Mission

Located in the Department of International Relations in the University’s Coral Bell School for Asia Pacific Affairs, the Diplomacy Forum functions as a focal point for the study of diplomacy at The Australian National University. The Forum promotes the study of diplomacy in three main ways.

1. By coordinating a network of scholars, students and practitioners of diplomacy.
   To this end, the Forum hosts regular gatherings and seminars, including sessions targeted at students enrolled in the Master of Diplomacy program.
2. By offering tailored training courses related to the study and practice of diplomacy.
   This includes designing and delivering tailored executive education short courses, organizing briefings for diplomats, and hosting roundtables to connect visiting diplomats and scholars.
3. By supporting the creation and dissemination of new research on diplomacy.
   The Forum promotes excellence and innovation in diplomacy research through its network of scholars, doctoral students and visiting scholarship program.

Vision

The Diplomacy Forum promotes excellence and innovation in research on diplomacy, equips students and practitioners of diplomacy with highly specialised skills, and aims to steer the national conversation on the key challenges facing the practice of diplomacy in a changing global context. Realising this vision will demand sustained effort, creativity and professionalism and must take advantage of growth opportunities to achieve continuous improvement in quality across its core mission areas of research, training and networking.

The research activities of the Forum extend into other parts of ANU and beyond, and are facilitated by a world-wide network of practitioners, policy makers and academics. The research program at ANU includes seconded researchers from outside the university, ‘in-residence’ professionals, and visitors from universities in Australia and around the world.

The Diplomacy Forum hosts visiting fellows through two streams:

1. Visiting Research Fellow
2. Visiting Practitioner Fellow

For inquiries, contact: Andrea Haese, Executive Officer, Diplomacy Forum, Andrea.Haese@anu.edu.au

The Forum delivers a range of Executive Education short courses in two formats - scheduled courses, and tailored courses.

In consultation with clients, we design, deliver and facilitate training and executive education to enhance the skills, knowledge and understanding of practitioners and policymakers in the field of Diplomacy.

Aims

Our courses are designed to:

• Provide relevant conceptual frameworks and skill-sets enabling practitioners to better understand and navigate their operating environment.

• Draw upon the historical and contemporary conditions in which particular diplomatic processes and strategies can be assessed.

• Consider alternative approaches to emerging issues in our globalised world, particularly those involving specific regional dimensions.

Content and delivery

We offer an extensive range of Executive Education courses with quality control and quality assurance of these courses executed through the Program Troika - comprising the lead academic overseeing the intellectual content of the course, a high-ranking practitioner (Forum Ambassador) overseeing the practical relevance and assisting in program delivery, and the Executive Officer of the Forum in charge of program design, delivery, and evaluation.

Collaborations

In order to deliver our exceptional education program, we collaborate with a global network of international agencies, diplomatic academies and training programs such as:

• Clingendael

• United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)

• United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

• Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS)

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

• International Forum on Diplomatic Training (IFDT)

• Harvard Negotiation Project

• Australian Civil-Military Centre

The Forum is also a member of the International Forum on Diplomatic Training.

Diplomatic Capacity Building

We can customise training courses, provide advice and expertise to foreign ministries and other diplomatic training centres across the world. The capacity building courses we offer can be tailored according to the needs of the client, and therefore varies in scope and size. It may involve multi-year initiatives that provide comprehensive assistance in designing, delivering, and evaluating training programs. Other activities may include joint curriculum development and the training of trainers. Courses may vary from introductory seminars to more specialised courses or masterclasses, briefings, and workshops to match the objectives and needs of our client’s organisation and staff.

To date, we have delivered training for diplomatic practitioners in Australia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, South America, as well as South and Southeast Asia.

For enquiries on Diplomacy Executive Education programs, contact Andrea Haese, Executive Officer, Diplomacy Forum, Andrea.Haese@anu.edu.au

The Forum’s mission is to promote and advance research in diplomacy through multidisciplinary approaches and covering a breadth of expertise on thematic issues of significance to Australia’s foreign policy. It serves as the focal point for diplomacy research at the Australian National University (ANU) – convening seminars, workshops and conferences, hosting visiting scholars, and organizing externally funded research projects as well as short courses for practitioners.

We see diplomacy as both state practice (what traditional diplomats do at embassies or at the United Nations) and social practice (what many non-state actors of consequence do in the international sphere). All of this work combines serious engagement with processes of change and emerging patterns of conflict and cooperation, on the one hand, with an emphasis on the still critical role of states, on the other. Accordingly, we seek to advance the study and practice of ‘complex diplomacy’, an approach that views contemporary diplomacy as less state-centric more connected, more adaptive, and more diverse than ever before.

Our diplomacy research covers a breadth of expertise related to foreign policy and diplomacy, such as diplomacy studies, international political economy, foreign policy analysis, regional and global governance, strategic and security studies, humanitarianism, international ethics and justice, gender, and migration. The Coral Bell School on Asia Pacific Affairs hosts world-class expertise on the security and politics of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Forum’s research is closely tied to the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affair’s successful graduate teaching and the Forum’s executive training programs. It maintains close links with related centres at ANU and collaborates with a network of similar centres across the world.