GlocalNet

Wherever I’ve spoken the past couple of months, I’ve been asked a lot about where to begin to understand diplomacy, foreign relations, and global engagement for people just starting out. Believe it or not, the Bible isn’t a bad place! Read Daniel, Genesis, Esther, Ruth, Jonah, Nehemiah, and the list goes on.  Have a tablet and write down lessons on diplomacy from the Bible. You can gleen a lot of principles just from those books.

For magazines, I read Foreign Affairs put out by the Center for Foreign Relations and The National Interest along with some that may catch my eye when I’m in Barnes and Nobles--depending on the authors. BUT, for Christians and non-Christians, the best magazine, hands down, that deals with faith and foreign affairs is Faith and International Affairs put out by the Council on Faith and International Affairs at www.cfia.org. Dennis Hoover is a passionate follower of Jesus.  He was educated at Messiah University and Oxford University in England. In other words, he’s smart, very smart! He is also a part of the Institute for Global Engagement. His background and education make him uniquely qualified to write, as well as pull writers with differing view points together to write on specific subjects.

For books, here are three I just finished that are just incredible. I recommend them to you. The Home We Build Together - Jonathan Sacks, Founding Faith - Steven Waldman, and The Case for Civility - Os Guiness. All 3 deal with faith and civil society and implications for us today.

One thing, though, is very interesting to me--there are those who talk and those who do. When you start reading all this stuff it’s fascinating and you can wind up having conferences on this and that and yak and yak and yak and never do anything. As the Grand Mufti of Bosnia told me, “After 60 years of talking, it leads to little, it’s time to do!”