Clingendael Academy delivers Cyber Diplomacy & AI training in Bhutan

In November 2025, the Clingendael Academy has delivered a specialised four-day training course focused on Cyber Diplomacy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Thimphu, the Kingdom of Bhutan. 

The course featured one of Clingendael’s innovative training combinations of cyber diplomacy and AI governance. The training brought together 15 professionals from different government organisations of Bhutan, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & External Trade, the Government Technology (GovTech) Agency, Department of Immigration, Department of Civil Registration & Census, Department of Law & Order and the Royal Bhutan Police Force. 

Throughout the training, participants worked with four core components: understanding cyber threats, exploring emerging technologies such as AI, examining (inter)regional governance structures for both cyber and AI, as well as practising with state-level attribution and response to cyber incidents. By working through realistic scenarios and assignments, participants had the opportunity to link Bhutan’s strategic and policy priorities to global developments in the domain of cyber and AI. 

This training follows Clingendael's diplomatic skills programme and several earlier courses delivered between 2016 and 2024, making us proud to have trained 86 Bhutanese alumni of the institute. The Clingendael Academy extends its sincere appreciation to all participants for their engagement, as well as to The Ministry of Foreign Affairs & External Trade of Bhutan for the collaboration.