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Conference Summary The DiploFoundation hosted a two-day international conference on the theme ‘Challenges for Foreign Ministries: Managing Diplomatic Networks and Optimising Value’ at Geneva, on May 31-June 1, 2006; it drew 70 participants from 40 countries, 30 foreign ministries were represented; a total of 24 papers were presented in 9 sessions. The Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, cosponsored the conference.
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Summary
Introduction
Foreign ministries the world over face a complex environment.
Abroad they
encounter unpredictable volatility in world affairs; the need to build
extensive-intensive bilateral and regional networks; complex multilateral agendas crowded by
new subjects; the need to build plural constituencies in foreign states, many nonofficial;
the task of managing their own external image; new forms of public and soft
diplomacy; and economic diplomacy covering trade and investment mobilization and
free trade accords at bilateral, regional, multilateral and global levels.
At home they deal with plural partners, official and non-state, participants in the
external policy process and stakeholders in the foreign ministry’s actions. The foreign
ministry must act as a coordinator and a catalyst in such networks, covering the
expanding foreign agenda. It must carry conviction with them, in an environment that
often questions the foreign ministry’s functions. Domestic and external issues merge
and influence each other in ways that no one anticipated even a decade ago.
The conference will address
several linked themes:
The conference particularly focuses on the foreign ministries of countries with limited
financial and/or human resources. It will facilitate experience sharing, with academics
contributing to the wider objective of producing optimal value from foreign ministry
systems, winning support from their stakeholders and publics.
Diplo has addressed changes in modern diplomacy since 1995, organizing 7
international conferences (covering ICT, Knowledge Management, Language and
Intercultural Communication, and Multistakeholder Diplomacy) and trained more than
400 diplomats on subjects related to diplomacy.
If you are planning to attend the MFA
conference, you may wish to come a few days early to attend the Online
Learning for Diplomacy workshop.
For list of speakers please visit this page.
For more information
about the conference please contact
us.
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