Webinar to focus on reinventing diplomacy, U.S. Foreign Service

Marc Grossman, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, under secretary of state for political affairs and special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will speak at a webinar at noon Oct. 28.

The presentation is sponsored by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance and the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center.

The webinar, “Reinventing U.S. Diplomacy: A Foreign Service for the 21st Century,” will address ways to build stronger connections between American citizens and U.S. foreign policy decision makers. Drawing upon his 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Grossman will discuss how this can be accomplished through a Harvard University initiative he is involved with called the American Diplomacy Project. He will also share his perspective on why citizen input to reform the Foreign Service is so important.

The conversation is timely, as many Nebraskans expressed a desire to bridge the gap between their everyday reality and the way in which U.S. foreign policy objectives are defined in a recent report on Nebraskans’ perceptions of U.S. foreign policy. The report was developed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in partnership with the Yeutter Institute and the Bureau of Business Research at Nebraska, along with the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center.

The webinar is free and open to the public. Students, faculty and anyone interested in U.S. foreign policy are encouraged to attend. Registration is required and can be completed here. The webinar will be conducted via Zoom, and audience members will have the opportunity to submit questions.

The event is part of the Thomas C. Sorensen Policy Seminar Series with support from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Thomas C. Sorensen Endowment.