WorldView Magazine: Foreign Policy

June 17, 2025

The Domestic Dividend: Part II

It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye coined the term “soft power,” but Peace Corps fit Nye’s description: a foreign policy tool that achieves desired outcomes through attraction rather than coercion.

May 9, 2025

Conflicts to Watch in 2025

Every year, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) releases its Conflicts to Watch report, and the 2025 edition is an alarming look at where tensions could boil over. From Ukraine and Russia to rising instability in the Sahel and growing U.S.-China tensions over Taiwan, this year’s list warns of conflicts that could shape global security.

May 9, 2025

Americans Need to Know

The Peace Corps, simply put, helps improve the U.S.’s image worldwide, writes RPCV and Professor of Government and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University Thomas J Nisley in The Conversation.

April 18, 2022

What Happens When Diplomats Fail to Understand the History of Nations Where They Serve — from the Perspective of the People in Those Nations?

History Shock When History Collides with Foreign Relations By John Dickson University of Kansas Press   Reviewed by Nathalie Vadnais   John Dickson gleans insights from 25 years as a foreign service officer, much of which included hard lessons that came from not having a deeper knowledge of a host country’s history. That leads time and again to what he terms “history shock,” wherein dramatically different interpretations of history have blocked diplomatic understanding and cooperation. Dickson served with the Peace Corps in Gabon 1976–79 before joining the U.S. Information Agency in 1984; he later served with the State Department when the two...

May 14, 2021

Three Pioneers

First Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the State Department. Chief Economist for U.S. Department of Labor. And Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department.   Photo: Janelle Jones   “We are at a particular time in America, and the world is watching us,” Gina Abercrombie- Winstanley said after being appointed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to her new role. That would be the first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer for the State Department. In January at State, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Jalina Porter also set precedent — when she became the first Black woman appointed as principal deputy spokesperson. Returned Volunteer...

December 23, 2020

We are the messengers of what Peace Corps is and can be

In a keynote address for the Franklin H. Williams Award ceremony, Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley recounts the opportunities she helped create — and the resistances she faced — as an African American woman serving in the Peace Corps and in the U.S. Foreign Service.   By Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley   On December 15, 2020, the Peace Corps recognized six leaders in the Peace Corps community — and a civic leader with a shared commitment to Peace Corps values — with the Franklin H. Williams Award. The keynote address was delivered by Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, whose pathbreaking career in the Foreign Service has created new opportunities and possibilities for women and minorities....

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