Sustainability Education and Public Diplomacy: A Case Study of the United States Institute on the Environment

Funded by the United States (US) Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the US Institute on the Environment organized by the East-West Center hosted 20 undergraduate and graduate students for a six-week program in May-June 2009. Through involvement in the institute, participants gained an understanding of the environmental movement in the US by engaging advocacy, market, policy, cultural, and scientific approaches to environmental issues and seeing how these approaches are intertwined in the quest for developing sustainable pathways to environmental stewardship. The institute interacted with a diverse range of stakeholders, from government policy and management representatives, activists, educators, and for-profits involved in the broadly defined environmental movement. The curriculum was designed to maximize experiential learning through a variety of exercises and activities that demonstrated the dynamic complexity of environmental stewardship. Education for Sustainable Development provided a framework to design a program with proposed outcomes that include public diplomacy. The take-home lessons of each participant and the long-term cumulative impacts they will have in their respective fields of study and places of residence will ultimately measure the success of this public diplomacy initiative.