When Governments Stop Talking, Universities Can Keep the Conversation Going

Universities can’t replace diplomats. But at a moment when governments are struggling to talk to one another, Ambassador Stephen Mull argues they may be able to do something diplomats increasingly can’t: keep the conversation going.

That was the case the University of Virginia’s vice provost for global affairs made this week in New Delhi, where the UVA Darden School of Business signed a new partnership with India’s All India Management Association (AIMA).

“At a time of conflict and fragmentation, universities and organizations such as AIMA have an important role to play in creating spaces where leaders can examine difficult questions across differences,” Mull told delegates at AIMA’s 53rd National Management Convention.

The collaboration between UVA Darden and AIMA will explore opportunities in management education, research and leadership development.

“This partnership is ultimately about creating learning that leaders can put to work,” said Melissa Thomas-Hunt, vice dean and senior associate dean for professional degree programs at UVA Darden. “By bringing Darden’s highly interactive approach together with AIMA’s deep connections across India’s management community, we can help leaders strengthen their judgment, respond to disruption and create meaningful impact.”

Universities as Bridges Across Borders

Mull was in India as part of a UVA Darden delegation and delivered a keynote address on a panel titled “A World at War: Navigating Endless Conflicts.”

He characterized the current moment as “an extraordinarily consequential moment in international affairs.” India, he noted, has a distinctive capacity to bridge countries that struggle to talk to one another, a role he expects to grow in importance.

“India has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to talk to countries that sometimes have difficulty talking to one another,” said Mull, who, before joining UVA, served in several national security positions, including as the ambassador to Lithuania and Poland. “That ability is going to become more valuable, not less.”

Mull said the world needs less unilateral direction and more countries willing to convene rivals despite deep disagreements.

“The world does not need another country simply telling everyone else what to do. It needs countries capable of convening,” he said.

Mull notes countries must be willing to set aside disputes over Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, trade, borders and the distribution of global power to cooperate on shared threats such as pandemics, climate change and artificial intelligence.

“That is not idealism. It is practical statecraft,” he said.

Mull, who spent much of his career as a diplomat and now works in higher education at UVA, said he has come to believe that statecraft is too important to leave to governments alone.

“And there are other institutions that have an indispensable role in this work—our universities, our businesses, and organizations such as the All India Management Association that bring together leaders across industries, professions and national boundaries.”

Governments inevitably have disagreements—ambassadors are recalled, negotiations are suspended, borders close and political relationships deteriorate. But other relationships can endure.

“Professors continue talking to professors. Scientists continue conducting research together. Students continue forming friendships across cultures. Business leaders continue trading, investing, innovating and solving problems together. And organizations like AIMA create places where leaders can exchange ideas and build relationships across sectors and across borders,” he said.

“These connections form a kind of diplomatic infrastructure of their own,” he added. “They can preserve relationships between societies even when relationships between governments become difficult. That is why international education matters so much.”

Relationships That Outlast Governments

When an Indian student studies at an American university such as UVA, or an American student studies in India, the purpose is not simply to acquire academic credits.

“They learn something much harder to teach,” Mull said. “They learn that another society cannot be reduced to a headline. They discover that people who speak another language, practice another religion or see history differently can still become colleagues and friends.”

The same dynamic plays out in business. Executives working together across borders come to see one another not simply as representatives of their countries, but as “partners in solving problems.”

“And organizations like AIMA multiply those connections,” he said. “They bring together people who might otherwise never meet. They create networks of trust. They expose leaders to different perspectives. And they help sustain dialogue at precisely those moments when official dialogue may become more difficult.”

These relationships tend to outlast the roles in which they began. Students become scientists, entrepreneurs, professors, diplomats and government officials. Young managers become business leaders. Professional relationships become friendships. Years or even decades later, those human connections can matter enormously when countries confront one another across a negotiating table—or face a crisis that neither can solve alone.

“Diplomacy ultimately depends upon relationships—and relationships depend upon understanding and trust,” he said.

Governments carry the primary responsibility for foreign policy, Mull said. But effective statecraft has always rested on a broader web of educational, scientific, commercial, professional and human relationships linking one society to another.

“At precisely the moment when governments may be tempted to build higher walls, universities, businesses and organizations like AIMA should be building more bridges,” he added.

And in a world increasingly defined by division, those bridges, he noted, “are not peripheral to statecraft. They are part of statecraft itself.”