Carlos Elizondo, White House social secretary and longtime aide to first lady Jill Biden, was among the guests at the Meridian International Center’s annual celebration of embassy social secretaries and cultural attachés.
Our audiences and artists are increasingly ready to return and have overwhelmingly done the right thing by getting vaccinated. The thing rooted in respect. Now our venues across the D.C. region should very carefully consider doing the same.
As Iran threatens Western shipping interests in the Persian Gulf, Lebanon’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse and COVID-19 kills thousands every day throughout the Middle East, one major geopolitical story is being overlooked: Turkey’s gradual rapprochement with Israel.
After 28 years at the Inter-American Dialogue and 12 years as its president, Michael Shifter is leaving at the end of 2021, just as the region faces some of its darkest days in modern history.
More than two centuries after its epic victory over the French army of Napoleon by the ragtag army of former slaves, Haiti is still seeking to redeem its heroic gamble.
More than 70 guests representing over 20 countries—including ambassadors and other VIPs— came together July 15 for a night of art and food to celebrate the opening of Embassy Row’s newest “in place to be.”
With the flags of the European Union, Lithuania, Belarus and the United States as a backdrop, a group of diplomats and lawmakers on July 21 inaugurated the bipartisan Friends of Belarus Congressional Caucus. Their goal: to bring down Europe’s last dictatorship.
On July 15, Sonia Guzmán, the country’s new ambassador to the United States, hosted a reception at her Washington, D.C., residence to promote both products. At the event, some 120 guests enjoyed premium cigars while sampling top Dominican rums, as well as coffee and chocolate.
Since Christopher Columbus first disembarked on the island of Cuba in the 15th century and brought infectious disease on an unsuspecting population, foreigners have dictated Cuba’s destiny. Irrespective of which great power was at play, all have pursued a similar course of action: Might is right. Little has changed in the intervening centuries.
Ambassador of the European Union to the U.S. Stavros Lambrinidis participated in a wide-ranging discussion with Anna Gawel on Global 360, produced by The Washington Diplomat, on July 8.
On June 19, Little Lady Liberty embarked on a similar trek that her big sister took 135 years ago, crossing the Atlantic to join her full-size sibling on Ellis Island for America’s Independence Day. She was then trucked to D.C. to be displayed on the lawn of the French ambassador’s residence just in time for France’s Bastille Day.
As President Biden remarked at the recent G7 summit to fellow world leaders “America is back.” While the United States is seeking to deepen relationship around the world, digital diplomacy has a pivotal role to play in influencing key decision makers at the White, State Department and on Capitol Hill. Digital media offers a low-cost way to engage, persuade and influence the citizens of allies and adversaries.
Round House Theatre — which has produced numerous virtual plays during the pandemic — cautiously invited a limited, masked and socially distanced audience back into the building for its production of “We’re Gonna Die” and filmed it for digital streaming audiences.
Mexico has its tequila, France its champagne and Cyprus its haloumi cheese. Yet some national dishes have inevitably led to squabbling. Israel and Lebanon both claim hummus as their own; Chile and Peru have argued for more than a century over which nation concocted the pisco sour.
I set out to argue that the pandemic has had a “positive” effect on diplomacy. I do so fully aware that I could have always resorted to the overused adjective “interesting” to describe that very effect, perhaps more diplomatically. The purpose remains to give a brief account of the beneficial impact of the pandemic on the digitalization of diplomacy and how that ultimately led diplomats to become more aware than ever before of the nature, significance and peculiarity of their work.
As the delta variant of COVID-19 rips across the globe—driving infection rates to record highs throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia—Caribbean leaders are pleading with the Biden administration for vaccines in order to avert total economic catastrophe.
