Clingendael Academy organises tailor-made programmes for diplomats from all over the world.  An excellent example of this is the training course  in diplomacy, stability and prosperity for the junior diplomats from the Central-Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and from Mongolia who enjoyed courses especially designed for them and many skills trainings. 

The course for diplomats from the Central-Asian region is a good example of the great variety of alumni Clingendael has. We have alumni from all over the world and since the amount of programmes that is organized by the Academy is increasing every year, our alumni network is expanding accordingly. Nevertheless, we keep designing every single course tailor-made by taking into account aspects such as the nationality of the diplomats and their work experience. This is why the programme for junior diplomats from the Central-Asian region was particularly focused on security, cooperation and skills training. 

Confidence-building and security organisations
From the 23th of November until the 13th of December the diplomats from Central-Asia and Mongolia participated in the training course in diplomacy, stability. This programme specifically focused on security and cooperation. A prime example was the session about confidence-building and security cooperation, which was specifically designed for this course. In this session, a special focus was given to confidence-building measures, which are of great importance to enhance the trust between countries in the region and between the different parts of the world. In following the Clingendael Training Method, the session combined a theoretical lecture with a practical negotiation simulation.

Skills training
We do not only take into account the region where the diplomats come from but also how many work experience the diplomats have got. In contrast to our mid-career and senior programmes, our junior programmes, such as the Central-Asia and Mongolia programme, include a considerable amount of skills training provided by our experts. In the Central-Asia and Mongolia programme we included the following skills training:

• Public speaking and presentation skills: By immediately starting with this lecture at the beginning of the programme they were able to practice their newly learned presentation skills regularly during the rest of the course.
• International negotiation training: We also organized two mornings of international negotiation training at the beginning of the course. Clingendael also organises open registration courses on international negotiations for everyone who is interested. In the rest of the course the diplomats were also engaged in a simulation on drugs trafficking and on transboundary water management. The exercise enabled them to practice their newly learned negotiation skills on security issues in their own region.
• Networking training: This training consisted of two parts:  a workshop about network diplomacy and a network analysis assignment. The latter needed to be prepared in groups and at the end of the course they had to present their conclusions.   

It is of vital importance for junior diplomats to enhance their skills training and therefore it was a vital part of this training course. This is also shown in the evaluations in which most of the junior diplomats mentions the skills trainings as the most fruitful and interesting part of the programme. 

More information?
To find out more about this training course, click here for information about the edition of 2014. For more specific information about this training programme, please do not hesitate to contact the course coordinators Mr. Bart Hogeveen or Ms. Anneke Rooth. For more information about the open registration course in international negotiations contact the course coordinator Mr. Christiaan Nelisse.