DiploNews – Issue 138 – 14 May 2009
Call for Applications: Climate Change Diplomacy
Climate change is becoming an important issue in global and regional negotiation processes. In the past, a few negotiators trained specifically for the Kyoto process could effectively cover climate change issues, but today officials involved in an increasing range of fields (such as energy, human rights, telecommunications, and health) need knowledge about climate change issues. This course will equip participants to represent and promote the interests of their own countries in the global climate change policy process. In addition, the course will broaden participants’ general understanding of climate change and the global policy response to climate change. Diplo will run two sessions of Climate Change Diplomacy in 2009:
Session 1: June 8-August 14, 2009. Application deadline: May 18
Session 2: September 28-December 4, 2009. Application deadline: September 7
We are currently accepting applications for the June session. The Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide full scholarship support to diplomats, civil servants, and academics from small and developing states involved in climate change policy processes and negotiations. Please see the Diplo Climate Change Diplomacy website to obtain further information and to apply.
Summer Courses with Diplo
Free time this summer? Expand your knowledge with an online course starting 27 July:
- Diplomatic Law: Privileges and Immunities
- 21st Century Diplomacy
- Multilateral Diplomacy
These courses are available as University of Malta Accredited Courses (application deadline 25 May) and as Diplo Certificate Courses (application deadline 22 June). To obtain further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website.
Challenges for the New US Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy
An article recently published in the Guardian focused on the selection of a new United States Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Judith McHale, and the problems she will face. The author of the article analyses several challenges for McHale, such as turf battles within the administration. The author also points out the challenge in making her approach work harmoniously with those of non-governmental organisations involved in American public diplomacy. The article claims that US citizens were increasingly unhappy with the picture that the Bush administration was projecting abroad, leading to increased non-governmental public diplomacy. Potentially, the article argues, this could have led to competition between official and un-official public diplomacy and currently special care is needed to integrate both areas. For the full article, see: Can America Change Hearts and Minds?
Books on Diplomacy in May
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.
M. Weller. Contested Statehood: Kosovo’s Struggle for Independence. Oxford University Press.
This book offers a comprehensive analysis of all the international efforts to settle the crisis in Kosovo up to the declaration of independence in 2008. The author was present at a number of the significant negotiations: the Carrington Conference on the former Yugoslavia, Rambouillet, and the Ahtisaari negotiation. He analyses the conflict phase by phase and looks at the implications for international law. Activities by individual negotiators and international organisations as well as different conferences are examined in detail. One can see the Table of Contents and first chapter online.
M. Hulme. Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge University Press.
With negotiations on a new global treaty on climate change coming in December of this year, this book might help to understand climate change and our discourse regarding it. Mike Hulme is a climate researcher, calling for a new view of the problem. Rather than condemning the media that produces ever-greater catastrophic scenarios, he sheds light on the relationship between science and society. He suggests that “as we examine climate change from . . . different vantage points, we begin to see that–depending on who one is and where one stands–the idea of climate change carries quite different meanings and seems to imply quite different courses of action.” A preview of the book is available at the online Cambridge University Press catalogue.
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