Diplo Academy upcoming courses and programmes
🤖 The new AI Apprenticeship online course equips professionals with the skills to design their own AI assistant for diplomacy and governance. Through hands-on experience with generative AI, participants will enhance decision-making, drive innovation, and shape the future of AI in governance!
⭐ Negotiation Skills online course: Applications open!
Applications are now open for our Negotiation Skills online course. We negotiate all the time in both personal and professional capacities. To improve outcomes and achieve our goals, it is vital to reflect on the process of negotiation and develop appropriate negotiation skills.
👉🏼 Applications close on 25 August 2025. Course starts on 15 September 2025. Enrol now to secure your place!
🍂 Applications open! Diplo’s 2025 autumn online courses
Register now to reserve your place in our specialised autumn courses!
👉🏼 Application deadlines for certificates issued by Diplo: 8 September 2025
For further information and to apply, click the course titles above or visit Diplo’s course catalogue.
◆ Need financial assistance? Scholarships are available!
Thanks to support from the government of Malta, partial scholarships are available for applicants from developing countries to attend upcoming Diplo online courses. These scholarships cover 30%–60% of course fees and can be applied to most 2025 online courses. Browse our course catalogue and contact us at admissions@diplomacy.edu for further information.
Upcoming events
◆ Five years on: Achievements, failures, and the future of the UN Cyber Dialogue (23 July)
The UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) process on the security of, and in the use of, information and communications technologies has reached its fifth and final session, offering a moment for reflection and critical assessment.
The expert discussion will explore the OEWG’s achievements in advancing common understandings among states on responsible behaviour in cyberspace, challenges encountered in bridging diverse national positions and operationalising agreed norms, as well as provide an overall view of the process since 2021. By examining the past negotiating process from various angles, participants will be invited to reflect on how these negotiations have shaped international cyber stability and cooperation. Read more and register!
Additionally, read the session reports from the UN OEWG 2021-2025 11th substantive session and the Dig.Watch update OEWG Chair releases Zero Draft and Rev 1 of the Final Report, setting stage for final talks.
Reporting & main takeaways from recent events
◆ Diplo/GIP/CADE at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025
Diplo and the GIP participated in the WSIS+20 High-Level Event in various ways:
- The GIP Digital Watch observatory provided just-in-time reporting from multiple sessions
- Session 155: AI (and) Education: Convergences Between Chinese and European Pedagogical Practices | Official session page | Dig.Watch report
- Session 423: Developing Capacities for Bottom-up AI in the Global South: What Role for the International Community? | Official session page | Dig.Watch report
Session with Diplo involvement:
- Session 229: Media and Education for All: Bridging Female Academic Leaders and Society towards Impactful Results | Official session page | Dig.Watch report | Dig.Watch update
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) involvement:
- At the WSIS+20 Forum 2025, CADE organised an informal dialogue on improving inclusiveness, transparency, and power dynamics in digital standard-setting, where civil society and other stakeholders discussed CADE’s research findings and explored ways to enhance participation in these processes. Read more!
◆ Diplo/GIP at AI for Good Global Summit
The Digital Watch observatory provided just-in-time reporting from multiple sessions during the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, held from 8 to 11 July in Geneva, Switzerland. Read the session reports!
Watch the videos below with Radka Sibille on postal networks for inclusive digital growth, and with Amrita Choudhury on digital inclusion at WSIS AI For Good 2025.
◆ Contemporary Issues in Digital Trade Governance: Implications for Commonwealth Small States
Over the past two decades, there has been an uptick and proliferation in the types of digital trade and e-commerce agreements, as well as a variety of multilateral frameworks influencing the digital governance domain. This hybrid briefing provided an overview of contemporary developments shaping the digital trade regulatory landscape. Learn more!
◆ Geneva Dialogue session at the Global Digital Collaboration Conference (GDCC 2025)
Cyber norms must go beyond diplomacy to be effective. At GDCC 2025, the Geneva Dialogue – organised by the Swiss FDFA, C4DT–EPFL, and Diplo – demonstrated how open-source and tech communities share core values that align with UN-led frameworks. Learn more!
Blogs and publications
◆ Digital Geneva Atlas Version 3.0
Mapping Geneva’s digital policy just got easier: The updated Digital Geneva Atlas is live!
The Digital Geneva Atlas represents the most comprehensive mapping of digital policy actors and the internet governance scene in Geneva. Discover the organisations in Geneva working on AI, cybersecurity, human rights, data governance, and other key digital issues. Download the Digital Geneva Atlas!
◆ AI Apprenticeship for IOs: From diplomats to AI builders
The AI Apprenticeship for International Organisations, developed by DiploFoundation, empowers professionals from entities such as the UN, WHO, and CERN to create AI tools that enhance global cooperation. Participants learn to design AI applications tailored to their daily tasks, with an emphasis on governance, ethics, and practical use. Projects such as AI assistants for addressing misinformation, providing language support, and navigating events demonstrate how thoughtful AI integration can augment human expertise and improve decision-making in complex global contexts. This initiative aims to close the AI skills gap and promote responsible AI use within international governance frameworks. Read the blog post!
◆ Military AI: Operational dangers and the regulatory void
As military AI becomes operational in today’s conflicts, the lack of regulation and accountability risks turning warfare into a domain governed by opaque algorithms and unchecked escalation. Without urgent global oversight, these technologies could outpace our ability to control them, placing peace, ethics, and human lives in jeopardy. Read the blog post!
◆ The future of global security and why cyber diplomacy matters
June’s G7 meeting focused primarily on issues such as cybersecurity and AI, as well as ongoing conflicts, including those between Israel and Iran, and Russia and Ukraine. In terms of cyberspace, the objective was to shift strategy regarding the use of these ‘new’ tools. The proposed approach aims to move away from the reactive defence currently employed in cyber contexts, towards the development of standard rules of use, with conflict prevention as the primary goal. At first glance, this shift appears beneficial for the benign evolution of these technologies, but potential problems with this strategy can also be anticipated. Read the blog post!
◆ Diplomacy is where there are no rules
Diplomacy begins where there are no rules – only open-ended possibilities. The blog post explains how real diplomacy begins: with trial-and-error, creative thinking, and turning confusion into agreement. Read the blog post!
◆ The power of self-organisation
Can Wikipedia teach diplomacy a lesson? This blog post contrasts rigid hierarchies with messy, adaptive self-organising systems, and asks which one truly gets more done. Read the blog post!
◆ The cognitive cost of AI: Balancing assistance and awareness
What if the very tool designed to boost your productivity is quietly dulling your mind each time you use it? A new MIT study reveals that frequent use of ChatGPT can reduce brain activity by 47%, particularly in areas associated with memory, creativity, and critical thinking. Researchers call it ‘cognitive debt’ – and it might be quietly reshaping how we think, write, and learn. Read the DW analysis!
◆ The rise and risks of synthetic media
Balancing synthetic media’s benefits with its risks will shape the future of digital communication and societies. Read the DW analysis!
◆ Digital Watch Monthly newsletter – Issue 101
Explore how June’s pivotal events shape our digital future! In Issue 101 of the Digital Watch Monthly:
- June in Retrospect: IGF 2025 and digital trends
- EU Digital Diplomacy: Geopolitical shift from focus on values to economic security
- Breaking down the OEWG’s legacy: Hits, misses, and unfinished business
- And much more!
◆ DW Weekly #220
Cyber chaos meets AI diplomacy: From bank hacks and spyware threats to AI-powered defence upgrades and digital rights battles, the world tightens its grip on cyberspace – as WSIS+20 and OEWG wrap up with calls for stronger global cyber norms. Read Digital Watch Weekly #220!
Don’t miss…
◆ Digital Governance: Where does our data go?
In this interview on Léman Bleu TV, Dr Jovan Kurbalija talks about whether security, confidentiality, and sovereignty are achievable in today’s digital world, or merely a utopia. He also reflects on the Esprit Tech de Genève and Geneva’s unique local and global role in digital governance. Watch the interview | Read the Dig.Watch update
◆ Diplo’s Tereza Horejsova selected to serve on the WSIS+20 Informal Multistakeholder Sounding Board (IMSB)
Following an open call for expressions of interest, Diplo’s Tereza Horejsova, among others, has been selected to serve on the WSIS+20 Informal Multistakeholder Sounding Board (IMSB) – an informal mechanism established to support an open and responsive twenty-year review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Learn more!
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Diplo is a non-profit foundation established by the governments of Malta and Switzerland. Diplo works to increase the role of small and developing states, and to improve global governance and international policy development.
