DiploNews – Issue 104 – 1 June 2007

DiploNews – Issue 104 – June 1, 2007

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Final Call for Applications – Summer Online Courses

The application deadline for our courses beginning in July 2007 is approaching quickly: 

• Diplomacy of Small States
  (Ambassador Victor Camilleri) 


• Bilateral Diplomacy
  (Ambassador Kishan Rana) 


• Cyber Diplomacy
  (Mr Stefano Baldi, Dr Jovan Kurbalija, Dr Andrei Mikheyev) 


• 21st Century Diplomacy
  (Ambassador Kishan Rana) 

Courses allow working diplomats and others involved in international relations to continue their education by learning about new topics in the field of diplomacy, or to expand and refresh their knowledge of more traditional topics. Courses require 10 weeks of part-time study, typically 6 to 8 hours per week. Successful participants receive a postgraduate level certificate from DiploFoundation.
 
The application deadline for courses beginning in July 2007 is June 4, 2007. For further information, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our course website.

French as a Language of Diplomacy and International Relations

Since 1989, the University of Perpignan has offered a course in French as a language of diplomacy and international relations, as part of the educational and research activities designed for foreign partners of France in the European Union or elsewhere. The program will enable the student to develop special political and diplomatic skills through interdisciplinary and active learning approaches, to understand the interconnection between theory and practice, to master a foreign language, and to acquire leadership qualities and other essential skills of diplomacy.

For more info, see the University of Perpignan informational website or contact director Patrick Bellegarde: Bellegarde@univ-perp.fr.

Wikipedia Weakness Exposed as Student Poses as Professor

We note that one has to be careful in accepting some online sources of information. Wikipedia has had its major weakness exposed after a student from Kentucky, in the United States, posed as a professor of religious studies and made more than 20,000 alterations to controversial topics on the online encyclopedia. Using a pseudonym, the student became one of Wikipedia’s most prolific editors, trusted to arbitrate on factual disputes and keep the site free from vandalism. He had even featured in an article in the New Yorker, which took his claims to be an expert in canon law at face value. Now he has been identified as a 24-year-old student who had created an entirely false identity, claiming to be a tenured professor at a private university, but who relied on books such as Catholicism for Dummies when correcting articles on dogma. For the full story, see The Independent.