DiploNews – Issue 258 – 18 August 2014

Event in Geneva: MIKTA Diplomacy: New Dynamism or more of the same

Mexico, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Australia have recently developed a cooperation scheme within a framework called MIKTA. MIKTA countries and DiploFoundation will convene a seminar to provide an opportunity for the academic and diplomatic communities to share views and perspectives on how MIKTA can influence the agenda of International Geneva in diverse issues such as health, humanitarian affairs, trade, and UN reform.
 

Diplo at the Internet Governance Forum, Istanbul

DiploFoundation and the Geneva Internet Platform will be busy and visibly present during IGF 2014. Join us for the Day 0 pre-event on NETmundial, side events on the Geneva Internet Conference and the GIP, and the launch of the 6th edition of Jovan Kurbalija's book, An Introduction to Internet Governance. Participate in a workshop discussing questions such as: Should ICANN be globalised or should it be internationalised? Does ‘respective roles’ of stakeholders in IG allow for their participation on an ‘equal footing’? Come and chat with us anytime at our exhibition booth. If you are one of our alumni, and would like to help staff the stand, please contact De Williams. Get an update from the webinar which will be held live from the IGF on 2 September. More details about Diplo/GIP at the IGF.
 

Geneva Webinar Briefing on Internet Governance – live from the IGF

You receive hundreds of pieces of information on digital politics. We receive them, too. We decode, contextualise, and analyse them. Then we summarise them for you. 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 policies developments, join us online or in Istanbul on Tuesday, 2nd September 2014 at 13.00 CET. Yes, the September webinar will take place live from the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Istanbul.
 

Internship positions with DiploFoundation – Geneva office

DiploFoundation has put out a call for interns for its Geneva office. Feel to share these opportunities with your contacts in Geneva; this is a chance to gain hands-on experience in the global policy-making arena of International Geneva. One of the positions is shared between DiploFoundation and Intellectual Property Watch. Check Diplo's website or the Geneva Internet Platform for more details.
 

Asia-Europe Public Diplomacy Training Initiative – online course

A call for the second online course Listening and Engaging: Public Diplomacy in Asia-Europe Relations has been sent to all Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) ministries of foreign affairs. The course is organised within the Asia-Europe Public Diplomacy Training Initiative. If you are a diplomat from an ASEM country, working on Asia-Europe relations and/or public diplomacy and want to apply, please contact Tereza Horejsova.
 

Upcoming study opportunities

Capacity Development

Capacity development has been emerging as a central approach within development for more than two decades. This approach has gradually shifted the focus of development practice from simple financial aid and technical cooperation towards a complex new paradigm that encourages and demands active involvement and ownership from the people and communities involved in aid programmes. To help you better understand and master this complex paradigm, this course introduces the key concepts, principles, and practical skills for implementing capacity development activities. The course was developed with the support of the SDC, the UNDP, LenCD, and Learn4Dev. Visit the course webpage to read more about this unique course, and apply online. The next session starts on 6 October; please apply by 1 September.

Migration and Development

Offered through cooperation between the Instituto Matías Romero of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DiploFoundation, the online course on Migration and Development is offered simultaneously in English and Spanish. The course provides participants with a conceptual framework and analytical tools to address the relationship between international migration and economic and social development. It emphasises the legal and institutional framework for international migration, examines governments' recent changes in policies towards their diasporas, and focuses on different case studies to exemplify how the links between diasporas and their communities of origin have an impact on the conditions and policies for development. The course starts on 22 September. Read more and apply online by 1 September. Only ten places are available – apply early to reserve your enrollment.

2015 Master in Contemporary Diplomacy

We are now accepting applications for the 2015 Master in Contemporary Diplomacy, and the Master in Contemporary Diplomacy with an Internet Governance Specialisation. These unique postgraduate programmes, offered in cooperation with the University of Malta, include a 10-day residential workshop in Malta followed by 16–20 months of online learning. Please visit the Master in Contemporary Diplomacy webpage to read more and to apply. The programme starts on 2 February 2015. The deadline to apply for international applicants is 1 October 2014 and for Maltese applicants it is 15 November 2014.

Autumn online diplomacy courses

We have a rich and varied set of diplomacy courses coming up this autumn:

• Consular and Diaspora Diplomacy
• CyberSecurity
• Development Diplomacy
• Economic Diplomacy
• Language and Diplomacy

Apply by 1 September for Diplo certificate courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses webpage. Register now to reserve your place.

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

What's been happening in Diplo's blogosphere

Petru Dumitriu has been busy this month with two posts in his series on memoirs of UN Sectretaries-General. In the first, Memoirs of UN Secretaries-General: political correctness and prediction of the future, Petru asserts that ‘the United Nations’ Secretaries-General who came in office after U Thant have no excuse for being, if they were, politically incorrect.’. In Memoirs of UN Secretaries-General: Eyes on the Spies, Petru  looks at the significance of Article 100 of the United Nations Charter.

Laurence Pope joins us this month with a two-part blog on diplomacy and globalization. In Diplomacy and the revenge of globalization (Part I), he sets the stage by giving us an overview of diplomacy, moving from the traditional to the Internet age. In Diplomacy and the revenge of globalization (Part II), he explores  the revenge of globalization.

Could the Great War have been avoided if leaders had gotten together and negotiated in person instead of exchanging telegrams? This is the question posed by Jovan Kurbalija in his post From Telegraph (1914) to Twitter (2014) – Are there lessons to be learned?  and further explored by Pete Cranston in Chrono-narcissism, 1914 – 2014 and Technology

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.