When Penn President Amy Gutmann was speaking at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement’s official opening on February 8, she said, “The unmatched personal connections Joe Biden has with world leaders is equally important to our students, our faculty, policymakers and the work of this new Center. And it’s equally important because it is absolutely essential in furthering diplomacy and global engagement that is needed to advance the world order.”

“I want this Center to be a gathering place,” said former Vice President Biden, who is Penn’s Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor. “I want this to be a place where ideas are exchanged, where people come and disagree with us, as well as agree with us.”

Mr. Biden said that we should “lead not by the example of our power but by the power of our example.”  

The event, at Penn’s home in Washington, D.C., included a ribbon cutting and an hour-long, free-range discussion between Mr. Biden and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, a Penn alumna and Trustee emerita who is this year’s Commencement Speaker (Almanac February 6, 2018).  

The fresh, high-tech space at 101 Constitution Ave., N.W., is just steps from the nation’s Capitol, and is meant to be a site for debate and discussion, especially for those involved in foreign policy. Also, to Mr. Biden’s particular joy, it is only a few blocks from the Amtrak hub, Union Station.