DiploNews – Issue 247 – 3 March 2014

May online courses on diplomacy

We are now accepting applications for four exciting online courses which start the week of 5 May 2014:

• Bilateral Diplomacy
• Current Issues in the United Nations
• Diplomacy of Small States
• E-diplomacy

Apply by 31 March for Diplo certificate courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website. Register now to reserve your place.

Sign up for our courses mailing list to be informed about upcoming courses.

Geneva Briefing on Internet Governance

The Geneva Briefing on Internet Governance takes place on the first Tuesday of every month. If you would like to get a regular 'zoomed-out' update of the major global IG and digital politics developments, join us online for the webinar briefing from Geneva within the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP) project on Tuesday, 4th March 2014 at 13.00 CET. Are you interested in cybersecurity, digital content policy, broadband and Internet costs, multilingual Internet, surveillance, and privacy? Do you want to follow global IG developments? Are you lost in the sea of different initiatives: WSIS+10, IGF, ICANN, WTDC, NETmundial, GIPO, CSTD WGEC…! Do you need to efficiently make sense of it all? Geneva Briefings on Internet Governance decode, analyse, and summarise major global and regional IG processes for you. Please register here.

Session on cybersurveillance: Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights

Join us at the session on cybersurveillance at the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights with E. Snowden (remotely, TBC), Wikileaks's lawyer B. Garzon, and Diplo's/GIP Director J. Kurbalija. The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) was inaugurated in 2003. The inspiration and impetus behind the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights came from human rights defenders active in NGOs, filmmakers, media representatives, and the University of Geneva. More details and information are available on the Festival site.

What's happening in Diplo's blogosphere?

In her post, A two-track approach to Syria: unyoking civilians and politicians, Biljana Scott says that ‘progress on the ground will not be achieved as long as the wording of the [Geneva 1] Communiqué allows the stumbling-blocks of wording to serve as a cynical stalling tactic, with no regard for the human cost involved’. Pete Cranston looks at the fate of Twitter and Facebook as the former sees a 24% fall in share price. See what he has to say in  Twitter and Facebook: eBay, Amazon or Second Life?

Remember, you too can have your say by commenting on these or any of our blog posts. And, if you’d like to be a guest blogger, let us know.

Advanced webinar on the evolution of diplomacy and technology

Diplo's advanced webinar on the evolution of diplomacy and technology will focus on the Ancient World. We will start with the emergence of writing, one of the most important communication technologies in the history of mankind.Writing triggered a more sophisticated way of communication both within and between ancient societies.During this webinar, we will navigate through the rich diplomatic heritage of Babylon, Sumeria, Egypt, the Hittite Empire, India, Persia, and China. In this journey through time we will follow developments from clay to digital tablets and search for insights that should help us understand the future of e-diplomacy.

Join us for the live webinar From clay to digital tablets: What can we learn from the ancient diplomacy? with Jovan Kurbalija on Wednesday, 5th March at 14:00 GMT (15:00 CET). Please register here.

Discussing Internet governance

In his post The EU on Internet governance: Strong on description – Weak on prescription
Jovan Kurbalija explores the EU’s approach to Internet governance. Vladimir Radunovic digests the recent webinar on Internet governance issues under the banner of the Geneva Internet Platform designed to assist diplomats in grasping the complexity of this multidisciplinary and  multistakeholder political environment, and to bring them up to speed on what to follow, when to follow it, and how to follow it. Mary Murphy takes a look at the recent call to arms to Save the Internet. Mwende Njiraini looks at how Al-Shabaab internet blackout disrupts lives, provokes outrage in southern Somalia while Parveen Umrani discusses an  Article from The Guardian about Turkish protests over Internet Freedom. Ginger Paque posted a request for input from Civil Society stakeholders — CS Steering Group future. March promises to be another interesting month in the world of IG – to stay current, don't forget to register for the Geneva Briefing mentioned above.