. border. The report, based on a March 2018 working group and public forum with experts from the diplomatic corps, academia, nongovernment organizations, and U.S.-based faith communities, explores these dynamics and ways in which governments and civil society can mitigate the dangerous consequences. Click here for a summary page; click here to download the full report. Click here for video of March 22 panel discussion on Religious Intolerance and America’s Image and Policies Abroad. 

• Who Is the Future of the Foreign Service?

  OCTOBER 30, 2018

  Career public servants at all levels and specialties make diplomacy work. How do we find them, keep them, grow them? The State Department, like the roads in Washington, D.C., seems to be in a constant state of repair, with new potholes for each successive Secretary to fill as he or she deems best. No one knows better than those who work there that State could use some fixes; that structures, technologies, missions and mandates become outdated and need rethinking. Over time, State has gone through its fair share of such projects. Some of the repairs are right and proper; and they do, in some small way, make the wheels go ’round a bit more smoothly. Many are well-intended but poorly planned and poorly executed, with an inevitably poor result. Too often the repairs focus on the wiring diagrams; too infrequently on the mission, the funding and, most important, the people. And some, such as those initiated by former Secretary Rex Tillerson, seem designed by a ditch digger bent on just tearing it all up.

• Grand Strategy and Strategic Surprise

  OCTOBER 26, 2018

  The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy is pleased to announce the release of an important new study, Grand Strategy and Strategic Surprise. The author of the study, Casimir Yost, is a senior fellow in the Institute and former director of the Strategic Futures Group at the National Intelligence Council, as well as the former director of ISD. Professor Yost argues that the United States has “lost the capacity for sustained, government wide strategic assessment and anticipation.” He examines the intersection between strategy, planning, and surprise –with surprise, all too frequently, disrupting the development of strategy. He concludes that while the intelligence community and other agencies of government can contribute to strategic planning, it is the White House that must take the lead. Moreover, he argues that an effective planning capacity, at a time of heightened risk to the United States, should not have to be reconstituted with every new administration. The greatest risk for the United States is during presidential transitions “as the old, experienced, and tired team leaves office and the new, untested, and under-informed team enters office.”

• ISD Hosts Conference "Diplomacy in an Era of Disruption and Discontinuity"

  SEPTEMBER 23, 2018

  ISD hosted the 45th annual International Forum on Diplomatic Training (IFDT) conference on September 19-22, 2018. The conference, with the theme of “Diplomacy in an Era of Disruption and Discontinuity,” brought together deans and  directors from over 40 diplomatic training academies and diplomacy-related academic institutions, representing over 35 countries. Over the course of two days of panel discussions led by leading academics, practitioners, and think tank analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, participants deliberated the challenges facing diplomacy and diplomats worldwide and shared ideas on how to better prepare the next generation of diplomats to meet those challenges. 

• ISD Marks its 40-Year Anniversary!

  SEPTEMBER 23, 2018

  ISD celebrated its first 40 years with a gala dinner at the State Department on September 20, 2018. Over 200 guests attended, including ISD board members, senior State Department officials, visiting leaders from the International Forum for Diplomatic Training (IFDT), current and former ISD associates and fellows, Georgetown University faculty and students – including ISD Certificate in Diplomatic Studies candidates – and newly sworn-in junior Foreign Service officers. The formal dinner in the Benjamin Franklin room was proceeded by a reception on the 8th floor balcony and tours of the State Department Reception Rooms. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan delivered the keynote address, with an introduction and welcome from ISD Board Chair Thomas Pickering.

• The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems

  A July 2018 ISD report on "The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems" explores the implications of the New Arctic, and the broader geopolitical repercussions of these changes. Click here for a summary page; click here to download the full report.

  The Arctic region has become a New Global Common. Increasingly navigable seaways and new access to natural resources create both opportunities for greater collaboration between Arctic and non-Arctic nations, as well as potential flashpoints, environmental disasters, and threats to indigenous communities. The challenge is to mitigate all of these potential threats, and develop the policies, partnerships, and infrastructure to help guide Arctic diplomacy in the decades to come.

• Madeleine Albright Stresses the Importance of Diplomacy in Defending Democracy

  FEBRUARY 12, 2018

  Defending democracy across the globe is essential for protecting the safety and security of the American people, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a recent speech at Georgetown.

  “Our wisest leaders have always understood that American foreign policy must be shaped not solely on the basis of what we are against, but also what we are for,” Albright noted. “And our interests still dictate that we should be for a world in which democracy is defended, and universal values are upheld.”

  Albright is the 2018 recipient of the J. Raymond “Jit” Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy, presented annually by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. This honor is given in the memory of Jit Trainor, the much-admired former registrar of the School of Foreign Service. Recent recipients include United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz.

• The U.S., France and Europe - Where Do We Go From Here? ---- 2017 Oscar Iden Lecture on American Foreign Policy

  SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

  ISD welcomed Jane D. Hartley, United States Ambassador to France from 2014-2017, for the 2017 Iden Lecture on American Foreign Policy and International Diplomacy on September 28. Amb. Hartley addressed a packed audience at Georgetown, speaking on “The US, France, and the European Union—Where Do We Go From Here?”

• Letter on the State reorganization

  JULY 18, 2017

  ISD director Barbara Bodine and board members William J. Burns, James Irvin Gadsden and Ellen Laipson sign onto letter supporting bureau of population refugees and migration.

• The Marshall Plan turns 70 this week. Here are four reasons it was so important.

  ISD Director of Programs and Research Kelly M. McFarland discusses the lasting legacy of the Marshall Plan. -- June 5, 2017, The Washington Post

• Zbigniew Brzezinski was an intrepid advocate of the ‘liberal international order’

  When thinking about the abstract foreign policy framework known as the “liberal international order,” it helps to personalize it by remembering the career of one of its strongest exponents, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski, who died Friday, devoted most of his career to explaining and enhancing this idea of a robust, supple, U.S.-led architecture for global security and prosperity.

• New Challenges to Human Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility

  APRIL 12, 2017

  From bustling megacities to remote Pacific islands, climate change has profound implications for how people live and work -- and whether conflicts over water, land, and other resources become local or global security challenges. A new report by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy's New Global Commons working group explores the nexus between climate change and human migration.

• AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD OVERVIEWS CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES ON AFRICAN CONTINENT

  Institute for the Study of Diplomacy hosted Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, for a conversation on Africa’s position on the world stage. Thomas-Greenfield highlighted the problems and opportunities facing the continent in the near future as part of the Distinguished Practitioner Speaker Series. She shared her perspective from a 35-year career in the Foreign Service including the Ambassadorship in Liberia and a life that has been intertwined with Africa since her first visit in 1978.

• The Impossible Diplomacy of Human Rights

  FEBRUARY 16, 2017

  United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a global diplomat and a recognized leader in efforts to protect the most vulnerable and hold accountable the most powerful – and a driving force behind the establishment of the International Criminal Court – received the 2017 Raymond “Jit” Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy at a February 16, 2017 event hosted by Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and co-sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace.

• INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF DIPLOMACY PRESENTS JEFFREY GOLDBERG WITH WEINTAL PRIZE

  Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) presented Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, with the 2016 Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting at a dinner event in Copley Formal Lounge October 20. The event, highlighted by Goldberg’s remarks on the United States and the world the next president will inherit, also included an introduction by Atlantic President Bob Cohn and a conversation between Goldberg and Jim Hoagland, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and foreign correspondent for The Washington Post.

• Georgetown University Named As State Department Research Partner on Diplomacy and Development: Real Issues, Real Research, Real Impact

  WASHINGTON (April 26, 2016)—Georgetown University today announced that the U.S. Department of State has designated the university as its first Diplomacy Lab partner in the national capital region. A 2013 State Department Office of Global Partnerships initiative, this public-private research program provides students – both undergraduate and graduate – at over 25 participating universities the opportunity to research and propose innovative yet well-grounded solutions to real-world policy challenges on behalf of State Department offices and U.S. embassies.

• What’s it like to be a US diplomat in today’s world?

  APRIL 22, 2016

  ISD and the Diplomacy Center Foundation cohosted a special screening of a new PBS documentary, “America’s Diplomats,” on April 21. Following the film, a panel of US Foreign Service officers offered students an inside view of the challenges and many rewards of pursuing a career in the US Foreign Service.

• Human Rights, Baseball & Currencies: Charting a new course for Cuba

  APRIL 21, 2016

  What's it like behind the scenes to end a 50-year stalemate? In an ISD Distinguished Practitioner talk in April, ISD Rusk Fellow/White House Senior Advisor Bernadette Meehan and National Security Council Director for the Caribbean & Central America Siobhan Sheils spoke with Georgetown students about their experiences working on the U.S. government team negotiating the details of President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba in March 2016.

• From China to Cuba – Bold diplomacy to jettison long-standing policies

  How do presidents shake long-running diplomatic policies that stay in place despite the lack of positive outcomes? The Obama administration's opening of US-Cuba relations, like the Nixon administration's US-China rapprochement, took a bold move in the face of domestic backlash and a resistant bureaucracy, among other hurdles.

• 2016 Trainor Award to DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz: Weapons, Windmills, Quarks and Quagmires

  Dr. Ernest Moniz, U.S. Secretary of Energy, received the 2016 Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy for his role and his team’s role in the P5+1 negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program and the Paris climate talks. The first scientist to receive the prestigious award, Dr. Moniz addressed a large audience of students and faculty at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service on April 11, 2016, reflecting not only on the Iranian and Paris talks but the Department of Energy’s broad role bringing science to diplomacy on “weapons, windmills, quarks and quagmires.”

• Profiles of Syria’s Revolution

  APRIL 8, 2016

  What does the Syrian refugee crisis look like on the ground? As part of ISD’s Distinguished Practitioners Series, on April 7 ISD State Department Fellow Ramon Escobar shared his experiences meeting with refugees and humanitarian organizations this spring. Ramon traveled to Berlin, Lesvos, and Turkey in March 2016 to talk with refugees about their choice to abandon their homes and livelihoods – risking everything to reach safety beyond Syria’s borders.

• Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and Mortara Center for International Studies Receive Carnegie Grant

  Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD), along with the Mortara Center for International Studies, received a nearly $840,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York under its “Bridging the Gap” initiative. This honor highlights the School’s century-old mission to connect academia and the global policy world. The grant – “From Scholar’s Theory to Practitioner’s Work, and Back” – will focus on expanding the understanding and application of diplomacy as a critical tool of national policy. The grant empowers students, scholars, policymakers and the broader public through its emphasis on innovative learning, support for original research, and infrastructure for real-time publication of policy relevant work.

• 2016 Oscar Iden Lecture on American Foreign Policy and International Diplomacy

  On January 19, 2016 Ben Rhodes, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, delivered the 2016 Oscar Iden Lecture on American Foreign Policy and International Diplomacy. Mr. Rhodes oversees all of President Obama’s national security communications, speechwriting, and global engagement. In addition to channeling the President’s voice, Mr. Rhodes has played a key role in a number of diplomatic achievements, including the nuclear deal with Iran and the diplomatic opening with Myanmar. He was also one of two U.S. officials who conducted secret negotiations with the Cuban government, leading to the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries. In this conversation, moderated by ISD Fellow Bernadette Meehan and GU Politics Executive Director Mo Elleithee, Mr. Rhodes discussed his role as one of the President’s closest advisors, his path to the White House, the politics and policy behind this Administration’s national security decisions, and what to expect in the President’s final year in office.

• 40 Under 40: Latinos in Foreign Policy

  Within 40 Under 40: Latinos in Foreign Policy, Georgetown University and ISD were well represented by Elvia Valle, a graduate student and Thomas R. Pickering Fellow in the School of Foreign Service, and by Ramon Escobar, one of our 2015-2016 Dean & Virginia Rusk Fellows who is co-teaching Diplomatic and Military Statecraft this fall and will be teaching U.S. Foreign Policy in Conflict States in the spring.

• Yemen between War and Political Solution

  Three experts offered their analysis on the ongoing conflict in Yemen and assessed the prospects for a political solution. On December 4, 2015, the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted the event “Yemen between War and Political Solution,” with Mohammad Al-Shami, youth activist, advocacy trainer, and former Leaders for Democracy Fellow at Maxwell School of Syracuse University; Amat Alsoswa, founder of the Yemeni National Women’s Committee, former Human Rights minister, and former UN Assistant Secretary General; and Barbara Bodine, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and Director for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in The Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. Henri J. Barkey, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, moderated the event.

• Is Colombia's Long War Drawing to an End?

  On November 3, 2015, Special Envoy to the Colombian Peace Process Bernard Aronson joined Ramon Escobar, ISD Rusk Fellow for a discussion: "Is Colombia's Long War Drawing to an End?" This event was co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. Aronson helped promote the first successful democratic elections in Nicaragua and an end to the contra war and a negotiated settlement of the war in El Salvador. In addition during Aronson’s tenure: Panama was liberated from the dictatorial rule of General Manuel Noriega; the United States helped Colombia defeat Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel; Latin America emerged from both the debt crisis and the lost decade; NAFTA was negotiated; Argentina and Brazil put their nuclear programs under IAEA safeguards; Peru defeated, with U.S. assistance, Sendero Luminoso; and the OAS unanimously adopted the Santiago Declaration committing its member states to the collective defense of democracy.

• Policy & Politics of the Iran Agreement

  In the first Distinguished Practitioner Discussion Series of the 2015 fall semester, ISD was pleased to host Joe Cirincione, President of Ploughshares Fund for a discussion about the historic Iran deal. Moderated by Bernadette Meehan, ISD Rusk Fellow, the conversation centered around the efforts (from both inside and outside the government) that are necessary in order to create, communicate, and carry out such a major diplomatic achievement.

• The Arms Trade Treaty: Past U.N. Negotiations, Current U.S. Debates, and Future Global Implementation

  Adopted in 2013 by the UN General Assembly, the Arms Trade Treaty sets international standards for transfers of conventional weapons, and addresses diverging security, geopolitical, economic and ethical interests related to the international arms trade. Why was it negotiated in the framework of the UN? How did the actors, notably the United States, pursue their interests? What are the treaty’s impacts? How does it affect the decision whether to supply lethal weapons to conflict areas such as Ukraine or Syria? What role will the United States play in the future?

• Congress, Heal Thyself: A Freshman Congressman Comes to Washington

  Congressman Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), sworn in on January 6, 2015, is part of a new generation of leaders in Washington, and among the youngest. A decorated former U.S. Marine with four combat tours in Iraq, Rep. Moulton is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government. Featured in the 2007 award-winning documentary "No End in Sight," he asked of us all at the end, "Is this the best that America can do?" Not content to sit on the sidelines and wait for an answer, Mr. Moulton decided to run for office and do something about it.

• Teaching Diplomacy as a Process, Not an Event

  January's issue of The Foreign Service Journal features a piece by ISD Director Barbara Bodine on effective ways to teach diplomacy to the next generation. Amb. Bodine asks, "Diplomacy is a collaborative process over time involving a number of players with differing perspectives and strengths. How does a practitioner convey that in a classroom?"

• 2014 Trainor Award to Amb. Wendy Sherman

  The Honorable Wendy R. Sherman, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, received the Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy and presented a lecture on Sept 16, 2014, on US Policy in the Middle East: Present Course, Future Direction.