U.S. Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Richard Stengel, on Wednesday visited New York University Abu Dhabi, NYUAD, as part of NYU's Diplomacy in Action programme.
Over dinner at NYUAD's Saadiyat campus, Under-Secretary Stengel engaged with over 20 NYUAD students and faculty from a variety of disciplines including political science, history, international relations, social policy, multilateral diplomacy, and middle east studies.
Mr. Stengel addressed the importance of intercultural communications and global education in this interconnected world as well as how an extensive, worldwide flow of information and ideas is central to the process of public diplomacy. Students and faculty had the opportunity to ask questions and inquired about the use of social media in public diplomacy and the influence of public perceptions on the shaping of foreign policies.
In Under-Secretary Stengel's remarks he noted, "NYU Abu Dhabi is certainly a symbol not only of a lasting U.S.-U.A.E. partnership, but also of a shared American and Emirati commitment to academic endeavour and person-to-person engagement and that is critical today and will remain critical well into the future." Richard Stengel was sworn in as Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs on 14 February, 2014. As Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, he provides global strategic leadership of all Department of State public diplomacy and public affairs engagement and oversees the bureaus of Educational and Cultural Affairs, International Information Programmes, and Public Affairs, and the Centre for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications.
Prior to assuming this position, Richard Stengel was the Managing Editor of TIME magazine from 2006 to 2013.
Mr. Stengel also worked with Nelson Mandela on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and later served as an associate producer of the 1996 Oscar-nominated documentary, Mandela. Mr. Stengel received a B.A. from Princeton University and studied English and History as a Rhodes Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford.
NYU Abu Dhabi consists of a highly selective liberal arts and science college (including engineering), and a world centre for advanced research and scholarship, all fully integrated with each other and connected to NYU in New York.
Together, NYU New York, NYU Abu Dhabi, and NYU Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global network university, with faculty and students from each campus spending "semesters away" at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.