The Diplomatic Hub needs your help to keep our project going and to even expand.

Who we are and what is our story ?

The Diplomatic Hub is a student-led project, founded in 2015, that organises events for students of all fields interested in international relations, by inviting speakers to talk about their area of expertise, running debates and crisis simulations and engaging students with employers. Our past events have included a round table discussion with the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Ambassadors to the United Kingdom, a talk on the Windrush scandal with the Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and a Russian foreign policy lecture by James Nixey, a Chatham House representative.

Why we need your help?

The aim of this crowdfunding is to raise £500 to keep this amazing educational project going. Indeed, until now, the Diplomatic Hub was funded by the Annual Fund of the University of Exeter, but we are now looking to fund our project independently. As one of the only projects of its kind in the UK, we want to keep offering exciting and stimulating international relations related content to students, for free, and to do so, we need your support. Offering more opportunities to students and others to get a deeper understanding of international relations which impacts them directly, often without them knowing, is very important. Whilst we address big issues that can often make headlines in the media and help students understand and interpret them, we also put less known issues and ongoing debates under the spotlight. Our aim is to add to what students learn in their courses, as well as challenging them and creating opportunities to put to the test their knowledge.

Our mission is especially important in these troubled times, as the coronavirus has blurred the lines of international relations and added to an already tensed and difficult environment. On top of it, a lot of change is still taking place, like Brexit, the American elections or the political situation in Hong Kong, making it even harder to understand what is currently happening on the international stage, and what impacts they have.

What will we be doing?

The money will be used to continue offering content of quality, online on a short term basis, considering the ongoing pandemic, and later physically. And we are already working hard on future projects, as we are planning on expanding the Diplomatic Hub’s content offer.

Interviews, talks and debates with experts in their fields, on a wide range of subjects, will continue, with the aim of increasing their frequency. Interacting with students by running more debates and crisis simulations, will once again be central to our actions, in order to increase students’ interest in a vast subject that affects so many parts of our daily lives.

We also want to aim bigger and expand our projects reach! We plan to grow our journal, The Diplomatic Post, which was started two years ago. We want to increase our rate of publication, as well as the numbers of articles per issues and the diversity of views offered. Our social media presence is going to get bigger by offering more content and streaming our events online. Plans to launch a DiploHub podcast are also in the works, with interviews from scholars, experts and diplomats. Finally, we aim to not only provide more content and opportunities for the students at the University of Exeter, but also to people outside the university.

In the past our events have been attended by both members of the university community and people coming from outside of it. We want to keep it that way, and reach to even more people. Therefore, we are currently looking at the most interesting ways to reach to other universities communities, as well as local communities.

Where will the money go ?

As a donor, you would play a significant role in the making of these plans. Your donation would help us buy equipment, such as roller banners and tools to keep our website running, which costs us roughly £150 a year. You would also help finance the various events we will propose, which can sometimes cost more than £200 with room booking and transportation for when speakers come on campus, which we hope will resume soon. With your help, £500 will secure the future of the Diplomatic Hub this year, thus helping us to create a stronger community of individuals with a passion for foreign affairs.

Help us succeed!

We'd love it if you could donate to our crowdfunding project, but please also help us by spreading the word amongst your networks - it's all about getting lots of people to come together and any help can really make a difference.