With a speech in which he cited education and health care as the “two most powerful tools” that Latin American countries have to reduce conflict and increase democracy, former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo opened GW’s seventh International Executive Seminar in Political Management and Governance.
President Toledo also praised the way Middle Eastern countries have recently harnessed the power of social media tools and online communication to spur social change, arguing that Latin America should learn from these examples.
“I strongly endorse any efforts that help to improve online communication and reduce the digital divide in Latin America,” he said. “We need to look at what is going on in the Middle East countries, where all these popular revolts, thanks to social media tools, have changed their dictatorial societies.”
The International Executive Seminar is a weeklong program developed by GW’s Graduate School of Political Management and its global branch, GSPM International. More than 75 leaders from Latin American countries—including the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Venezuela and Mexico—gathered on campus July 25 through 29 for interactive sessions on governance, political negotiation and modeling political and economic scenarios.
Among the presenters were Teodoro Petkoff, a former presidential candidate in Peru; Pablo Perez, governor of Zulia, an oil-rich state in Venezuela, and a current presidential candidate; and Alejandro Grisanti, a senior economist at Barclay’s Capital in Venezuela. GSPM professors Chris Arterton and Luis Matos also presented. Dr. Matos is director of GSPM’s Latin American division.
The goal of the seminar is to provide Latin American leaders with the tools to manage complex political systems at home, he said.
“Latin American countries will face some turbulent times in the future—some of their own doing and some generated by the world economic crisis,” Dr. Matos said. “These events may have strong negative impacts on the democratic governance of these countries. By taking the initiative to offer leaders of the region new tools to manage their political situations, GSPM can help provide new perspectives to solve these complex problems."
The participants learned how to use a situational gaming model that Dr. Matos developed. The model offers guiding questions leaders can use when analyzing political situations, including considering who the primary actors are and what level of risk the leader feels comfortable accepting. The model also discusses three competing forces in governance: collaboration, confrontation and competitiveness.
Lorenzo Montanari, a researcher in political communication and governance and a GSPM staff member, said that the feedback he heard from seminar participants was generally very positive. But to ensure that future seminars will be even more useful, written feedback from participants will be collected and analyzed to determine what worked best and what could be improved.
By continually refining its content to ensure relevancy for Latin American leaders, GW can remain a leader in the field of political management and governance, Dr. Matos said. “According to the participants, through this event, GW has become a reference for governance.”
Thanks to Lorenzo Montanari for translating President Toledo's remarks from the Spanish.