Second Executive Course on Subnational Governance and Diplomacy

Overview

The Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University (Washington, DC) will hold the second edition of its Executive Course on the topic of Subnational Governance and Diplomacy on Sept. 9^th-13^th, 2024.

The course, to be held exclusively online, is intended for early- to mid-career professionals affiliated with subnational governments, their coalitions, related NGOs and think tanks, alongside Elliott School graduates. The online 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.

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

• Online sessions will be conducted over Zoom.
• Enrolled students will be given access to a dedicated Blackboard page hosted by George Washington University.

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.

Ian Cameron

Ian Cameron is a Program Assistant for the Transatlantic Program and the Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence. Ian is pursuing an M.A. in European and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University’s Elliott School, where he focuses on European and German politics and foreign policy, the European-Russian relationship, and regional security issues. Ian’s prior professional experiences include an internship with the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, as well as internships with the American Security Project and the American Foreign Policy Council.