DiploNews – Issue 182 – 1 June 2011
Summer courses in diplomacy
Advance your professional education this summer with one of our courses starting the week of 25 June:
Apply by 20 June for Diplo Certificate Courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website. Register early to reserve your place!
I found it [the course on Diplomatic Law: Privileges and Immunities] very useful, constructive and also practical towards my line of work. As a diplomat, it gave me an
understanding of the essential components and awareness of the entire armoury a diplomat possesses through privileges and immunities under the VCDR.–Luciano Fonoti, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Samoa
Online Course: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Disarmament
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy, in collaboration with Diplo, is pleased to offer an online course on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Disarmament. With the growing call for nuclear disarmament, the resurgence of nuclear arms control diplomacy, the persistence of unresolved nuclear proliferation issues (including those regarding Iran and North Korea), and the desire for nuclear energy, coupled with safety and security concerns, the forty-year old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is central to prospects
for disarmament, arms control, and international security. Familiarity with the treaty is increasingly important for practitioners and analysts to navigate their way through current and future nuclear issues. This course will familiarise participants with the provisions, history, and complexities of the treaty. Participants will analyse and dissect the topic, through readings, interaction with lectures, discussions with fellow-participants, and written assignments. Taught by Dr Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu, Visiting
Fellow at the Geneva Centre and former consultant to the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, the course runs from 22 August to 20 October 2011. The application deadline is 15 July 2011. For more information and to apply, please visit the GCSP website.
Reflections on Diplomacy
Diplo Senior Fellow, Aldo Matteuci, recently posted a few thought-provoking blog posts. In Do nations coalesce into states from within? Aldo questions the dominant view that nations develop around an idea or a charismatic unifier and, instead, argues that nation-states are more often formed due to external dynamics. In Around Bin Ladin’s death, he discusses three types of commentaries: voyeuristic, consequential, and legal. He highlights the importance of compromise as the modus operandi of the modern world, which may sometimes conflict with a sense of justice. In The diplomatic 'context specialist' – an impossible 'dream job', Aldo focuses on the human side – and very often forgotten contextual aspect – of negotiations. His blog proposes the establishment of a context expert who would help negotiators understand cultural nuances that are very often overlooked in traditional negotiations, and that, in many cases, make or break negotiations. Read these and others at Reflections on Diplomacy.
Books on Diplomacy in May – Nuclear Diplomacy
As we know that diplomats have little time to fit reading and study into their schedules, we hope that a monthly review of new publications may assist in choosing some of the most relevant. This time we bring to your attention two recent volumes on nuclear diplomacy.
Mohamed ElBaradei, The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times. Metropolitan Books, 2011.
In this book, Mohamed ElBaradei presents a digest of his twelve years (1997-2009) as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The author reviews his work as inspector, advisor, and mediator in one of the most crucial topics of our times. Moving chronologically, he gives detailed accounts of his experiences in Iraq, North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Indeed, the account is so detailed that it takes the reader right to the negotiation table and to the inspections. Interwoven in these accounts are his reflections on larger topics such as global nuclear disarmament. The table of contents and an excerpt that deals with the inspections in Iraq prior to the beginning of the war in 2003 is available from the US MacMillan website.
In addition, Narushige Michishita’s North Korea’s Military-Diplomatic Campaigns, 1966-2008. (Routledge, 2011) nicely compliments the above selection. Michishita reviews North Korea’s nuclear diplomacy from the early 1960s to recent events. He claims that during the last forty years, Pyongyang has consistently used the military to advance its objectives. North Korean military activity is not haphazard or reactive; rather, it is rational and ready to use force as a diplomatic tool, including the threat of nuclear intervention. See the Routledge website for further details.
Subscribe to Diplo's News
