TwinCities.com reports that the failing economy, along with the promise of new partnerships abroad the Obama admininstration brings, is leading many young people to pursue the Foreign Service. What I liked in this article, even more than the fact that so many people are interested in serving abroad that the Foreign Service exam reached its “worldwide scheduling limit” in February, is that young Americans who don’t have extensive experience overseas (and who often live in smaller, less “international” American cities) are feeling the call to pursue a career in international affairs:
“People are getting more excited about foreign policy,” said Erica Tun, a 24-year-old public-relations specialist from Fort Wayne, Ind., who registered to take the exam this month. “There is a president who is interested in making the nation more global.”
Tun, who has applied for a position in the public diplomacy track, which focuses on defining America’s image abroad, first considered the Foreign Service just a few months ago, when she found an online job posting as the presidential election reached a fever pitch.
“It piqued my curiosity,” she said. “I always had the interest but didn’t have a way to focus my energy.”
For Tun, who has not traveled beyond the Virgin Islands and Canada, the Foreign Service represents an opportunity to explore the world beyond her hometown.
I recently stumbled upon an commentary from a Melbourne-based newspaper who aptly surmised that the U.S.
” . . . like a recognition of a long lost truth, to Obama’s statements that nations “of relative plenty … can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect”. Obama understands, and Americans are beginning to grasp, the implications of a globalised world. We may be witnessing the birth of a more politically cosmopolitan, internationalist America, not just in the mind of its President, but the consciousness of its people.” (http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/cooperation-can-be-a-powerful-tool-20090123-7onk.html?page=-1)
The term ‘politically cosmopolitan’ perhaps best describes the change of environment in the U.S. from an inward looking to outward looking one, starting with the new administration. Could it be a trickle down effect?
Ooh, this organization might be of interest: http://www.iipt.org/ – The International Institute for Peace through Tourism.
Thanks for the link to IIPT, Joanne. It looks interesting.
And I think you might be right about the trickle down effect, though it’s such a paradoxical time in terms of Americans becoming more internationally engaged and “politically cosmopolitan:” we’re ripe to much more internationally conscious and globally aware as a whole, especially with Obama leading us; yet as the economy continues to the crapper, I fear we’ll focus only on our internal well-being and continue to say that what’s going on outside our borders doesn’t matter nearly as much as making sure things within our borders are stable. And of course I can understand that sentiment—it’s certainly not unreasonable for all people to want their own country and home to be safe and secure and prosperous—but I just hope Americans realize that it’s okay to think domestically and internationally at the same time, and in fact these days it’s necessary to do so.