DiploNews – Issue 221 – 6 February 2013

Diplo among Top 100 NGOs

DiploFoundation has been selected among the top 100 NGOs which include the Wikimedia Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Amnesty International. Global Journal's selection was based on criteria such as impact, innovation, and sustainability.

The Top 100 NGO award is an acknowledgement of Diplo's ongoing work in fostering more effective and inclusive diplomacy.  Diplo’s corpus alumni consists of more than 2500 officials, academics, and other international relations professionals from 189 UN member states. More information about the Top 100 award.

May 2013 online courses

Starting on 6 May 2013, Diplo offers a series of important online courses covering essential topics in contemporary diplomacy:

• Bilateral Diplomacy
• Diplomacy of Small States
• E-Diplomacy
• Economic Diplomacy (NEW! – available in this session only as a certificate course)

Apply by 4 March for University of Malta accredited courses and by 1 April for Diplo Certificate Courses. For further information or to apply, click on the titles of the courses above, or visit our courses website. Register now to reserve your place.

The subject, Diplomacy of Small States, has further strengthened my knowledge and belief that regardless of constraints, some small states have shown their ability to project formidable foreign policy initiatives. The course has to a large extent helped to broaden my horizon at a global level, thanks to the weekly assignments from colleagues, analysing the different perspectives on how small states practice their diplomacy.

Momodu Wurie, Head of Chancery, Embassy of the Republic of Sierra Leone in Tripoli, Libya

What's happening in Diplo's blogosphere?

Spring has sprung and the minds of Diplo’s bloggers are focusing on the future. Aldo Matteucci looks at The future of WTO as159 member states are about to select the new WTO Director General. In … what if?  Aldo opens with the volley:  counterfactual history is mostly idle speculation. Is it? Olaph Terribile explores  New Year's greetings and the role that protocol plays

Biljana Scott puts her finger on the pulse of language and detects ‘the heartbeat of conviction, the blood pressure of aspiration’ as she gives a doctor’s diagnosis of Obama’s 2013 Inaugural. Over on the Diplomacy channel, Petru Dumitriu maintains that Small is beautiful as he looks at taxation and representation in the United Nations.  In a second post, Eyes wide shut: United Nations larger than life, Petru reckons that the world is  looking at the United Nations through distorting lenses. Do you agree?

Liz  Galvez explores speaking without conversing: when being present simply isn't enough while over on the Readings channel we look at the hot topic of public diplomacy and the many reports available on the subject. Hannah Slavik ventures into Expeditionary diplomacy as featured in Diplomatic Theory and Practice course while we also take  quick look at links we liked in the past month: iFreedom, Lego, social media policies, Digital Addiction, Peak Facebook

As always, you, too, can have your say. Feel free to comment on these or any of our posts or e-mail us with your ideas for a guest blog.

Discussing Internet governance

Last month, many discussions took place over what to expect in Internet governance (IG) in 2013. The IG forecast for the coming months was the subject of our January IG webinar, during which our host, Dr Jovan Kurbalija, discussed his 2013 predictions by offering three new ways of looking at developments in IG. If you missed the webinar, the podcast, digest, and presentation are available for download here.

In an interview entitled Internet Governance in 2013: Cloudy with sunny spells, windy at times, Dr Kurbalija talks about developments in Internet politics and the appearance of the first building blocks towards a new IG 'deal'. On the same subject, an interview with Dr Kurbalija on Sauvegarder l'unité d'Internet was published in Le Temps. The link to the interview is available here.

On Diplo’s online IG community site, Nnenna Nwakanma shared a link to her blog post on The Weird, Ironic and Hypocritical WCIT and the new International Telecommunication Regulations, in which she shares her own views as a delegate in Dubai.

Juan Manuel Rojas writes about three common myths related to cybersecurity, and how to address them. One of the myths is, 'it will not happen to me'. If this thought has already crossed your mind, read more here.

In Establishment of a UN CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation, Vladimir Radunovic shares a call for comments by the UN CSTD. The deadline for comments is next Friday.

In Are Africa telcos strategies really working?, Mwende Njiraini reflects on a recent article which states that investors have made a mistake by formulating a single strategy for Africa assuming there is homogeneous economic activity.

Seun Samson Ojedeji reflects on the Internet's multilingualism, including challenges and future scenarios. The predominance of the English language on the Internet has created challenges for Internet users who are unable to participate effectively and benefit from the advantages of the Internet. Read more here.

To read more IG-related blog posts, subscribe to Diplo’s IG blog, and follow blog posts shared by members of Diplo’s IG community.