Now, I know that it is fashionable in commencement speeches to be idealistic, and that may sound so, but at the root of my conviction is a strong sense of reality. Because you see, I don’t think we have a choice. We can sit on the sidelines, we can wring our hands, we can retreat into cynicism, and we know what the results will be: We will cede the field to those whose ideologies are absolutely anathema to people of conscience and faith all over the world. So our positive interdependence, which is a fact, will prepare us to meet these challenges. But they can no longer be seen just as government-to-government. There is a time and an opportunity, and with the new technologies available, for us to be citizen diplomats, citizen activists, to solve problems one by one that will give in to hard work, patience, and persistence, and will then aggregate to the solutions we seek.

我知道，在畢業典禮上作理想化的演說是當前的時尚，[我的講話]聽起來也許很理想化，但我的信念深處有一種強烈的現實感。因為你們知道，我認為我們別無選擇。我們可以袖手旁觀，我們可以束手無策，我們可以采取悲觀懷疑的態度，但我們知道這樣做會產生什么樣的結果：我們會把陣地拱手讓給那些其意識形態為世界上所有有良知和信仰者所不齒的人。因此，我們之間積極的相互依賴 ——這是一個事實——將使我們為應對這些挑戰做好準備。但這不能再被僅僅視作政府與政府之間的事情。隨著新技術的不斷涌現，我們有時間和機會成為公民外交家、公民活動家，通過辛勤工作、耐心和毅力一個一個地解決問題，逐步積累成我們所尋求的解決方案。

Now, I know we cannot send a special envoy to negotiate with a pandemic, or call a summit with carbon dioxide, or sever relations with the global financial crisis. To confront these threats and to seize the opportunities that they also present, we need to build new partnerships from the bottom up, and to use every tool at our disposal. That is the heart of smart power. But smart power requires smart people, people who have gone the distance for their education, who have opened themselves up to this increasingly complex and interconnected world, and this changing global landscape requires us to expand our concept of diplomacy.

我知道我們不能派特使與大規模流行的疾病進行談判，不能與二氧化碳召開高峰會，也不能與全球金融危機斷絕關系。要抗擊這些威脅并抓住這些威脅提供的機遇，我們需要自下而上地建立新的伙伴關系，利用手中可以利用的一切手段。這就是巧實力的實質。但巧實力來自精明的人，接受過良好教育的人，向日益復雜、相互關聯的世界開放的人，而不斷變化的全球場景要求我們必須擴大我們的外交概念。

Now, when I was graduating so many years ago, diplomacy was the domain of privileged men working behind closed doors. Today, our diplomats are not limited, and our diplomacy is no longer confined to the State Department or our embassies. We are laying the foundation for 21st century statecraft. Where? In the classrooms of NYU, in the board rooms of the businesses of this great city, in the halls of academia, in the operating rooms of our great hospitals. We are looking for those personal commitments and connections, and that is where all of you come in.

回顧我多年前從學校畢業的時候，外交是閉門謀事的高官要員的事情。如今，我們的外交人員來自各行各業，我們的外交工作也不局限于國務院或我國駐外使領館。我們正在為二十一世紀的治國大計培養人才。在哪里？就在紐約大學的教室里，就在這座偉大城市中各家公司董事會的會議室里，就在學術會堂里，就在我們一所所優秀醫院的手術室里。我們需要的是個人承諾和個人紐帶，而這正是你們各位能夠一展身手之處。

The biggest challenges we face today will be solved by the 60 percent of the world’s population under the age of 30. And already, young people, like all of you, are using their talents and ingenuity to help fashion their own brand of service and diplomacy.

我們今天所面臨的一系列最重大的挑戰將由占世界人口60%的30歲以下的群體來解決。而年輕一代，像你們所有人一樣，已在發揮他們的才華和智慧，幫助形成具有他們獨特風格的公益和外交工作。