International Diplomacy
I have been a fan of international relations since college. In college, I joined AIESEC, an international business student association. The premise of AIESEC was that if we could get local businesses to take an intern from a foreign country to work here, we would be able to send one of our students abroad for an internship that students arranged in another country.
At the time, Schmidt’s Brewery was a big employer. I called on them and they agreed to take an intern.
I had an internship myself at Deutsche Bau und Bodenbank in Frankfurt. I lived in a room over the bank. On evenings and weekends, the local AIESEC committee and interns got together.
A couple of years later, I spent a summer in Japan, working for Sony Corporation. Often, I would burst out laughing, because something that served a purpose in Japan looked so different than something that served the same purpose in the US. For example, at a baseball game in the U.S., typical food might be a hot dog. In Japan, it’s squid on a stick. My supervisor at Sony and I kept in touch for 40 years. He and his family visited with us several times and we visited Japan once to see them.
Nancy and I have hosted Fullbright scholars many times in our home for dinner. The Fullbright program was founded in 1946 to support mutual understanding and the opportunity to get to know people of other cultures. The scholars come to Philadelphia under the auspices of the World Affairs Council who contact local residents to host. We have met scholars from many countries, and they are bright, friendly, polite and well spoken. Exposure to other cultures is broadening so we usually try to invite extended family or friends over so they can share in the experience.
As of February 12, 2025, funding was paused for the Fullbright Program by the US State Department. What a shame! The atmosphere for foreigners to study or visit the US has chilled, so that students who might have studied in the US will now bypass us, and go to Australia, England, France, China or wherever is welcoming.
The US is great at education. It is a product, one that we can produce that is high quality. Many foreign students pay full price or near full price when studying in the US, which benefits many colleges, not only the Ivy League.
Not only is the mutual understanding of other cultures not taking place, but colleges are deprived of that income (which could help our balance of trade).
Visitors to the United States from other countries are a trillion dollar plus business. According to AXIOS, year-over-year March visits of foreigners to the United States are down 18%. Germany, Canada, China and France have issued travel warnings.
What happened to welcoming the stranger, written many times in the old and New Testament?
Sadly, it seems that in a short time on the national level, international diplomacy went out the window in favor of taking any advantage the U.S. can of other countries. Citizens of other countries have not overlooked this. It will take many years for other countries’ citizens to trust the United States again.
You can do your part though. Speak up when you have the opportunity. Demonstrate diplomacy when you are with foreign visitors. You can welcome that stranger.
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