Watch FP’s Diplomat of the Year Awards
Each year, Foreign Policy reviews the accomplishments of leading officials and diplomats worldwide and seeks to identify those who have made the greatest contribution to international relations.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0HUMejthUM&w=560&h=315]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0HUMejthUM&w=560&h=315]
Each year, Foreign Policy reviews the accomplishments of leading officials and diplomats worldwide and seeks to identify those who have made the greatest contribution to international relations. We honor them at our annual “Diplomat of the Year” awards dinner.
This year’s 5th annual Diplomat of the Year award will be presented to Google, recognizing the organization’s digital diplomacy through empowering citizens globally. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, Inc., will be accepting the award on behalf of Google and participating in an armchair discussion at the Diplomat of the Year dinner tonight. The other honorees include C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and Nigerian activist Hafsat Abiola.
C40 Cities will be presented with the Green Diplomat of the Year Award. Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris and chair of C40 will accept the award on behalf of the organization for their contributions to environmental diplomacy. She and the C40 Cities have worked to tackle climate change over the past decade through a network of more than 80 major global cities, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks.
Receiving this year’s Citizen Diplomat of the Year Award will be Hafsat Abiola, founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND). Abiola has been a champion of democracy in her native Nigeria and elsewhere as her organization, KIND, seeks to empower young women through leadership development and knocking down the barriers that many women face when it comes to public participation.
Photo Credit: Foreign Policy
More from Foreign Policy

Saudi-Iranian Détente Is a Wake-Up Call for America
The peace plan is a big deal—and it’s no accident that China brokered it.

The U.S.-Israel Relationship No Longer Makes Sense
If Israel and its supporters want the country to continue receiving U.S. largesse, they will need to come up with a new narrative.

Putin Is Trapped in the Sunk-Cost Fallacy of War
Moscow is grasping for meaning in a meaningless invasion.

How China’s Saudi-Iran Deal Can Serve U.S. Interests
And why there’s less to Beijing’s diplomatic breakthrough than meets the eye.