Effective bilateral diplomacy is essential to advancing a country’s external interests.
Bilateral diplomacy is a key building block of international relations, covering relationships between the home country and individual foreign states, one at a time. It is the very core of managing foreign relations. This course has been redesigned from its original 2000 version, with five new and three extensively rewritten lecture texts.
The lectures incorporate new developments in modes of diplomatic representation and the functions of diplomatic institutions that are now visible on the international canvas. The course looks at the increased impact of regional and multilateral diplomacy on bilateral diplomacy, the salience of national security issues, the role of non-state agencies, and the intercultural dimension, including diplomatic signalling.
Offering a practitioner’s view, the course examines how concepts operate in the real world, including the tools used to analyse international affairs through the tradecraft of diplomacy. The original author, Ambassador Kishan S Rana, is joined in handling the course by Ambassador Asoke Mukerji. The Canadian Foreign Service Institute and the British Foreign Office have used adaptations of this Course, in a self-learning format.
Lecturers
Amb. Asoke Mukerji
Former Indian Ambassador
Ambassador Asoke Mukerji’s diplomatic career spans 37 years, from 1978-2015. As India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2013-2015) he oversaw India’s negotiations on Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, focusing on prioritising the use of technology for achieving the SDGs. He represented India in the inter-governmental negotiations that recommended a text-based outcome for UN Security Council Reforms in September 2015. He led India’s successful initiative in the UN General Assembly in 2014 for adopting a resolution to declare 21 June every year as the International Day of Yoga.
Ambassador Mukerji was India’s Delegate to the World Trade Organization in Geneva (1995-1998). He was Deputy High Commissioner of India in the UK (2007-2010); India’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan (2005-2007); Deputy Chief of India’s Mission in the Russian Federation (2001-2005); and India’s first resident Charge d’affaires in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He headed India’s largest consular post in Dubai (UAE) as Consul General from 1998-2001 and was India’s last Consul General to Soviet Central Asia.
As Special Secretary in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, he oversaw Indian foreign policy planning and review, India’s policies in international organizations, and led Indian delegations participating in joint working groups on countering terrorism. He initiated India’s first international cyber dialogues with the USA, the UK, the Russian Federation, Japan, and the EU. He worked as Chef de Cabinet of India’s Minister of State for External Affairs (1993-95) and as Private Secretary to India’s Minister of External Affairs (1985-86).
Ambassador Mukerji chaired a multi-stakeholder working group under India’s National Security Council Secretariat to recommend cyber norms for India (2017-2018). He has addressed audiences at seminars and conferences in India and abroad, including the Global Conferences on Cyber Space at London (2011) and New Delhi (2017). He lectures regularly on multilateral issues to Indian and foreign diplomats at India’s Foreign Service Institute.
Ambassador Mukerji has published articles and book chapters in Indian and foreign publications on India’s foreign policy, as well as several books. He obtained a BA (Honours) and MA degree from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. In July 2018, he was awarded a Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa) degree by the University of East Anglia (UK) for his contributions to diplomacy.
Amb. Kishan Rana
Professor Emeritus, former Indian Ambassador, and a joint secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
Ambassador Kishan S. Rana is Professor Emeritus, and a Senior Fellow at DiploFoundation. He was awarded a BA (Hon) and MA in economics, St Stephens College Delhi. He was in the Indian Foreign Service (1960-95); and worked in China (1963-65, 1970-72). He was Ambassador and High Commissioner for Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Mauritius, and Germany; and consul general in San Francisco. He served on staff of PM Indira Gandhi (1981-82).
Amb. Rana is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi (book review editor, China Report); an Archives By-Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge; a Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington DC; guest faculty at the Diplomatic Academy, Vienna; and Commonwealth Adviser, Namibia Foreign Ministry, 2000-01. He has lectured in about 20 countries to diplomats at foreign ministry training institutions, and at ambassador conferences in several countries.
He is the author of Inside Diplomacy (2000); Managing Corporate Culture (co-author, 2000); Bilateral Diplomacy(2002); The 21st Century Ambassador (2004); Asian Diplomacy (2007); Diplomacy of the 21st Century (2011); India’s North-East States, the BCIM Forum and Regional Integration, (co-author, 2012); The Contemporary Embassy (2013); and Diplomacy at the Cutting Edge (2015). He is co-editor of Foreign Ministries (2007); and Economic Diplomacy(2011). The two books were translated into Chinese; some used as textbooks at several universities. He has written about 100 articles for academic journals and newspapers.
Effective bilateral diplomacy is essential to advancing a country’s external interests.
Bilateral diplomacy is a key building block of international relations, covering relationships between the home country and individual foreign states, one at a time. It is the very core of managing foreign relations. This course has been redesigned from its original 2000 version, with five new and three extensively rewritten lecture texts.
The lectures incorporate new developments in modes of diplomatic representation and the functions of diplomatic institutions that are now visible on the international canvas. The course looks at the increased impact of regional and multilateral diplomacy on bilateral diplomacy, the salience of national security issues, the role of non-state agencies, and the intercultural dimension, including diplomatic signalling.
Offering a practitioner’s view, the course examines how concepts operate in the real world, including the tools used to analyse international affairs through the tradecraft of diplomacy. The original author, Ambassador Kishan S Rana, is joined in handling the course by Ambassador Asoke Mukerji. The Canadian Foreign Service Institute and the British Foreign Office have used adaptations of this Course, in a self-learning format.
By the end of this course, participants should be able to:
- Describe, prioritise, and provide examples of the key tasks and methods of diplomacy today, including the security dimension; economic tasks; and public diplomacy, including culture, media, and education promotion.
- Explain how the different institutions involved in bilateral diplomacy (the foreign ministry, embassies and consulates) are organised, and describe current reforms to these institutions.
- Explain and analyse the complex and concurrent objectives that countries pursue in their external relationships.
- Identify the actors, state and non-state, that compose the foreign ministry’s dynamic network, and explain the role that each plays in foreign affairs.
- Assess current trends and methods of bilateral diplomacy, and anticipate likely future developments in this field.
Course outline
- Bilateral diplomacy - The basics: What is bilateral diplomacy and why is it important? The evolution of diplomacy: what is new? A provisional typology: features and management. The durability of the 1961 Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations and the challenges it faces adapting to new tasks, communication modes, and demands. The role of new actors, state and non-official; new modes of diplomacy management and the looming challenges.
- The four pillars: Political diplomacy: the objectives, methods, instruments and institutions. Economic diplomacy: a byproduct of interdependence between states, centrality of development in national policy, and complexity of linkages in goods production and services. Public diplomacy: embraces people-to-people communication, and non-state institutions. Consular diplomacy: gaining importance, it connects with its subset, diaspora diplomacy.
- Regional and multilateral diplomacy: Bilateral diplomacy, regional diplomacy, and multilateral diplomacy complement and supplement each other to promote a country’s national interests, involving multiple stakeholders. Bilateral diplomacy lays the foundations for constructing coalitions of interests in regional and multilateral fora. Traditional diplomatic methods of outreach and public diplomacy play a major role in developing such coalitions.
- Institutions: The institutional role of the ministry of foreign affairs in the country’s diplomatic system, and how to maximize its efficiency. The role played by embassies, consulates, representative offices, and honorary consuls in meeting traditional and new diplomatic objectives. Nurturing diplomatic institutions through adaption to new challenges, including the impact of new communications technologies. Strengthening the impact of diplomatic missions through structural reforms.
- Diplomatic practice: New trends in diplomatic practice; key elements in diplomacy work, including the embassy-foreign ministry relationship. Challenges in engaging multiple state and non-official actors; especially sub-state actors, subject diversity, and publics, at home and abroad. Work at the MFA and embassy; multi-tasking; resource constraints; the priority constituencies, including the diaspora. Internal management of embassies and consulates; use of task forces, cross-embassy priorities, people relationships within the embassy in stress situations.
- Negotiations: Theories and concepts analysing negotiations, past and present (‘zones of possible agreement’; the ‘decisive moment’; ‘two level’ process). How these affect the negotiation process, and practice. The stages of negotiations, and how that conceptual structure affects and guides contemporary practice. Styles of negotiations; the cultural dimension of this process; knowledge management.
- National security: The challenges to the national security of states posed by acts/threats of aggression. Strategic and supportive diplomatic structures to uphold national security of states. Countering international terrorism and the role of non-state actors. The new paradigm: ‘multi-dimensional’ national security and multiple stakeholder diplomatic engagement.
- Intercultural dimension and diplomatic signalling: The growing interdependence between nations and societies during the past three decades of accelerated globalisation requires the integration of intercultural skills in diplomatic interaction. How can countries include this dimension into bilateral diplomacy? Which concepts and theories can help us understand such behavioural traits? What is the significance of signalling for relations between states?
This course will be of interest to:
- Practising diplomats, civil servants, and others working in international relations who want to refresh or expand their knowledge under the guidance of experienced practitioners and academics.
- Postgraduate students of diplomacy or international relations wishing to study topics not offered through their university programmes or diplomatic academies and to gain deeper insight through interaction with practising diplomats.
- Postgraduate students or practitioners in other fields seeking an entry point into the world of diplomacy.
- Journalists, staff of international and non-governmental organisations, translators, business people and others who interact with diplomats and wish to improve their understanding of diplomacy-related topics.
This course is conducted entirely online over a period of ten weeks. Reading materials and tools for online interaction are provided through an online classroom. Each week, participants read the provided lecture text, adding questions, comments and references in the form of hypertext entries. Lecturers and other participants read and respond to these entries, creating interaction based on the lecture text. During the week, participants complete additional online activities (for example, further discussion via blogs or forums, quizzes, group tasks, simulations or short assignments). At the end of the week, participants and lecturers meet online in a chat room to discuss the week’s topic. To complete the course successfully, participants must write several essay assignments. Courses are based on a collaborative approach to learning, involving a high level of interaction.
This course requires a minimum of five to seven hours of study time per week.
All course applicants must have regular access to the Internet (dial-up connection is sufficient, although broadband is preferable).
Applicants for certificate courses must have:
- An undergraduate university degree OR three years of work experience and appropriate professional qualifications in diplomacy or international relations.
- Sufficient ability in the English language to undertake postgraduate level studies (including reading academic texts, discussing complex concepts with other course participants, and submitting written essay assignments of up to 2500 words in length).
Applicants for accredited courses must meet University of Malta prerequisites:
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant subject with at least Second Class Honours.
- English language proficiency certificate obtained within the last two years (minimum requirements: Internet-based TOEFL (iBT) – 95 (with a writing score of at least 24); IELTS: 6.5 (with a minimum of 6.0 in each element); Cambridge: Advanced Certificate with Grade C or better). Please indicate on the application form if you are still waiting for your English language proficiency results.
Course fees depend on whether you wish to obtain university credit for the course:
- €850 (University of Malta Accredited Course)
- €690 (Diplo Certificate Course)
Applicants must pay full fees upon official acceptance into the course. The fee includes:
- Tuition fee
- Access to all course materials online, via Diplo’s online classroom
- Personal interaction via the online classroom with course lecturers, staff and other participants
- Online technical support
- University of Malta application fee (for University of Malta Accredited Courses only)
- Access, via the Internet, to the University of Malta e-journal collection (University of Malta Accredited Courses only)
- For Diplo Certificate Courses, postgraduate level e-certificate issued by DiploFoundation on successful completion of course requirements (interaction and participation, all assignments) which can be printed or shared electronically via a permanent link
Discounts
Alumni members are eligible for a 15% discount on course fees.
Discounts are available for more than one participant from the same institution.
Financial assistance
A limited number of partial scholarships are available for diplomats and others working in international relations from small and developing countries, through support from the Government of Malta.
To apply for a scholarship please upload your CV and a motivation letter with your application. The motivation letter should include:
- Details of your relevant professional and educational background.
- Reasons for your interest in the course.
- Why you feel you should have the opportunity to participate in this course: how will your participation benefit you, your institution and/or your country?
As Diplo's ability to offer scholarship support is limited, candidates are strongly encouraged to seek scholarship funding directly from local or international institutions.
A number of routes for application are available:
- Apply for this course as a Diplo Certificate Course
- Apply for this course as a University of Malta Accredited Course
- Take this course as part of the Master/PGD in Contemporary Diplomacy
Apply for a Diplo Certificate Course
Applicants for certificate courses should apply online.
If you are applying for financial assistance, please upload your CV and a motivation letter with your application. The motivation letter should include:
- Details of your relevant professional and educational background.
- Reasons for your interest in the course.
- Why you feel you should have the opportunity to participate in this course: how will your participation benefit you, your institution and/or your country?
Please note that financial assistance from DiploFoundation is available only to applicants from developing countries. Late applications will be considered if there are spaces available in the course.
Apply for a University of Malta Accredited Course
Complete application packages must be received by specified application deadlines in order to be considered.
- University of Malta application form filled out in full (download form). You do not need to complete Section F.
- Certified copies of original degree(s) and official transcripts.
- English translations of degree(s) and transcripts if they are not in English, signed and stamped by translator.
- English language proficiency certificate:
* TOEFL iBT Certificate. Home-based test. More info: https://www.ets.org/s/cv/toefl/at-home/ (minimum requirements: 90 overall with a writing score of at least 24, obtained within the last two years).
* Academic IELTS Certificate (minimum requirements: 6.0 overall and 6.0 in the reading and writing components). The University of Malta will accept Academic IELTS certificates obtained in the last five years.
* Cambridge English Proficiency Advanced Certificate (minimum requirements: Grade C or better, obtained within the last two years).
Please indicate on the application form if you are still waiting for your English language proficiency results.
If your undergraduate study programme was taught entirely in English, this may be considered to fulfil the University of Malta’s English language requirement. You must present an official statement from the institution where you studied confirming that the language of instruction and assessment throughout the whole programme was English. - Photocopy of personal details pages of your passport.
- If you are requesting partial financial assistance, please include your CV and a motivation letter (300 – 400 words) with your application. The motivation letter should include details of your relevant professional and educational background; reasons for your interest in the course; and why you feel you should have the opportunity to participate in this course, i.e. how will your participation benefit you, your institution, and/or your country. Please note that all financial assistance is partial. We do not offer full scholarships. Financial assistance is only available to applicants from developing countries.
- Application fee or proof of payment (€100 – non-refundable – see methods of payment).
Please send the complete application package by e-mail to admissions@diplomacy.edu or by post to:
DiploFoundation
Anutruf, Ground Floor
Hriereb Street
Msida, MSD 1675, Malta
Please note that by sending your application package, you are confirming that you have read DiploFoundation's Privacy Policy. Please note that DiploFoundation will process and share your personal data with third parties (including the University of Malta) for admissions and academic matters, administering finance, and administrative purposes in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
Cancellation Policy
Diplo reserves the right to cancel this course if enrolment is insufficient. In case of cancellation, Diplo will notify applicants shortly after the application deadline. Applicants who have paid an application fee may apply this fee towards another course or receive a refund.
E-learning with DiploFoundation was a great experience. The innovative online sessions and contact with other students really helped to gain a wide view on the topics discussed. Despite having practised bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, I found the course informative and focussed, such as the benefits and drawbacks of both soft and hard power. This in particular proved useful in completing my understanding of how diplomacy can work at different levels.
After more than ten years immersed in the multilateral side of the practice of diplomacy and international relations, the Bilateral Diplomacy Course provided me with an invaluable complement to my experience. Though challenging and intense, Ambassador Rana guided us in a manner that allowed us to exchange and discuss the topics and generate ideas, as well as to apply what was learnt to our real-life situations. I was particularly drawn to the myriad theories and aspects of cultural diplomacy, and the role it plays in the successful practice of diplomacy and negotiations, which provided me with new skills that are useful to my work.