Andy Pryce

London's diversity and public diplomacy

I am visiting London this week for some developmental training. I have attended both the Foreign Office's Deputy Heads of Mission course, ran by Ashridge, and the Crisis Leadership Course ran by our impressive consular crisis team. Any readers interested in a career in the Foreign Office should know that we run a first class set of developmental programmes and courses.

London's cosmopolitan nature is striking whenever I return. Only New York comes close to London in its claim to be the world's city. A 2006 survey found that 18% of Londoners use a language other than English in their home. This suggests to me that many Londoners maintain close ties to their home countries. As a public diplomacy practitioner, I wonder if this represents a communication opportunity. Are the ties that Londoners, or New Yorkers for that matter, have with other countries the type that allow influence at home? I understand that the Smith-Mundt Act prevents the US from undertaking this type of activity at domestically. But do readers see a benefit in engaging local communities with close ties to other countries?

By the way, I would not agree with the definition of public diplomacy given in the Wikipedia entry on Smith-Mundt.

Posted at 10:28 27 October 2008 by Andy Pryce  |  Comments[1]

Exchange, exchange, exchange

A number of Embassy colleagues attended a workshop at the Brookings Institution over the summer that looked at shared transatlantic policy priorities and public diplomacy. The workshop concluded that there would be most benefit from Europe and the US working together to strengthen the systematic acquisition of political capital and and trust through young leadership programmes, educational and proffesional exchanges and international public events on shared concerns.

Gordon Brown wrote on this theme during his April visit to the US. It would take be some time to record all the misconceptions that I held about the US before I came to live here as a 21 year old junior diplomat. My experiences have convinced me of the value that exchanges can have. This year's class of Marshall Scholars has just headed off to the UK.  The British Council network of young leaders, TN2020, is about to have its first summit in Dublin and Belfast. Over the coming months I will be looking for opportunities widen UK and US exchanges - I have been talking to a few think-tanks about how to do this. I would be very interested to hear the views and ideas of readers. 

Posted at 16:44 30 September 2008 by Andy Pryce  |  Comments[2]

Footie, 15 years and cultural convergence

I arrived back in Washington with my family last October after a 15 year gap. The US and the DC region have changed in immeasurable ways since the early nineties. Many of our previous cultural references are now invalid. Seinfeld was THE comedy when we left, everyone knew what you were referring to when you mentioned "The Soup Nazi". Downtown DC was still recovering from the riots in the late 60s - there is now a vibrant, thriving downtown area around the Verizon center. Northern Virginia was pretty homogenous - it is now a lot more diverse and interesting. Perhaps more importantly to me though - you can now get footie (soccer) on cable TV.
 
I am an avant Liverpool fan. If I was living at home I would have a season pass like my brother. I read fansites and forums such as The Rattle every day.  

This weekend we play that lot from Manchester in England's biggest domestic soccer game. Fox Soccer Channel tells me their audience for British Football is continually growing - so much so that they are soon to be listed on the Nielsen ratings. This brings up the question of cultural convergence. Is the UK becoming more like the US (as many academic, I suppose pundits, say) and the US a little bit more like the UK? It's a difficult question for me to answer. My family is trans-atlantic in nature. I am equally at home at a baseball game over here as I am at a footie (soccer) game in the UK. Has our partially shared culture, sporting or otherwise impacted US and UK values? I grew up watching the A Team and Charlie's Angels in the UK - my predecessors' were do doubt partially moulded by Hemingway and Arthur Miller, their US counterparts by Olivier's Henry V. Can we measure the relationship between the degree of convergence in values and maybe policy against cultural penetration? Will our unique relationship with the US deepen if Liverpool put four past that lot tomorrow?

Posted at 07:30 15 September 2008 by Andy Pryce  |  Comments[1]