DiploNews – Issue 152 – 19 January 2009

DiploNews – Issue 152 – January 19, 2009

« | list | » 

 
Call for Applications: Internet Governance and ICT Policy Courses

DiploFoundation is pleased to announce a call for applications for two online programmes in Internet Governance and ICT Policy:

• Programme for applicants from African-Caribbean-Pacific states, funded by the Secretariat of the ACP Group of States and the European Union and run in partnership with seven ACP institutions. Please see the programme website for further information and to apply.
• Diplo’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme 2010 for applicants from the Americas, Europe, Middle East/North Africa and Asia. Information and application details are available on Diplo’s Internet Governance and Policy website.

Both online programmes are designed to improve Internet governance related knowledge and skills for participants mainly from developing countries and assist them to participate meaningfully in the global decision-shaping debates on Internet governance. The programmes also facilitate community building among individuals with different national, cultural, and professional backgrounds.

The deadline for applications for both courses is 12 February 2010, and the foundation courses will run from March 1 until May 28, 2010.

Professional Development Workshops

Language and Influence (22-24 March 2010). Our workshop on Language and Influence will explore how language works and how to use it to attain goals. The primary objective is to provide participants with a linguistic toolkit that will enable them to use language effectively and to defuse the most frequent difficulties in language use, such as ambiguity, analogy, argumentation, and suggestion. Another objective is to practice presentation skills. The leader will introduce participants to the art of rhetoric and encourage them to hone the art of “brief, trenchant and, if possible, witty” interventions. A study of visual language may be included in the workshop on request. Here, too, a toolkit of rhetorical devices is provided and applied to both photojournalism and branding.

Leadership and Decision Making (25-27 March 2010). How do we make decisions? Why are some decisions harder to make? What are the benefits and the risks of making decisions? Our workshop on Leadership and Decision Making addresses the issue of how to make decisions in politics, business, and everyday life, how to influence an audience, and how to exercise leadership. Course participants will learn how to define an issue, evaluate the setting, give priorities to options, and take action. They will discuss how to develop an alternative course of action and reach intermediate and final goals. Through an interactive presentation, role-play exercises, and self-evaluation, the participants will enhance their arguing skills and learn how to make rational choices, and to motivate and influence an audience. 

Application Deadline Extended: February Online Courses

We are pleased to extend the application deadline by one week for the following online courses beginning the week of 22 February 2010:

• Diplomatic Theory and Practice
• Public Diplomacy

Due to a large number of applications, Diplo will be running an extra session of Diplomatic Theory and Practice this February. A few places are left in each course; apply now to avoid disappointment. Courses are available as Diplo Certificate Courses (application deadline 25 January 2010). For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website. 

Books on Diplomacy in January

As we know that diplomats have little time for reading and study, we hope that a monthly review of new publications may assist in choosing some of the most relevant of current books. This month we present two recent titles.

Kenneth Weisbrode. (2009). The Atlantic Century: Four Generations of Extraordinary Diplomats who Forged America’s Vital Alliance with Europe. Da Capo Press.

Anyone interested in the history of diplomatic relations between the US and Europe will enjoy this book. Weisbrode, a trained historian and active commentator currently working at the European University Institute in Italy, traces four generations of diplomatic relations as seen through the eyes of individual actors. He focuses on the US State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs and tells the stories of figures such as Dean Acheson, W. Averell Harriman, and Henry Kissinger. The book has three aims: to trace the history of US relations with the countries of Europe, to tell the stories of the people involved in this process, of how they worked and why they mattered, and to interpret the significance of their achievements and failures for the history of US foreign relations. For more information, please visit the Da Capo Press website.

Malcolm H. Patterson. (2009). Privatising Peace. A Corporate Adjunct to United Nations Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Operations. Palgrave MacMillan.

With the failures of UN peacekeeping in Somalia and Yugoslavia in mind, this book discusses the employment of private contractors in UN peacekeeping. The book starts from the provocative hypothesis that the procurement of private military and security companies in certain circumstances seems likely to improve UN peacekeeping operations. In his investigation, the author looks at alternatives to sovereign forces in the UN context, how the UN peacekeeping system works, and the structures and operations of private military and security companies. In the end, he makes a modest proposal of how to incorporate these companies into the UN peacekeeping framework. For additional information, please visit the publisher’s website.