The Diplomacy Lab at the University of Luxembourg has launched with terrific teachers. And the Cancer Foundation of Luxembourg wants a 'Generation Sans Tabac' by 2040.

The Diplomacy Lab

Diego Brasioli, Ambassador of Italy to Luxembourg, Professor Anna-Lena Högenauer and Masters student Bram Koers join me to chat about the newly launched Diplomacy Lab at the University of Luxembourg. The idea for a student forum on diplomacy came about and was modelled on the previous Forum on European Neighbourhood Policy.

The Diplomacy Lab is run by students and taught by a variety of people including Ambassador Brasioli. As a career diplomat he has over forty years of global experience to relate to students. Ambassador Brasioli teaches 'contemporary diplomacy' and makes the joke that previously, a diplomat would mostly have to watch out for 'alcohol, protocol, cholesterol'.

The activities include wide-ranging debate, conferences, lectures and publications, to deepen knowledge and propose solutions to the challenges of European and international politics. Future events will include Feminist Foreign Policy, Indigenous Diplomacy as a Critical Asset for the Achievement of an Effective Sustainable Development, The Impact of AI and New Technologies on Geopolitics and Space Diplomacy.

Professor Högenauer is the Director of the Master in European Governance, and Professor in Political Science at the University of Luxembourg. She sees the Diplomacy Lab as the perfect adjunct to hone the skills of students alongside the masters' course.

Bram Koers talks eloquently about the pertinence such a course can have in bringing about novel ideas and conversations which resonate with each student.

A Tobacco Free Generation

This is the aim of the Cancer Foundation of Luxembourg, as Public Health Professional Lex Schaul explains. Could there be a better cancer prevention than tobacco control.

Lex says that perhaps the greatest strategy would be to increase the cost of cigarettes so much that the economics hurt more than the slow and painful decline smokers don't register day by day.

Tobacco use in Luxembourg in 2022 is sobering, the country does not fair well compared to other European countries. And on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, 31 May, the Cancer Foundation announced the Commune Sans Tabac strategy.

Let's hope it works and a new generation of children can grow up without the fog of smoke around them, affecting health in so many ways.