Weatherhead Center Hosts Career Week

Fellows and students from across the University shared their experiences in international diplomacy, business and journalism during three panel discussions yesterday and Monday, kicking off International Careers Week.

The panels marked the beginning of the first large event hosted by the International Relations Council (IRC) in conjunction with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs since they formed a closer alliance at the beginning of the semester.

“We’re trying to be a liaison between the students and the Weatherhead Center,” said Mina Dimitrova ’05, director of Weatherhead Center events at the IRC and former co-president of the Weatherhead Center Student Council—which was dissolved as a result of the alliance.

A majority of the panelists who are speaking this week are Weatherhead Center fellows or faculty affiliates, and the event is funded solely by the Weatherhead Center.

This series of networking opportunities began when over 45 students filled Sever 102 to hear the former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, the former Finnish ambassador to Israel and Cyprus and a veteran of the French diplomatic corps—all Weatherhead Center fellows—discuss their experiences.

Former Finnish Ambassador to Israel Pasi Patokallio discussed the importance of contact with other parties within the system and warned students against “the deadliest sin of the diplomat, ‘localitis,’ where you forget to represent your government, and where you ‘understand’ the locals too much.”

In some instances, such as when a citizen is imprisoned, ambassadors often get a taste of the “seamier side of life,” according to Michael Small, the former Canadian ambassador to Cuba.

Touchy situations like these often draw media attention, he said.

“The local media is usually willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but in your home country, [that’s not the case],” he said. “The easiest story in the world to write is ‘Embassy Screws Up.’”

The panelists used personal anecdotes to address some of the private issues of life as a diplomat.

“This is a profession where preferably you’re single,” Patokallio said. “In the end, you can always divorce, of course.”

Immediately following the diplomacy panel, three Harvard Business School (HBS) students spoke at an international business panel co-sponsored by the Harvard International Business Club.

And last night, two Nieman Fellows and a Weatherhead Fellow spoke on international journalism in the Eliot Junior Common Room.

This week’s events will also include panels on international law, international humanitarian work and academia, and will culminate in a reception on Friday with all the speakers and a keynote address by Nader A. Mousavizadeh ’92, a former assistant of political affairs to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a member of the Lowell House Senior Common Room.

Tickets for Friday’s reception in the Winthrop House Library are available at the Harvard Box Office for $2.

—Staff writer Jannie S. Tsuei can be reached at tsuei@fas.harvard.edu.