Diplomacy Lab gives students a voice in U.S. foreign affairs
It isn’t every day that Virginia Tech students can help shape U.S. foreign policy. The Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab program makes that possible.
Virginia Tech is among about 60 U.S. academic institutions to partner with the department since it launched the program in 2013. In addition to expanding the department’s research base, the program enables students to contribute to the policymaking process by conducting in-depth analyses of global issues and drafting official government recommendation reports.
“There’s a hope of both the Department of State and us that the results of our projects, or at least some of them, actually become permanent foreign policy of the United States,” said Virginia Tech's Diplomacy Lab Director Robert Hodges.
Virginia Tech’s Diplomacy Lab is as a three-credit political science course. Each year, the State Department releases more than 100 potential research projects to partner institutions like Virginia Tech. The topics vary but often involve climate, urban planning, human rights, cybersecurity, international studies, post-war reconstruction, and more.
Hodges bids on the topics he believes best align with his students’ interests and professional aspirations. Then, student teams conduct research, produce written reports, and prepare presentations. After Hodges assigns a topic to a team, students gather weekly to discuss their research, often meeting online with State Department officials to garner feedback. At the end of the semester, teams that produce excellent results are invited to share their recommendations in person.
During the spring semester, four Virginia Tech teams traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their policy recommendations to State Department officials. There, they made the case for their proposals by outlining the expected benefits and addressing potential challenges. Each team also provided a formal written report.
“Every Diplomacy Lab project starts with just a paragraph on paper,” said Jason Brown, who recently graduated with a master’s degree in political science. “You never know where it’s going to end.”
In late April, he and his team presented nine recommendations for expanding the benefits of subnational diplomacy to the State Department’s Subnational Diplomacy Unit. According to the team’s report, subnational diplomacy represents an “underutilized yet increasingly critical form of foreign policy engagement.” Subnational diplomacy refers to international relations conducted at the local or state level. The unit coordinates the department’s work with local, state, and international officials to bring U.S. foreign policy benefits, such as jobs and investments, to local and state governments.
Brown’s team identified cities with official foreign policy operations, analyzed trends, and highlighted system gaps. Team members also identified best practices of the most successful U.S. cities and created recommendations to replicate them. Among their recommendations, team members suggested cities create formal subnational task forces. After their presentation, team members were asked to create best-practice training materials to share with diplomats traveling across the U.S.
“We want to see this form of diplomacy grow because we know how vital and important it is,” said Brown, who was the project’s manager.
His team was made up of eight undergraduate students, including Lindsay Lindquist, a recent political science graduate and a research assistant for the project. While she was involved in three other Diplomacy Lab projects at Virginia Tech, she said creating a framework for the unit to explain subnational diplomacy to others was especially meaningful. She believes the team’s research can be used as a launchpad to find solutions to society’s most pressing issues.
“How can subnational diplomacy be used to answer drug trafficking? To answer climate change? To answer these very important questions?” Lindquist said. “We did the framework for that. It’s really cool.”
Hodges said watching students build confidence as they develop new skill sets is the most rewarding aspect of directing the program.
“I’ve had some really quiet students who got up there and were just rock stars,” he said. “To see them understand how to do research in a different way and think in a different way and speak a different language to the academic setting, it’s just amazing.”
As part of the experience, State Department officials guide students through the agency's job application process.
After graduation “we’ve had several students either work for the Department of State, or work for contractors that work for the Department of State,” Hodges said. “The biggest thing the program does is it exposes students to the department and all the different things that they can do.”
Colten Ramsey, who recently graduated with his master’s degree in public and international affairs, was a research assistant for the project.
“It's incredibly exciting, because I definitely want to go into the State Department and be a diplomat,” Ramsey said. “I’m scheduled to take the Field Service Officer Test in June. So this experience is a little like a dream.”
Meanwhile, Brown recently started a job as a media analyst for a D.C.-based government consulting firm.
He said the real-world experience he gained through Diplomacy Lab is invaluable.
“To have the opportunity to meet with officials face to face and have conversations about what they're doing at a professional level, and what we're doing at an academic level, and how those two worlds blend to create actual policy and recommendations, it was an experience that you can't get anywhere else,” Brown said.
Brown said the experience is also special because of the alumni network it builds.
“We were all strangers at the beginning of this project, but now they are nine of my closest supporters,” Brown said of his team. “I know that these people, no matter where I am or where they end up, are more than just a connection on LinkedIn.”
