In January, 2024, the IAUNRC supported the IU Muslim Voices Public Scholarship Project in hosting Dr. Craig Dicker for a talk titled "State Department Public Diplomacy Initiatives Aimed at Muslim Populations." Dicker, a former US Public Diplomacy Officer with experience working in cross-cultural relations in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Turkey, India, and South Africa, focused his talk on the challenges of ensuring longevity for bilateral development initiatives in business, technology, and human rights.
The effects of the September 11th terrorist attacks directed US State Department attention toward increased cultural exchange and soft-policy engagement, especially within global Muslim communities. The State Department created several academic and professional fellowships, programs, and development initiatives – such as the Fulbright family of scholarships and the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) – in order to mend what was perceived as a high level of disillusionment with US public relations and diplomacy. Though the design philosophy of these programs intended to expand perceptions of the United States as a Muslim-integrated national population, soft diplomacy initiatives inadvertently privileged cultivating intellectual capital over maintaining longevity for community development. Consequently, as Dr. Dicker learned through his personal experience, many of the opportunities for multicultural engagement place the impetus on host communities to contribute to US interests, a problematic tendency that led to a loss of irreplaceable resources and intellectual potential. Attendees participated in a discussion about potential short-and-long-term solutions to ensure more cross-cultural agency in exchange initiatives.
The IAUNRC is proud to support dialogue on issues of cross-cultural agency and representation. We look forward to further collaboration with the Muslim Voices Public Scholarship Project in the future.