University Named Diplomacy Lab Partner

The U.S. Department of State has designated the University of Pittsburgh as a partner in the federal department’s Diplomacy Lab. Pitt joins other participating universities in this initiative, managed by the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Partnerships, which provides graduate and undergraduate students with opportunities to conduct research related to real-world foreign policy challenges.

Launched by Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013, the Diplomacy Lab is a public-private research program that allows the State Department to engage the American people in the work of diplomacy and to tap an underutilized reservoir of intellectual capital at universities.

The collaboration means that Pitt students can launch Diplomacy Lab projects specifically connected to scholarship at the University’s Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, the University Center for International Studies, or from elsewhere across campus. The Ridgway Center’s strengths include expertise and research on weapons nonproliferation, transnational organized crime, and countering violent extremism.

“It makes great sense for the State Department to tap into the expertise in international security issues at a time when society faces a series of complex global challenges and problems,” said Phil Williams, director of the Ridgway Center.