Government students engage with top diplomats at Chinese, Polish embassies

At least once each semester, Liberty University’s Helms School of Government shuttles students to Washington, D.C., to tour an embassy and engage with its top officials on cultural differences, current events affecting both countries, and career advice for aspiring diplomats.

Last week, the School of Government made its second excursion to the Chinese embassy and its first trip to the Polish embassy. Former trips have included the Israeli, Swedish, and Russian embassies.

“The students were able to see a tangible manifestation of the art of diplomacy,” said Associate Professor of Government Scott Roenicke, who previously served in a 32-year career as a senior policy maker at the Pentagon. “Oftentimes, U.S. diplomacy is not reflective of key elements necessary for success — those being the ability to listen to someone on key issues about which you disagree, and the capacity to extract out emotionalism in order to find areas of commonality. Our student delegation discussed some challenging issues with our Chinese Government hosts, but I believe we found common ground on some key issues.”

“The optimal outcome of bilateral diplomacy is not to allow ourselves to devolve into the use of military force; it’s the continued employment of diplomacy for as long as possible to achieve mutually beneficial resolution,” he added. “I think the students were able to witness diplomacy in action and the skill sets required to facilitate that.”

Following a brief tour of the Chinese embassy, students were hosted by Minister Counselor Liu Pengyu, the head of the embassy’s Information Department. Students had the opportunity to question the senior diplomat and his delegation on European and Pacific security issues, the importance of diplomacy, the future of bilateral relations, and artificial intelligence, among other topics.

At the Polish embassy, students heard from Minister Counselor Adrian Chrobot and his embassy team colleagues. Polish diplomats answered students’ questions and provided insights to students on life as a diplomat, including the challenges and benefits of the job.

“I really want to commend Professor Roenicke because this experience was really invaluable. It was just amazing,” said sophomore international relations student Michaela Campbell. “For me, the biggest takeaway is just seeing how different the Chinese and Polish embassies were in terms of their cultures, mannerisms, and values.”

“None of my friends from other colleges have been able to take trips like this, so it is a really cool opportunity,” said sophomore national securities studies student Ryan Mapes. “I am more comfortable with diplomats now because I have gone on a couple of these trips. It has given us some real-world experience. It takes the lessons Roenicke teaches beyond the classroom and shows us how it works in real life.”

With a mission to produce the next generation of diplomats wholly aligned with a Christian worldview, Liberty’s School of Government offers degrees in Criminal Justice, International Relations, Law and Policy, and more.

“The emerging threats to U.S. national security are going to be extremely complex and severely disruptive to American society,” Roenicke said. “We need to provide opportunities like this that develop capable diplomats from among our students so they can address these challenges effectively in the future. That’s what we’re about at the Helms School: producing future U.S. government officials who have the capacity to not only deal with these emerging challenges but also to resolve them.”