For over fifty years, Sesame Street has proven itself capable of adapting to different cultures and celebrating diversity. In fact, Sesame Street has become the longest street in the world—reaching and teaching children in 150 countries around the world.  This session will examine how Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, uses the power of media and Muppets to bring proven, locally-tailored early education to millions of children around the world across languages and cultures, while addressing challenging topics like public health, HIV awareness, and the global refugee crisis. This session will also touch on the advocacy aims of Sesame Street, and the impact that their unique programming has had in the field of education.

The Soft Power & Cultural Diplomacy Study Group is designed for anyone interested in learning more about these two topics in addressing foreign relations. Over the course of four sessions, participants will become familiar with the history of cultural diplomacy and will better understand how the power of the arts has repeatedly been deployed by governments to help achieve foreign policy objectives. The group will analyze historical examples and hear from current practitioners. Furthermore, the group will be asked to envision future uses of cultural diplomacy as a tactic for addressing current foreign policy challenges.

Key Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of cultural diplomacy and its relevance to the government and artistic sector.
• Learn about important global cultural diplomacy initiatives and analyze their outcomes.
• Explore the use of cultural diplomacy and soft power as tools to further U.S. foreign policy objectives.
• Understand public diplomacy and how it differs from cultural diplomacy
• Assess present-day foreign affairs and national security challenges in a cultural context, and consider how cultural diplomacy and soft power can play a role in seeking resolutions.
• Discuss why cultural diplomacy is not always successful and what can be done to prevent this from happening.

Study Group Facilitators: 

• Carla Dirlikov Canales, United States Department of State Cultural Envoy, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow (carla_dirlikovcanales@harvard.edu)
• Erika Manouselis, Research and Administrative Manager, Future of Diplomacy Project (Erika_manouselis@hks.harvard.edu)

Nearly 20 years since 9/11 and we have not vanquished the appeal of extremist ideology. Groups are still recruiting youth in every part of the world, and today a real strategy to deal with the rise of hate and extremism is not on policy agendas. Whether white supremacists or the so called Islamic State, extremists have mastered selling their narratives despite the fact that solutions to this threat are available right now. 

IOP Resident Fellow, S’14 and Belfer Fellow Farah Pandith, Anti-Defamation League George Selim, Harvard Kennedy School’s Eric Rosenbach, and Juliette Kayyem '91 consider how to combat domestic and international extremism.