Resources
The Ambassadors Online Magazine: The Forum for Cultures and Civilizations.
The Ambassadors Magazine is a free international bi-annual publication (January & July) targeting diverse cultures and peoples. The magazine is a forum for critical discussion of different topics in a constructive medium.
Council of American Ambassadors (CAA)
The CAA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association of more than 200 former and incumbent non-career United States ambassadors that supports the role of the American ambassador and the country team in carrying out U.S. foreign policy at embassies around the world. In this connection, it provides advice and assistance to the U.S. Department of State, as appropriate, and endeavors to educate the public on foreign policy issues affecting the national interest.
A Diplomat’s Handbook for Democracy Development Support, by Ambassador Mark Palmer
Rationale for A Diplomat’s Handbook:
In recent years, diplomacy as practiced by many democratic nations has taken on more of a human face. Whereas once the conduct of diplomatic relations was strictly on a state-to-state basis, today, Ambassadors and diplomats are much more likely to engage the publics of the host countries and not exclusively government officials. Embassies and Consulates are ready vehicles and brokers promoting contact and communications between the peoples and nongovernmental organizations and groups of the sending and host countries. Democracy development and human rights are among the most active topics of such communications.
Diplomats of CD member states are often approached by civil society activists with requests for assistance. Too often they are met by diplomats who are unprepared and untrained to help. While there has been some progress, an enormous potential source of assistance is largely unrealized. Embassies are present in large numbers in even the most closed countries, while foreign NGOs often are being squeezed out.
There is no codified set of procedures for diplomats to follow in order to respond effectively. Each situation is different, presenting unstructured problems and opportunities which diplomats need to interpret according to the merits of the issues and local conditions, the bilateral relationship and the foreign policy concerns of the home country. However, there has been considerable past experience which might be helpful on a case-by-case basis in the field.
A Diplomat’s Handbook for Democracy Development Support is meant to present a wide variety of case studies documenting and explaining specific country experiences. It also identifies creative, human, and material resources available to Missions, the ways in which Missions and diplomats have supported requests in the past, and describes how such support has been applied. A review of these experiences bears out the validity of our belief in our inter-dependence. It will hopefully also provide practitioners with encouragement, counsel, and a greater capacity to support democrats everywhere.
Chapter 3: The Diplomat’s Toolbox
This chapter sets out from three perspectives the sorts of opportunities and constraints diplomats encounter in democracy development support: 1) the resources and assets at a diplomat’s disposal; 2) the ways in which diplomats have deployed these assets in support of civil society, democratic development, and human rights in a multitude of situations over the last decades; and 3) their applications in favor of local partners, policy goals, and programs. Clearly, the local context is paramount, including the attitude, sometimes hostile, of local authorities. It is emphasized that these are tools of “soft power.”
The Diplomatic Courier is a Global Affairs Magazine with the dual mission to publish the next generation of foreign policy leaders alongside the foreign policy establishment as well as publish diplomatic affairs and related news from global perspective
In 1996 a group of retired American diplomats residing in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle area of North Carolina conceived and launched American Diplomacy, an electronic journal of commentary and analysis on international issues, available free to all users of the world wide web. They did so with the cooperation of theUniversityofNorth CarolinaatChapel Hill, which provided web site hosting facilities, and with the encouragement and advice of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and the UNC Curriculum for Peace, War, and Defense.
With decades of experience in providing training to other agencies on a reimbursable basis, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is uniquely qualified to support other agencies, particularly those who have a need for knowledge of foreign languages, cultures, or international affairs. FSI offers both online and traditional classroom sessions to the Department of State and to employees from over 60 other government entities in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government. FSI provides both mentored and self-paced distance learning products developed by FSI.
Since 2005, the Foreign Service Institute has served as one of five designated, federal wide, e-training service providers. FSI’s secure, certified Internet based learning management system, selected for its ability to handle the scripts/fonts/characters of all the world’s languages, delivers online training to a worldwide audience. FSI provides training in more than 60 languages and in the full range of foreign affairs tradecraft – area and cultural studies, Consular affairs, IT skills for professionals and end users, resource management, security, economics, management, public diplomacy, administration, secretarial and office management, political reporting, and leadership – in the classroom and online.
Please click here for a schedule of courses.
The Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training
The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1986. Located in an historic Sears-style cottage at the State Department’s George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC) inArlington,Virginia, ADST advances knowledge of American diplomacy and supports training of foreign affairs personnel at the NFATC’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI) through a variety of programs and activities. Although ADST is engaged in a special public-private partnership with the Department of State, it receives its funding from its members and others interested in strengtheningU.S.diplomacy.
The Association accomplishes its objectives by:
- Creating the Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection. Growing by some 80 histories per year, the collection conveys the experiences, analyses, knowledge, and wisdom of both career and non-career foreign affairs practitioners. Users include business, the media, academe, and government. Some 1,500 oral histories are accessible on the website of the Library of Congress and many more are in various stages of completion.
- Producing two book series on diplomats and diplomacy, and providing advice on publishing to serving and former foreign affairs personnel. Almost 50 books have been published in the two series, and more are forthcoming.
- Supporting Foreign Service Institute training programs as well as seminars and policy conferences that bring together academics, the private sector, and senior government officials in discussions of critical foreign relations issues.
- Creating and maintaining an instructional website on U.S. diplomacy.
- Recognizing excellence in foreign language training through annual awards to Foreign Service Institute instructors.
- Presenting biennial awards for outstanding leadership in diplomacy, international business, and promotion of the study of diplomacy.
- Mounting exhibits that illuminate the history and artifacts of American diplomacy.
- Sponsoring distinguished ADST Senior Fellows to pursue special projects on diplomacy.
- Maintaining a research center.
EMBASSY SERIES – Uniting People through Musical Diplomacy
In 1994, the Embassy Series made its debut. Since then, the Series has worked with over 100 ambassadors, hosted over 300 concerts in 46 different embassies involving more than 500 artists from the D.C. area. Programs that involve the broad population of the District have included: 1) Jazz in the American Experience; 2) The Dutch-Jewish experience; 3) Love Songs from Mexico; 4) French and Chinese music at the Singapore Embassy; 5) Mozart and Schumann memoriam festivals; 6) Brahms birthdays, and a host of other programs representing the cultural diversity of residents living in the city.
By extending public access to the embassies in the Nation’s Capital, the Series offers its audience the opportunity to participate in a cultural exchange – to watch and listen to a musical performance that highlights the contributions of a particular country. Such a backdrop allows the audience to “get a feel” for the nation being represented, which is key to promoting and celebrating the diversity of both a host embassy and Series patrons.
This educational and musical experience is accentuated by a reception at the host embassy or residence immediately following the concert, where guests are encouraged to interact with the featured artist(s) of the evening and the diplomatic community.
Planning for Diplomatic Engagement, 30 March 2010, by Elena L. Brineman, USAID Senior International Development Advisor, U.S Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI)
Why European Diplomacy is in Decline, February 2012, by Hugo Brady, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.
