Platform Leaders: Wiebke Denecke (MIT), Olivia Macharis (Conflict Resolution Practitioner)
Our world faces fractured communication, polarized societies, and declining trust in institutions. The MIT Global Humanities Initiative’s new Diplomatics Platform offers a visionary response—uniting global cultural heritage and technological innovation to cultivate Diplomatic Intelligence (DQ): the ability to build trust, bridge divides, and mobilize collaborative solutions across borders, institutions, and cultures.
The MIT Global Humanities Initiative (GHI) launches a three‑year Cultural Diplomatics Platform to reimagine diplomacy as a cornerstone of human flourishing and planetary stewardship. Rooted in global humanistic traditions and empowered by responsible AI, it defines a new academic and practical field—*Diplomatics*—that cultivates DQ and the skills urgently needed in the 21st century for an empathy‑driven, data‑informed, and cross‑culturally fluent humanity.
In an age of dangerous division, climate urgency, and AI disruption, the MIT GHI Cultural Diplomatics Platform empowers societies to rethink governance through deeper cultural and historical understanding, empathy, ethics, and knowledge diplomacy. Supporting the Cultural Diplomatics Platform means investing in the trust infrastructure of our century. Your partnership empowers the creation of new educational models for the University of the Future, AI tools, and leadership programs that can restore confidence in governance, cooperation, and worldwide human flourishing.
The Platform advances DQ through three interconnected Labs that move from global knowledge recovery to AI innovation and social impact.
- Lab 1: Global Knowledge Research Hub — Human Diplomatic Heritage for Global Governance
- Lab 2: AI Tool‑Shop — Culturally-and-Historically‑Sensitive AI for Better Diplomacy
- Lab 3: Knowledge in Action Hub — Translating Research into Societal Impact
Based at MIT and led by Professor Wiebke Denecke, the Faculty Lead of MIT GHI, the platform is powered by top academics and professionals from around the world. The Platform puts in dialogue scholars, educators, technologists, and policymakers to pioneer sustainable frameworks for cooperation and global trust‑building from K12 education to transnational organizations. We work closely with the Geneva Science and
Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), an organization that convenes scientists, diplomats, the private sector, philanthropy and citizens to use science-based foresight and anticipation to spearhead global action around today’s greatest global challenges.