The Obama Administration’s “smart power” approach to foreign policy
is being well received abroad. In a period of severe budget
constraints, volunteering has the considerable advantage of being a
low-cost option. A bold approach that makes multilateral
volunteering one of the pillars of U.S. foreign policy can make a
major contribution to U.S. national security in a rapidly changing
world.
From “Service Nation” to “Service World”
• Over the past year the Time Magazine hosted Service Nation Summit
engaged both Presidential contenders and paved the way for the
Kennedy Serve America Act, a “quantum leap” in domestic service
signed into law in May by President Obama.
• The Building Bridges Coalition of over 200 NGOs, faith-based
groups, universities and corporations, National Peace Corps
Association, and the International Volunteering Initiative at
Brookings, together with key figures from the Service Nation
coalition, have joined forces to expand this success in scaling
domestic volunteering to the international level with increased
innovation and impact. The Service World initiative will couple
international service policy development with a broad-based civic
engagement campaign timed with 2010-2011 initiatives commemorating
the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and the UN tenth anniversary of
the International Year of Volunteers.
• As the world’s most open and multicultural nation, the United
States has an immense advantage in building bridges to people
around the world. Volunteering is the most cost-efficient way of
building these bridges. In the current global economic crisis,
volunteering can play a unique role in enhancing the spirit of
community and collaboration across nations.
BBC is proud to be a co-sponsor of Service World. Service World is
a new policy planning process which aims to bring global service to
a higher plateau in American foreign policy and its approach to the
world. Policy ideas for ServiceWorld are being collected on this
website. If your organization is interested in providing input into
the development of a Service World policy agenda, please send
ideas, description of innovative programs and best practices, and
recommendations on funding them by June 30 to the attention of Jack
Sibley at
jsibley@globalpeaceservice.org.
Use the following links to learn more about the ideas we have so
far.
GLOBAL
INITIATIVES
REGIONAL AND ISSUE INITIATIVES
RESEARCH INITIATIVES