Third Executive Course on Subnational Governance and Diplomacy

Overview

The Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University (Washington, DC) will hold the third edition of its Executive Course on the topic of Subnational Governance and Diplomacy on October 23-24, 2025.

The course, to be held in a hybrid format (online and in person), is intended for early- to mid-career professionals affiliated with subnational governments, their coalitions, related NGOs and think tanks, alongside Elliott School graduates. The hybrid format and schedule of the course are designed to facilitate global access to enrollment.

The course will afford participants a unique opportunity to hear cutting-edge presentations from, and (off-the-record) actively engage with a stellar group of practitioners and experts, leading to the award of a formal Elliott School Certificate of Completion.

Enrollment is tuition-free.

The course is organized by the Elliott School’s Transatlantic Program and its European Union Center of Excellence, with the support of the European Commission. This year, the course is co-hosted in partnership with Meridian International Center. 

Course Objectives and Outcomes

The general aim of the course is to refine participants’ practical skillsets and advance their career potential.

By the end of this course, enrolled students will have:

• Improved their professional skillset by exploring and testing best practices in subnational diplomacy and subnational governance. These will pertain both to policy objectives but also enablers such as learning processes, methods of strategic foresight, data-driven decision-making, the architecture of multilateral diplomatic institutions, and the practice of diplomacy.
• Cut across knowledge silos by exploring multiple policy fields in which the influence of subnational governance and diplomacy is especially salient: to include climate change, homeland security, human security/violence reduction, geoeconomics, the defense of liberal-democratic values, sustainable development, and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.
• Cut across layers of governance by exchanging insights from city-, region-, and tribal-level governments among a diversity of national/federal systems; including “asymmetric” interactions between these subnational entities and intergovernmental/supranational multilateral actors such as the European Union.
• Developed a network of leading experts and practitioners in the field of subnational diplomacy and governance, comprising the course’s speakers, other participants, and course alumni.
• Accessed opportunities to publish their insights with the help of course instructors.

Technology Requirements

• Sessions will have a zoom option for online participants.

Course Staff

Erwan Lagadec

Dr. Erwan Lagadec is Associate Research Professor at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), where he leads Elliott School programs on EU and NATO affairs. He is the Director of IERES’ Transatlantic Program and the European Union “Jean-Monnet” Center of Excellence; and he leads a Memorandum of Understanding between the Elliott School and NATO’s Allied Command Transformation. He is also a nonresident senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative and its Europe Program.  He was previously affiliated with Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy; France’s Saint-Cyr Military Academy (he is a former officer in the French Navy Reserve); Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; the University of Virginia-Charlottesville; Tulane University; Harvard University; MIT; the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies; and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. A French-U.S. dual citizen, he holds a D.Phil. in History from the University of Oxford.

Megan Arline

Megan Arline is the Student Program Coordinator of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES). She is currently pursuing an M.A. from the George Washington University in International Affairs with a concentration in International Security, expected May 2026. She earned her B.A. from Michigan State University in International Relations and Comparative Cultures and Politics, with a minor in European Studies. Megan also serves as the President of Professionals in European, Eurasian, and Russian Studies (PEERS) at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University.