The Foreign Service Journal, September 2016

42 SEPTEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL First, it divides training into three levels: Foundation, Practitioner and Expert. This is simple, logical and, in hindsight, obvious— and it is curious that no one thought of it earlier. Programs and courses are pegged to the different levels while at the same time retaining a larger training vision for professional diplomats, as well as for officials from other agencies. The Diplomatic Acad- emy’s staff is lean—just 15—and, presumably, part-time trainers from the FCO and elsewhere will be used. Second, for the first time “locally employed staff” overseas are included in the training. Many countries give expanded responsibility to locally engaged employees, entrusting to them tasks that go beyond past routine. They carry out not only public outreach and basic investment and trade work, but also what one might call executive tasks: media report analysis, aid man- agement and even some basic political work. This was unthink- able in the past. Third, in place of classroom teaching, the FCO will use dis- tance teaching and “learning groups.” As Davies has explained: “The modules are designed so that individuals can work through them alone. …We are putting the responsibility on individuals to make sure that they get involved in a group and work through the curriculum with fellow members.” This means that the indi- vidual official is responsible for the pace of learning, presumably forming and joining groups for collective studies and discussion. In essence, officials are entrusted with their own training disci- pline. I am sure this experiment will be watched with interest. Finally, there is another novel feature. In Davies’ words: “We will also, where appropriate, be hard-wiring some academy learning into our evolving promotion model. Successful comple- tion of the Foundation level, for example, will become essential at one particular step up the ladder. And for entry to our senior management structure, colleagues will have to have reached the Practitioner level in a number of faculties.” The FCO already uses its remarkable Assessment and Development Centers for rigor- ous, objective promotion selection, even at the junior rank of second secretary, also treating that exposure as a form of train- ing. The ADC method is expensive to operate and has undergone some simplification since its inception a decade ago; and it may, perhaps, be due for further modification. World Trends Training in foreign ministries around the world is undergo- ing intensification and expansion. Most countries are setting up their own corps of trainers, sourcing them from both academia and the ranks of retired envoys. Whether it is in Kenya, Thai- land or Uganda, new training programs and courses are being added and efforts are being made to include officials from other ministries. In China, efforts by the foreign ministry to establish its diplomatic academy at a new campus alongside the China Foreign Affairs University have been postponed, perhaps in a cost-saving move. But the country’s 7,000-strong diplomatic service maintains its robust commitment to mid-career train- ing. Each year, 140 Chinese diplomats are selected through an intense competition to attend one-year courses at some of the best universities around the world—a unique effort to groom high flyers for senior positions. Not many foreign ministry training institutions include cor- porate managers and representatives of business and industry in their programs, and this is an error. Non-state representa- tives play an active role in external affairs and are vital in today’s public-private partnership model of diplomacy. Their involve- ment in diplomatic training programs has mutual benefits: they bring perspectives that are useful for diplomats to understand, and diplomats offer them insight into the working of official agencies. The International Forum on Diplomatic Training —run by the directors of the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria, and Georgetown University’s Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Ser- vice in Washington, D.C.—holds annual meetings of the acad- emies and the institutes that exist now in perhaps more than 80 foreign ministries (see forum.diplomacy.edu) . But I am not sure that enough attention is being given to helping the smaller train- ing institutes. Regional-level gatherings of diplomatic academies also take place in Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. It is also noteworthy that some academic institutions are adding “practice of diplomacy” to the nomenclature of a few of their professorships. Working diplomats are now found in teaching positions at some institutions. Perhaps the theory-practice gap is now, finally, shrinking. In essence, [at Britain’s Diplomatic Academy] officials are entrusted with their own training discipline. This experiment will be watched with interest.