DiploNews – Issue 151 – 11 December 2009
Online Learning in the New Year
You are invited to apply for the following courses beginning the week of 22 February 2010:
- Diplomatic Theory and Practice
- Public Diplomacy
Both of these courses are popular with beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Places are limited, so apply now to reserve your place. Courses are available as University of Malta Accredited Courses (application deadline 21 December 2009) and as Diplo Certificate Courses (application deadline 18 January 2010). For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website.
Professional Development Workshops
Language and Influence (22-24 March 2010). Our workshop on Language and Influence will explore how language works and how it can be put to work to attain goals. The primary objective is to provide participants with a linguistic toolkit that will enable them to use and defuse the most frequent difficulties in language use, such as ambiguity, analogy, argumentation, and suggestion. Another objective is to practice presentation skills. The leader will introduce participants to the art of rhetoric and encourage them to hone the art of “brief, trenchant and, if possible, witty” interventions. A study of visual language may be included in the workshop on request. Here, too, a toolkit of rhetorical devices is provided and applied to both photojournalism and branding.
Leadership and Decision Making (25-27 March 2010). How do we make decisions? Why are some decisions harder to make? What are the benefits and what are the risks of making decisions? Our workshop on Leadership and Decision Making addresses the issue of how decisions are made in politics, business, and everyday life, how to influence an audience, and how to exercise leadership. Course participants will learn how to define an issue, evaluate the setting, give priorities to options, and take action. They will discuss how to develop an alternative course of action and reach intermediate and final goals. Through an interactive presentation, role-play exercises, and self-evaluation, the participants will enhance their arguing skills and learn how to make rational choices, and to motivate and influence an audience.
Diplo Delegates at the Internet Governance Forum
A delegation of over twenty Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme fellows and tutors representing eighteen countries have just returned from the Internet Governance Forum meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The delegates joined other DiploFoundation associates for a week-long schedule of events centred on the Internet Governance Forum meeting. Since Diplo itself was a prominent player at the Forum, the debates among the Diplo team and the youth present at the meeting were reported through social reporting tools. The Forum was also a chance for the fellows to network with colleagues from their own regions and worldwide for possible partnerships with their home institutions or for personal capacity development. You may read the full account on Diplo’s Internet Governance and Policy webpage.
The Close Link between Science and Diplomacy in Climate Change
In climate change diplomacy, science and diplomacy can sometimes become intertwined. Shortly before the conference in Copenhagen, the leading climate change diplomat for Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Al-Sabban, announced that he doubted the link between climate change and human activities, and that he expected the negotiations to be derailed. The reasons for his doubts came from an event now referred to as “Climate Gate.” On 17 November, more than a thousand e-mails sent or received by one of Britain’s leading climate scientists, Professor Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, were stolen and made available on the internet. The content and tone of the e-mails raised questions about the methods and integrity of some climate scientists. As a consequence, skeptics raised doubts on the general scientific basis behind the climate change phenomena. The alleged e-mails are presumably available from the Opinion Times and an article in the guardian.co.uk, titled “Pretending the climate email leak isn't a crisis won't make it go away,” outlines the doubts raised by the leakage of the e-mails; a BBC News article outlines Mr. Al-Sabban’s position.
Climate Change Building under Construction: A Graphical Overview
With the negotiations in Copenhagen underway, DiploFoundation has prepared a Climate Change Building, a graphic illustration of the complexity of climate change negotiations. Have a look and enjoy finding your way through the maze of climate-change-related issues! You can also use this graphical illustration for your own awareness building campaign and activities.
Since this will be our last newsletter for the year, everyone at Diplo would like to offer best wishes to readers for the holiday season and the New Year.
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