USIP's Tara Sonenshine talks with a group of students studying public diplomacy from USC. 

USC Students Visit USIP, Talk Public Diplomacy

Graduate students from the Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California visited USIP headquarters to tour the building and discuss public diplomacy with USIP’s Executive Vice President Tara Sonenshine on February 9, 2012. Sonenshine, nominated to be the undersecretary for Public Diplomacy at the U.S. State Department, explained the way she sees the world during a wide-ranging conversation with the students as one stop in a series of their visits to agencies around Washington in early February.

Sonenshine told the students she believes public diplomacy is an opportunity to shape the way people think and feel about America and that she hopes to advance the American narrative in terms of a broad range of themes, from women to entrepreneurial empowerment to national security, countering violent extremism and expanding our understanding – and our message – throughout the world, particularly in the Asia Pacific.

The work USIP does to prevent and manage violent conflict intersects in many ways with the charge Sonenshine will be given when she assumes the position at the State Department, just across the street.

As she contemplates her new job, if confirmed, she says she looks at the assignment as “whole-of-government agency,” not just as one organization. “The key is not to get trapped into seeing it as the State Department, or the Pentagon, but in finding your way around the mission, and not so much its layers of bureaucracy.”

Asked by one student how to find the job you’re really good at, Sonenshine, a former contributing editor at Newsweek and editorial producer of ABC’s Nightline, said she likes to give people the “Barnes and Noble Test:” what section would they find themselves drawn to if dropped into a bookstore. That can tell someone so much about what they want to do with their lives.

“I think it’s important to follow your passion,” she said. 

Ann-Louise Colgan on the far left is pictured with graduate students studying public diplomacy from the University of Southern California in front of the main reception desk at USIP.

Public diplomacy students from the University of Southern California at USIP for a conversation with Executive Vice President Tara Sonenshine in February pictured with USIP's Ann-Louise Colgan.

The group also had an opportunity to hear about USIP's public education work and to see a preview of the multimedia exhibits of the Global Peacebuilding Center.

Related Publications

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

Monday, March 25, 2024

By: Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps

In the past few years, life in Haiti has been dominated by gangs’ growing control over huge swathes of the capital, Port-au-Prince. For Haitian families, this crisis has meant extreme violence, pervasive unemployment, lack of education for children and reduced access to health care. 2023 Women Building Peace Award finalist Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps serves as the deputy executive director, the head of the women's health program and the manager of the clinical research unit of GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince. She spoke to USIP about how her work helps women and their families, and what the global community can do to help Haitian civil society address this devastating humanitarian crisis.

Type: Blog

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGender

Myanmar’s Fateful Conscription Law

Myanmar’s Fateful Conscription Law

Monday, February 26, 2024

By: Ye Myo Hein

Earlier this month, Myanmar’s ruling junta enacted a compulsory conscription law that had been dormant since 2010. General Guan Maw, a leader of the Kachin Independence Organization, greeted the junta's decision by comparing it to the 2021 military coup: "If February 1, 2021, was the beginning of the end, the law enforced on February 10, 2024, can be said to mark the end of the end.” As popular reactions to the new conscription plan roll out across the country, General Guan Maw’s pronouncement becomes increasingly prescient.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Report of the Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

Report of the Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

Monday, February 19, 2024

By: USIP Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its four partner countries in the Indo-Pacific—Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and New Zealand—have entered a period of increased engagement. This engagement is taking shape in the context of the war waged by the Russian Federation (Russia) against Ukraine, NATO’s growing awareness of the security challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China (China), and important structural changes in the international system, including the return of strategic competition between the United States and China and Russia. It is occurring not only in bilateral NATO-partner relations but also between NATO and these Indo-Pacific countries as a group.

Type: Report

Conflict Analysis & PreventionCivilian-Military RelationsGlobal PolicyMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

View All Publications