Clingendael Academy experienced a very successful and fruitful year in different ways. First, more diversified professional training for diplomats and officials working in an international environment was successfully introduced, including in the fields of water diplomacy, trade diplomacy, cyber security and negotiation programmes for mediators. At another level, new training approaches and methodologies were designed. Clingendael Academy strengthened its unique capacity to develop and design in-house simulation exercises and case studies, as well as manuals for training international diplomatic skills. Furthermore, the Academy was engaged more extensively in international networking, by organising meetings with foreign diplomatic academies, alumni activities, incoming diplomatic visits, supporting young Dutch professionals in orientating towards an international career, and actively participating in international diplomatic networks. Finally, new international and diplomatic target groups were added to the Academy’s list. To name just two new initiatives: the number of Arab countries attending our programmes was expanded; and in cooperation with South Africa, a new programme for training African female mediators was designed.
Diplomatic Training
To be effective, professionals involved in diplomacy need: to build and maintain knowledge of the issues on which they are working; insight into the institutional environment of diplomacy and the broader international context; and, finally, a set of practical skills. These range from international policy analysis and international policy coordination, to effective international communication.
Clingendael diplomatic training begins with the daily practice of individual participants, and determines their training needs from there. Diplomatic training is for young professionals starting out – or with only a few years of experience – in diplomacy; mid-career professionals taking on new responsibilities in policy coordination within their organisation, as well as with partners; and senior diplomats who work on strategic policy-making and policy communication, develop scenarios, manage missions and participate in international public debates on behalf of their country. Each diplomat possesses and requires a different skill set. Our training programmes are targeted and structured accordingly.
Participants of the ‘Klasje’ during their training at Clingendael. (Photo: Clingendael)
Diplomatic Courses for Young Professionals
Clingendael Academy organised the following courses for young professionals in diplomacy:
Europe
The Netherlands
In an intensive three-month training programme, participants in the ‘Klasje’ commit to preparing themselves for their new job at the Netherlands MFA. In 2014, once again, a group of 26 – twenty from the MFA and six from other ministries – engaged in this programme.
South-Eastern Europe
The countries of South-Eastern Europe share a set of challenges in their relations with each other and with the EU. For (junior-level) diplomats from these countries, it is vital to understand regional relations in a broader international perspective, including the broader European context, as well as the processes of EU decision-making.
Southern Caucasus
Junior-level diplomats from the Azerbaijan and Georgia participated in a six-week course on professional skills, as well as new knowledge on a variety of topics, including international economic issues, public policy communication and the policies of EU issues.
The Arab Region
North Africa and the Middle East
Clingendael twice organised a joint diplomatic training programme for a group of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which are at different stages of reform.
Palestinian Territories
A new initiative concerned the preparation of Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affair’s officials for postings at one of the missions abroad. The programme emphasised the workings of foreign missions in a new era of public diplomacy, media strategies and interaction with other diplomatic channels. The training of skills was highlighted, in particular on negotiations, conflict resolution, communication and intercultural awareness.
Diplomats from Arab countries during one of the lectures. (Photo: Clingendael)
Asia
Indonesia
Former Ambassador to the Netherlands and current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Her Excellency Retno Marsudi at the closing ceremony of Indonesian Midcareer diplomats. (Photo: Clingendael)
In one of Clingendael’s longest running and most extensive partnerships in diplomatic training, an eight-week course was organised for a group of 22 junior-level diplomats from Indonesia. They explored themes of relevance to Indonesia’s foreign policy, built their professional diplomatic skills, and explored opportunities for cooperation between Indonesia and the EU, particularly the Netherlands.
Bangladesh and Pakistan
Ten diplomats from Bangladesh and ten from Pakistan joined this course to extend their perspectives on international diplomacy, exchanging perspectives on shared challenges and opportunities between the Netherlands and South Asia, as well as between their two countries.
Afghanistan
In this five-week course on international relations and diplomatic practice, a group of twenty junior diplomats joined Clingendael Academy to build their skills in diplomacy.
Central Asia and Mongolia
The training of young diplomats from the five Central Asian republics and Mongolia was given a new direction. At the heart of the course, diplomacy was linked to international law and the notion of The Hague as the legal capital of the world.
Policy Coordination
The Academy organised the following courses for mid-level diplomats and their roles in policy coordination:
Indonesia
Given the increasing demands of integration within the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), vibrant domestic debate, and Indonesia’s global prominence, with (leading) roles in forums such as the G77 and the G20, diplomats from Indonesia need to be able to assume different roles and perspectives, coordinate international policy-making with counterparts from other ministries and other ASEAN member states, and represent Indonesia both on the domestic and international levels, and to different audiences. In the annual training course for mid-career diplomats from Indonesia, these various demands were once again covered by an intensive, practice-oriented training programme that, in 2014, saw a group of ten participants study the personal skills, changing institutional environment and developments in the international arena.
ASEAN
Diplomats from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the ASEAN Secretariat came together in a two-week training programme to explore the different facets of their regional cooperation and the coordination challenges involved, as well as the opportunities for cooperation between ASEAN and the European Union.
Kosovo
In 2014, Clingendael Academy hosted a ten-day training programme for a group of mid-level diplomats who are engaged in Kosovo’s internal and international policy coordination.
Alumni from South-Eastern Europe
In December 2014, a training course was organised for alumni from earlier iterations of the training programme for diplomats from South-Eastern Europe. The programme was unique in including both candidate and potential candidate countries that have signed a stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) with the EU, as well as current EU members Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Syrian Opposition (SOC)
Focusing on the criteria and needs of (establishing) international missions and representations, Clingendael Academy organised a specialised one-week training programme for the SOC’s international representatives.
Strategic Policy Planning and Strategic Policy Communication
In 2014, Clingendael organised the following courses focusing on mid-level diplomats and their roles in policy coordination:
Indonesia
What does the evolution of international law mean for the future of international relations? How do MFAs engage in strategic public communication? What are the longer-term trends and developments in international security? What strategic prospects and opportunities are there for cooperation between Asia and Europe? And what does Indonesian foreign policy look like in 2025? These were just some of the questions studied by the group of ten senior-level participants from Indonesia who visited Clingendael in 2014, in the eleventh iteration of this annual course in foreign policy-making and strategic planning.
Afghanistan
A group of policy planners from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs joined Clingendael Academy for two weeks to study and practise, using internationally proven methods of (foreign) policy planning, drawing up a set of comprehensive, longer-term analyses of Afghanistan’s foreign policy along the way.
Specialised Diplomatic Training
For Clingendael Academy, 2014 was the year in which specialised diplomatic training programmes expanded to a much broader audience. Training courses included: ‘Trade and Economic Diplomacy’ (for a group of developing (ACP) countries, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, and for diplomats from the Maghreb and from South Africa); ‘Energy Diplomacy’ (in cooperation with the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute (BDI) for Balkan countries in Sofia); ‘Water Diplomacy’ (for diplomats from North Africa and the Middle East, including countries with ongoing regional water disputes); ‘Agricultural Diplomacy’ (for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs’ DG on Agriculture); and ‘Development Cooperation Diplomacy’ (for diplomats from China who came to the Netherlands to study and exchange perspectives on the ‘rise of Africa’). A seminar from the new agenda on development cooperation was also organised for diplomats and civil servants of the Bulgarian government.
International Skills Training
An integrated part of all of the training courses at Clingendael Academy is skills’ training, and specifically the skills required to be an effective diplomat. Diplomatic behaviour, competences and skills are not exclusively the domain of the diplomat. Everyone who operates in politically sensitive international environments benefits from having the relevant skill set. At Clingendael Academy, we provide courses in all diplomatic skills, including negotiation, intercultural communication, presentation skills and effective influencing. Skills’ training is part of all of Clingendael Academy’s training courses and the Academy’s staff delivered hundreds of sessions throughout the year.
African Female Mediators at one of Clingendael Academy’s simulation games during the negotiations training.
(Photo: Clingendael)
Centre of Excellence with Stand-alone Training around the World in 2014
Clingendael Academy staff are increasingly involved in stand-alone training sessions focusing specifically on one or two skills. We mostly deliver negotiation training, for which we see an ever-larger demand. In 2014, Clingendael Academy staff conducted roughly 60 training sessions in negotiation and mediation, not including negotiation training included in other Clingendael courses. Highlights included the training conducted within the European Diplomatic Programme (EDP), the training for Malaysian officials in chairing ASEAN, the training for African female mediators with the cooperation of the African Union and UN Women, and the training for delegates from Mozambique (on oil and gas negotiations).
Laboratory of Innovation and Change in 2014
Networking
As part of diplomacy modernisation at the Dutch MFA, Clingendael Academy delivered ten workshops in network management. Methodology for these workshops was specifically developed for the Dutch MFA, but is now being used in other diplomatic training courses. The workshops were part of a larger project by Clingendael Research on the networking practices of the Dutch MFA.
Negotiation Training as a Conflict-resolution Instrument
Following the training course for the Syrian Opposition (SOC) in 2013 in preparation for the so-called Geneva II meeting, Clingendael Academy and the Dutch MFA discussed establishing a facility for training groups that are involved in conflicts and their mediators in negotiation skills and processes. The first activity – part of a second-track diplomacy initiative by Brookings – took place in November. Clingendael Academy established the management of the facility and informed international organisations and NGOs of its existence, since activities within the facility need to be part of larger peace efforts.
EU and European Integration Training
Contrary to the past, Clingendael training courses on the EU are now a combination of content, skills and work processes. We train about the policy cycle of the EU, where and how to influence effectively, and of ‘Brusselisation’, meaning the Brussels’ working culture. Highlights of Clingendael Academy’s EU training in 2014 included: ‘How to Cooperate with Brussels’, this time for 25 civil servants from North Africa and the Arab region (involving the MATRA-South countries of Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Jordan); ‘Regional Policy Instruments of the EU’ for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and a comprehensive EU training package designed for the Flemish government, which also generated spin-off training programmes for representatives from the governing body of Flanders’ cities and municipalities in EU decision-making processes. Clingendael Academy also further improved the design of courses on ‘Effective Interest Management in the EU’, which was tailor-made for specific organisations such as the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and TNO-Innovation for Life, as well as for the Liaison Agency Flanders Europe (VLEVA) and the Knowledge Centre of Flemish Cities.
Together with the Centre for European Negotiation and Decision-making (CENAD), Clingendael Academy also developed a highly practical training course – with much attention for negotiations and chairing – for hundreds of Dutch civil servants in preparation for the Dutch presidency of the EU in 2016.
Participants during the course ‘How to Cooperate with Brussels'. (Photo: Clingendael)
International Security and Conflict Issues
2014 was very much a transitional year for security and conflict training at Clingendael Academy. Experiments with some new formats and foci were partly successful. The main conclusion for 2015 is to concentrate on training courses with a significant skills’ component, direct links with the work context and courses that are tailored to current affairs. The international footprint of the security courses also increased. Highlights included: the training course in ‘International Crisis Management’ for the Dutch Defence Academy’s Higher Defence College; a master class in ‘Cyber-Security’; the ‘Course in International Security’ (CIV), which was updated and focuses on cognitive knowledge transfer; and the ‘Pre-deployment Training’, which is intended for crisis-management missions such as UNTSO and Mali, and which is partly organised in the context of the European Commission-financed ENTRi project. For example, Clingendael and its Belgian partner the Egmont Institute co-organised the first Francophone pre-deployment training for civilian staff deploying to Mali. Furthermore, a workshop in ‘Crisis Management Communication’ was organised for a senior delegation from Latvia.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dutch Special Envoy to the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) 2015, Uri Rosenthal (r.), during the opening of the ‘Cyber-Security’ master class with Clingendael’s Senior Research Associate Maj. Gen. (ret.) RNLMC Kees Homan. (Photo: Clingendael)
Capacity-building in Diplomatic Training
As in previous years, Clingendael Academy worked with partners worldwide to build greater capacity in diplomatic training. This was done both in short courses in The Hague, as well as in workshops abroad. We present our partners with advice and training at various levels and focal points for our capacity-building activities. In capacity-building, we share Clingendael Academy’s educational and management approach, in coaching trainers and tutors to appreciate different ways of learning, to introduce interactive elements to their classes, and to explore integrated training as an attractive and often highly effective alternative. Focal points include: designing and using interactive exercises; curriculum development; and institutional development. Particular highlights in 2014 were:
The Foreign Service Academies of Bangladesh and Pakistan
Participants explored the rationale and pedagogy of interactive training, studied Clingendael’s case-based training approach to junior diplomatic training in the ‘Klasje’, and engaged in sessions on policy reporting sessions, negotiation simulations and lobbying workshops.
MFAs and Diplomatic Training Centres of Central Asia and Mongolia
With participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, a diverse selection of diplomats – some representing a training or human resources department within their ministry and others an outside academy or institute involved in diplomatic training at their national level – explored how practical policy analysis could be effectively trained for (junior-level) diplomats. They also compiled extensive ‘Back Home Action Plans’, which will be followed up in 2015.
The Centre for Education and Training of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia
Indonesia’s Centre for Education and Training and Clingendael Academy once again engaged in an exchange of perspectives and best practices on diplomatic training techniques, especially during the two weeks of workshops and guest lecturers that were organised in Jakarta. Additionally, Clingendael trainers contributed to a large alumni conference in Jakarta that celebrated eleven years of continued cooperation in the field.
The Training Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Montenegro
While diplomatic trainers have participants in regional capacity-building programmes at Clingendael in the past, 2014 marked the first time that Clingendael delivered a training course in the region. Starting from a strategic analysis, Clingendael Academy supported the Montenegrin MFA’s training department during a three-day workshop. Identifying target training groups and potential approaches, as well as internal and external factors to take into account in its institutional development, the department decided on a set of strategies to help it develop and grow into a more robust training centre in the years to come.
The Training Department of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa (DIRCO)
As a strategic partner, Clingendael Academy once again engaged in mutual advice and consultancy, sharing best practices with DIRCO’s training department. Of particular interest was curriculum development on mediation as a diplomatic skill, with the two institutes swapping notes.
The Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute (BDI)
Clingendael Academy continued its strategic relationship with the Diplomatic Institute of Bulgaria through informal contacts and consultancy on different projects, as well as one day of guest lectures and workshops showcasing Clingendael’s advanced training techniques in international negotiations as a tool in diplomatic training.
Participants of the BDI during their workshop. (Photo: Clingendael)
The Diplomatic Academy of Kosovo
Cooperation between Clingendael Academy and the Diplomatic Academy of Kosovo in 2014 consisted of a study visit to The Hague, a training of teachers (ToT) training course in The Hague, and a three-day workshop in Pristina, which focused on interactive training methods, while also introducing the curriculum design cycle.
Open Enrolment Courses and Other Activities
Part of the Diplomatic, European, Security and Skills programmes at Clingendael Academy is open to individual, open subscription. These activities were mentioned in the paragraphs above. One of the Academy’s flagships, the Course in International Relations (‘Leergang Buitenlandse Betrekkingen’), was organised for the 69th time(!) since 1967. The course lasts for three months and is open to Dutch professionals preparing or retraining for an international career.
Clingendael Academy also made available its experience and expertise to newly arrived foreign diplomats to get better acquainted with the Netherlands and Dutch foreign policy, contributed to visits of foreign ministers and delegations to the Netherlands, welcomed delegations of foreign diplomatic academies at Clingendael and prepared young Dutch professionals for representing the Netherlands within the United Nations.