introduction

The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) conducted in 2021 the first training programme on the relationship between diplomacy and technology. The relevance of the approach and the interest of the Foreign Ministries of the region boosted the development of negotiating skills in cyberspace governance for a better understanding of the application of diplomacy to political and geopolitical problems arising in cyberspace. 

In this connection, the Permanent Secretariat is organizing the second training courses on Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy, to be taught by professors from the European Institute for International Studies (IEEI) and the Institute of European Studies and Human Rights at the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

Final Report
Justification

The significant social changes arising from Internet governance call for closer cooperation between the technology industry and the authorities, and it is appropriate for policymakers in the region to put the issue of Internet governance and international cybersecurity at the centre of their foreign policies and international strategies, while ensuring that they have personnel specialised in the progress and development of the technology industry, with the knowledge and skills to play an effective role in managing international governance and online security.

Foreign policy makers must go beyond government-to-government dialogue by redirecting their efforts towards the establishment of relationships with a wide spectrum of actors in global governance, with technology players at the forefront.  

The Permanent Secretariat deems it desirable that Latin American and Caribbean countries incorporate techno-diplomacy into their foreign policy agendas and consider technology and Internet companies as geopolitical actors. In this context, traditional diplomacy must develop a more strategic approach as new companies emerge in a wide range of countries and regions whose technology will be increasingly linked to geopolitical competition.   

The training programme for Senior Officials in the digital era is part of this scenario, including specialisation courses in Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy. Their main purpose is for foreign ministries, related ministries and representatives of the academic sector of member countries to strengthen the relationship between diplomacy and technology by providing their officials with training in which they acquire sufficient expertise for an effective relationship with technological actors, the implications of cryptocurrencies in the international financial system, as well as the necessary training for future negotiations to establish rules that regulate the subject.    

Both courses are aimed primarily at civil servants, diplomats or international negotiators involved in foreign policy decision-making, as well as academics and specialists in the field of international relations.

Objectives
  1. Develop negotiating skills and gain a better understanding of technological development at the international level to promote the region's interests in the digital era;
  2. Train participants in operating in cyberspace as they do in physical space and building the capacity to analyse different agendas in an international cyber community not free of relations and conflicts among states; and
  3. Develop the skills of future negotiators with technological actors for the construction of an agreement on norms of behaviour in cyberspace, both in terms of Internet governance and cybersecurity.
Information about the event

Both courses will last 8 hours each (4 hours per day) and will take place from 21 to 24 March 2022. Training material in both written and multimedia format is included.

  • Date

From 21 to 24 March 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 13:00 p.m. (Caracas), through the ZOOM Platform. 

  • Language of the event

The official language of the courses will be Spanish. There will be translation into English.

Agenda

Specialisation course on Cyberdiplomacy
Monday, 21 March 2022

09:00 – 09:15

Welcome session 

  • Speech by Ambassador Clarems Endara, Permanent Secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA)
  • Speech by Ambassador Antonio Núñez, President of the European Institute for International Studies (IEEI). 

Moderator:  Ms Sayed Durán, Analyst of Relations for Cooperation and Integration of SELA

09:15 – 13:00

Session 1: Introduction to cyberdiplomacy

  • A question of definitions: Cyberdiplomacy, digital diplomacy and e-diplomacy
  • The application of diplomacy to solve the problems generated in cyberspace
  • The geopolitics of cyberspace 

Session 2: Internet Governance

  • The Conflicting Agendas: Internet Governance vs Cybersecurity
  • Free Internet nations vs cyber-sovereignty advocates
  • ICANN vs ITU
  • The key issues of Internet Governance

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

09:00 – 13:00

Session 3: Cybersecurity

  • The different types of cyberattacks
  • Geopolitical and criminal motivations
  • The cybersecurity dilemma
  • Diplomacy and cybersecurity 

Session 4: International law in cyberspace

  • International law in cyberspace
  • The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) in cyberspace
  • The construction of norms of behaviour in cyberspace
  • Multi-stakeholder diplomacy

Specialisation course on Techplomacy
Wednesday, 23 March 2022

 09:00 – 13:00

Session 1: Technology and geopolitics

  • The impact of new technologies on international relations
  • The impact of geopolitics on new technologies
  • Technological conflicts
  • Hegemony in international industrial standards 

Session 2: The big Internet companies

  • The dominance of American and Chinese companies
  • Internet companies and disinformation campaigns
  • The problem with algorithms - the challenge to diplomacy
  • Cybersecurity and private cybersecurity companies

Thursday, 24 March 2022

09:00 – 13:00

Session 3: Internet companies as geopolitical actors

  • Conflicts between Internet companies and the states
  • Global governance initiatives by Internet companies
  • Digital currencies and other interferences in international relations
  • Diplomacy of Internet companies 

Session 4: Techplomacy

  • Expanding diplomacy to include Internet companies
  • The TechAmbassador
  • Techplomacy's agenda with Internet companies: Applying diplomacy to both Alibaba and Microsoft
  • Privacy and regulation
Speakers - Trainers

Mario Torres Jarrin

Director of the Institute of European Studies and Human Rights at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain). He has been Director of the European Institute for International Studies (Sweden) and professor and researcher at Stockholm University (Sweden) and the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), as well as visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), University of Bergen and University of Oslo (Norway), University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal), National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Romania), University of Salamanca (Spain), University of Economics and Anglo American University (Czech Republic) and at different diplomatic academies in Europe and the Americas.

 

 

Shaun Riordan

Shaun Riordan is Director of the Chair for Diplomacy and Cyberspace at the European Institute for International Studies, Senior Member of the Charhar Institute (Beijing) and Senior Visiting Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. He is a Principal Consultant on digital diplomacy and cyber diplomacy at UNITAR and a consultant on public diplomacy at UNDP. He has taught at diplomatic academies in Spain, Armenia, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Qatar and the Dominican Republic, as well as the Stock Exchange Institute in Madrid. He has been an associate professor at the LSE Global Governance Center.

Shaun is a former British diplomat who served at the UN, Taiwan, China and Spain, as well as in the Counter-Terrorism Departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in London.

He is the author of "The New Diplomacy" (2003), "Adiós a la Diplomacia" (2005), "Cyberdiplomacy; Gestión de la seguridad y la gobernanza en línea" (2019) and "La geopolítica del ciberespacio: una perspectiva diplomática" (2019). He is also co-author of "Los Futuros para la Diplomacia: La Diplomacia Integradora en el Siglo XXI” (2012) and the recent policy brief of the T20 "La ciberdiplomacia de la construcción de las normas en el ciberespacio". He holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).

 

Moderator

Ms Sayed Durán. Analyst of Relations for Integration and Cooperation of SELA.

Additional information

Once the application has been received, candidates must complete the registration form by entering the following links:
https://forms.office.com/r/7xCnXYxyve
and https://forms.office.com/r/sQC1dDhYSs

Then, they will receive by email the invitation to enter the course, which will be delivered through the ZOOM platform.  

A training certificate will be granted.

Contact

Coordination by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA:

Sayed Durán
Analyst of Relations. Directorate for Integration and Cooperation of SELA
Telephones: (58-212)-955-7111 / 955-71
E-mail: sduran@sela.org

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