Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean takes off

Just over a month since the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean was launched, it has already graduated its first cohort of 23 students in Contemporary Diplomacy: Issues and Processes and is one week away from its second module on Protocol and Diplomatic Law.{{more}}

The Academy, a joint project between the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and The University of the West Indies (The UWI) through its Institute of International Relations, was successfully launched at the St Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies on May 6. It was immediately followed by the intense five-day inaugural module on Contemporary Diplomacy: Issues and Processes, facilitated by Professors Jorge Heine and Andrew Cooper from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, co-editors of the Oxford Handbook on Modern Diplomacy. Participants at the inaugural module were guided through the fundamentals of public diplomacy and the balancing of national, regional and global interests, as well as contemporary challenges diplomats face.

Protocol and Diplomatic Law, the next module, will be staged in two cycles – the first, June 23rd to 27th and the second, June 30th to July 4. It is a “training of trainers” programme, to transfer not only knowledge and aptitudes to participants, but also to introduce them to the necessary training technology and equip them to initiate and conduct training actions at the level of their respective departments, units and organizations, assuring thus multiplier effects over time and over future trainees. This module will be facilitated by the Washington Center for Protocol.

According to Professor Andy Knight, director of The UWI’s Institute of International Relations, “Unlike other diplomatic academies, the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean was envisioned as a training facility that would give prospective and current Caribbean diplomats the competence to practise a new form of diplomacy that would be relevant to the changed condition of the 21st century.”

Persons interested in learning more about the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean should e-mail diplomaticacademy@sta.uwi.edu, call 868 662 2002 extension 8208 or visit http://sta.uwi.edu/iir/academy.asp