BACKGROUND:
Public diplomacy involves strategies and activities aimed at influencing both the foreign and domestic public, understanding their attitudes towards foreign policy and shaping their views on related issues. These efforts help establish a dialogue across borders that improves understanding of each other, and shapes more positive perceptions of a country’s foreign policy priorities or an organisation’s international relations. For this reason, it is important that those actors responsible for improving the image of their country or organisation have a well-informed understanding of how they are currently perceived. This ensures that new initiatives can be implemented to build on strengths, address any perceived misunderstanding, and improve the overall relationship.
As a contribution to public diplomacy efforts of the 53 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Partners, the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) established the ASEF Public Diplomacy Training in 2013, in partnership with the DiploFoundation (Diplo) of Switzerland and the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) based in New Zealand. Since then, 6 tutored online courses and 6 face-to-face workshops have been conducted and more than 220 participants have benefited from the training.
OBJECTIVES:
Through the Face-to-face Training and the Online Course, participants will gain insights into the current perceptions of diplomacy efforts in Asia and Europe and how to incorporate public diplomacy skills into their daily work. The specific objectives are to:
- Enable participants to deepen their knowledge of public perceptions of Asia and Europe, bi-regional dynamics, and how these impact the intent and design of their mission
- Provide practical skills to formulate, develop and deliver effective public diplomacy campaigns and programs to promote the ASEM Process through real-life examples and case studies
- Increase networking opportunities for ASEM diplomats, government officials and civil society actors to exchange best practices and promote deeper understanding of Asia-Europe relations
ACTIVITIES:
1. 7th Online Course 29 July – 20 September 2019
2. 7th Face-to-face Training, Siem Reap, Cambodia 21-25 October 2019
TARGET PARTICIPANTS:
- Young diplomats in departments dealing with Asia, Europe, or ASEM in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs or equivalent of the ASEM Partners
- Diplomats posted by ASEM Partners to ASEM countries who are dealing with public diplomacy
- Representatives from government agencies (culture, tourism, trade and investment, etc.)
- Civil society members whose work is influencing public diplomacy
Please refer to the uploaded leaflet for more information on the Training.
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