Weiser Diplomacy Center

Michigan will hold elections on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, and the Ford School strongly encourages all eligible voters to make their voices heard.

Students will be able to participate in a Q&A in regards to Sasha Ingber's national security expertise that ranges from covering the collapse of Afghanistan to her efforts in the non-profit sector. 

Experts from the Autonomous National University of Mexico, University of Toronto, and University of Michigan discussed the local and transnational factors giving rise to far-right social movements and policies in each country. 

Amid continuing uncertainties around the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan, journalists Robin Wright and Jawad Sukhanyar will give their perspectives on the evolving situation, in conversation with Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House.

Ambassador Fried and Dr. Brudzinska discuss recent developments in central and eastern Europe and U.S. Biden administration foreign policy approach with a particular focus on challenges to democracy.

The series, open to U-M students, faculty, and staff, is designed to foster dialogue on important issues of U.S. public policy. Facilitated by faculty discussants Susan Page and Javed Ali, this session focuses on the need for diversity in one of the nation’s oldest government agencies. 

In this workshop, students will break into small groups, each tasked with determining U.S. preferences for the basic structure of the Strategic Stability Dialogue, its conduct, and its mandate and agenda.

Through this International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise students will learn about the conflict in the Jammu and Kashmir region and be tasked with using diplomacy to address a variety of issues regarding this long-standing conflict.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun and Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, discuss the state of relations between the United States and Russia. 

The official start of the school year, welcome week and orientation activities at the Ford School give new master's students the opportunity to meet and engage with peers, faculty, and staff, and begin the process of preparing for the academic year.

IEDP presents a conversation with Dr. Roselyne Akombe, Governance and Peacebuilding Regional Coordinator at UNDP's Regional Service Centre for Africa.

Speakers propose a new theory detailing how disciplined, mechanized forces’ increased personal protection affords them decision space to apply greater restraint in tactical engagements.

Applications for Diplomacy Lab can now be submitted for Fall 2021 semester. 

During this workshop, students will each take on the role of a key stakeholder and participate in a community deliberation activity.

Graduate students from more than 80 universities around Americas, Middle East, Africa and Europe will address pandemic in virtual NASPAA-Batten student simulation competition developed by the Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming. 

This event will feature Dr. Vivian S. Walker, Executive Director of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, in conversation with Professor John Ciorciari, Director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan, with a welcome address by Rejaul Karim Laskar, representing the Global Forum for Scholars & Practitioners of Diplomacy. 

The Weiser Diplomacy Center is partnering with the American Academy of Diplomacy to bring seasoned U.S. diplomats to Ford School and discuss the future of U.S. foreign policy after presidential election 2020.

Join us for a virtual conversation co-hosted by the Gulf International Forum featuring Dr. Dania Thafer, Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum (GIF), Abbas Khadim, Director of Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council and General Anthony C. Zinni, former United States Marine Corps general in conversation with Ambassador Patrick Theros. 

The 2020 United States presidential election will be held Tuesday, November 3, 2020. (Polling location times vary by state)

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Bui Hai Thiem, a research manager at the Institute for Legislative Studies, National Assembly Standing Committee of Vietnam, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at Kyoto University's Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Wai Wai Nu, a former political prisoner and the founder and Executive Director of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar.

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Kinga Brudzinska, Program Director of Future of Europe for GLOBSEC Policy Institute in conversation with John Ciorciari, director of Weiser Diplomacy Center. They will discuss major trends, challenges and opportunities for supporting democracy in central and eastern Europe—particularly the “V4” countries of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. This event is open to all University of Michigan students.    

The Ford School and the Weiser Diplomacy Center invite all University of Michigan students to join us for a presidential debate debrief with Ambassador Susan Page and Associate Professor John Ciorciari.

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Dr. Babajide Ololajulo, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Dr. Patrick Cobbinah, Urban Planning Academic in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, in conversation with Justine M. Davis, LSA Collegiate Fellow in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) at the University of Michigan.

Join us for a conversation on current relations between the United States and China and possible paths forward given COVID and the upcoming U.S. elections. Panelists will include Kenneth Lieberthal, senior fellow emeritus at Brookings, Mary Gallagher, professor of political science, and Ann Lin, associate professor of public policy. Ford School Dean Michael Barr will moderate the discussion. 

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Jason Carter, Chairman of the Carter Center Board of Trustees, Ms. Narcis Scope, Chief Elections Officer, Elections and Boundaries Commission of Trinidad and Tobago representing CARICOM, and Ms. Pauline Chase from Guyana Bar Association in conversation with Ambassador Susan Page, Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy discussing about the Guyana Electoral Observation Mission (EOM).

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Amy Studdart, senior advisor at the International Republican Institute, where she leads the organization's digital democracy programming, in conversation with Associate Professor John Ciorciari, director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center about two case examples of combating misinformation while promoting open online spaces, in Taiwan and Venezuela.   

The inaugural Ford/CREES U.S.-Russia Future Leaders Professional Development Workshop will be led by Jill Dougherty, (BA Russian ’70), Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Matt Dippell, Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Programs at the National Democratic Institute in conversation with Associate Professor John Ciorciari, director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center.

This Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture will examine the nexus between labor rights and trade—a crucial topic as U.S. and global trade arrangements are being renegotiated. It will feature a conversation between two experts who have long worked to advance worker’s rights in the context of global trade—Dr. Bama Athreya, a visiting policy expert at the Weiser Diplomacy Center, and Ford School Professor of Practice Sander Levin. 

Please join us for a Career Talk & Seminar with Eric Beinhart and Gregory Ducot from U.S. Department of Justice in conversation with Associate Professor John Ciorciari, director of Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center about the Practice of International Development.