◎ BACKGROUND: 

Thanks to social media, people can easily access to the news and information from all around the world almost in real time, knowing what is going on in the world. People's civic awareness has also grown. It gives them power to raise their voices and take action on global issues. The same applies to diplomacy. 

They are no observers any more. For their own national interests, they speak their thoughts actively enough to form public opinion so that politicians or diplomats cannot ignore their voices in the process of decision making. This is the moment when mere unjustifiable hard power cannot guarantee solutions to diplomatic problems, asking more delicate diplomatic skills and strategy to solve the problems in terms of soft power.

In light of the above, HOBY Korea has hosted the Global Youth Diplomacy Essay Competition since 2015, believing that educating teenagers the importance of diplomacy along with basic diplomatic knowledge and skills is imperative to bring the world peace and prosperity.

◎ HOSTED and ORGANIZED by 
HOBY Korea (International Partner of Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation for the Republic of Korea)
Korean Educational Association for Empowerment of Software

◎ Awards conferred by 
Council Member of Los Angeles City, CA, USA - 2 
Foreign embassies in the Republic of Korea – 4
Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership – 2
Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Korea – 3
Korean Educational Association for Empowerment of Software – 5

◎ Essay Topic:  Soft Power in Diplomacy (Any type of essay with any idea related to the topic)

◎ ELIGIBILITIES: Students in any country and ages between 13 and 18 on June 30, 2021

◎ LANGUAGES: English / less than 1,000 words (excluding title, footnotes, bibliography or references)

◎ HOW TO APPLY: 

- For Korean students :  Submit your essay here <- Click 
  (Signup or login required) 

- For international students :  Submit your essay here <- Click 
  (no signup or login required) 

-  No application fee 

◎ TIMETABLE (Korea standard time):
-  Submission deadline: June 30, 2021 at 23:59 
-  Announcement of Winners : July 19, 2021  (Due to COVID-19, Award certificates 

◎ JUDGING CRITERIA:
- Idea and originality     40
- Development and Support 30
- Organization 20
- Language use and Conventions 10

◎ BENEFIT: 
-  Certificate of Participation to all participants