A global academy for Caribbean Diplomacy — the first of its kind in the region — will reach out to diplomats and national government officials, state agencies, NGOs, business and civil society.
The Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean, will be formally opened on 6 May in St Augustine, Trinidad by Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad–Bissessar. The academy is a joint project between the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and The University of the West Indies through its Institute of International Relations.
The UWI’s Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean seeks to provide learning and training to a cross-section of target groups and beneficiaries involved in international cooperation negotiations and transactions within the CARICOM region and beyond.
The academy is being established initially on a two-year project basis. The academy will use new and innovative training techniques in practical, hands-on modules. There will be experience sharing and learning as well as networking with the best expertise regionally and internationally.
Professor Andy Knight, Director of The Institute of International Relations, said, “When it is launched in May, it will meet a clearly felt need, in the absence of any proper training and learning facility regionally, to offer programmes in diplomacy at various levels and on diverse but relevant subjects.”
Its first module on Contemporary Diplomacy will run from 7–10 May and 12–13 May 2014. It will be led by Professors Jorge Heine and Andrew Cooper from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Interested persons should email diplomaticacademy@sta.uwi.edu or call 868 662 2002 extension 8208 or visit http://sta.uwi.edu/iir/.
Source: The University of the West Indies
