On Tuesday afternoon, in a corner room of the Terry Sanford School of Public Policy that is regularly filled with students, a group of Chinese government officials were participating in a mock debate.
These officials, including members of different Chinese ministries and a member of the Chinese Supreme Court, were deliberating the merits of last year’s American auto bailout.
As a part of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs program, this group has attended programs at Sanford for the Fall, and will continue to do so until mid-December. This is the sixth year that Chinese officials have studied at Duke. SAFEA is part of the Duke Center for International Development’s Executive Education programs.
Joe Tham, Executive Education co-director, said Duke works with countries to design programs that suit the officials’ needs. He said the initiatives bring in faculty from departments such as political science and economics to educate the officials.
“This is a chance for us to teach senior government officials about public policy issues,” Tham said. “I think it’s a win-win for both sides because the Duke faculty have a chance to interact with the foreign government officials, and they in turn learn from us.”
Since 2001, the DCID has offered advice to countries through its Executive Education programs. In 2004, Duke first provided customized programs to foreign officials from countries like China, India, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia. Duke professors educate the officials on issues such as public policy and conflict resolution.
DCID Director Francis Lethem said the officials should leave Duke with a multidisciplinary idea of how to solve problems in their countries.
“This is the government’s strategy of broadening the horizons of their senior leaders,” Lethem said. “The government is... creating a club of people who can rely on each other in the future.”
Lin Jing, a Chinese counselor enrolled in SAFEA, said the officials have learned a lot about communication skills and policy. He said one of the major things he has learned came from a recent program trip to Washington, D.C. where the foreign officials met with U.S. representatives in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Trade Commission.
“We have learned a lot about how the U.S. is dealing with problems of providing low-cost housing to urban groups,” Jing said of the trip. “Of course, China’s economy is growing a lot, but there is a gap between rich people and poorer people and we have learned a lot about how to deal with that group as far as housing is concerned.”
Funds for these programs come from the officials and their governments, as DCID is financially independent of Sanford, Lethem said. Although the costs of customized programs like SAFEA vary, the summer open-enrollment Executive Education programs cost up to $11,000 per participant.
But others also benefit from the program.
Michael Munger, chair of the political science department and the 2008 Libertarian candidate for North Carolina governor, is one of the professors involved in the Executive Education program. He said he has taught courses on the U.S. Constitution and on American policy processes. Munger said he enjoys answering questions from foreign officials.
“It isn’t just Duke that benefits in a way—it’s the entire American system,” Munger said. “I am glad to have that sort of interaction with people from other cultures to think and to learn about the things that they think are important. It makes me a better teacher. When I go back into the classroom to teach Duke students, I can say, ‘Here are things that people from other countries find surprising about our system.’”
Munger said language and cultural differences make working with the officials sometimes challenging—a group of 18 officials from Kazakhstan who speak limited English just arrived Monday. Despite language barriers, Munger said the officials are knowledgeable and experienced. He specifically noted the experience of the Chinese Supreme Court member.
“His knowledge of constitutionalism and law is incredible, so you have to go slowly and yet not bore them because they know so much more than most students would know,” Munger said. “It’s really very tiring, from my perspective and theirs. You really have to be prepared.”
Student interaction
Dan Kobayashi, a second-year master of public policy student, is a teaching fellow for the Chinese officials. He said he has benefited from speaking with a Chinese foreign minister who has worked in regions of Africa, noting that it is a rare opportunity for graduate students to advise officials of this caliber.
“Folks with this pedigree are generally not calling for the advice of [Master of Public Policy] students in the U.S.,” Kobayashi said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for me and for the rest of my colleagues to really see from a pretty high vantage point some perspective of what is happening in this emerging economic and political giant and to frame it in terms of real human beings who are making decisions.”
But exposure to the officials is not limited to graduate students.
Junior Nikhil Taneja is enrolled in Economic Growth and Development Policy, a graduate-level course that many foreign officials are taking. He said it is interesting to complete group assignments with an official who applies personal experiences to issues.
“When we talk about concepts like poverty and distribution of money and corruption, they can sort of relate to it—they have seen it first-hand and they can bring it to the classroom,” Taneja said.
Taneja’s professor, Fernando Fernholz, said many of the international officials in the class are receiving graduate degrees, including master of international development policy or MPP degrees.
A global Duke
The DCID began hosting Executive Education programs after the Public Finance Group—a coalition of professors involved in the program—moved from Harvard University in 2001. Then-Duke President Nan Keohane, Provost Peter Lange and current Sanford Dean Bruce Kuniholm, among others, supported the move, Lethem said.
Taneja said Duke’s hosting of foreign officials is emblematic of its global focus.
“It’s definitely really exciting going in on the first day of class and going around the table to see where everybody was from,” he said. “And the exposure that creates for Duke is also good—we’re going to have more publicity across the globe, so there’s nothing but upside.”
Jing said the interaction between Duke and China represents his country’s improving relations with the U.S.
“I think that the exchange between China and Duke is only a small part of China’s U.S. relations,” he said. “Everybody has been aware that over the past two to three decades relations have been developing fast.... I believe everybody agrees that it’s important to have closer relations between these two countries.”
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