International Relations & Diplomacy Essentials

Distinguish a state, a government, a ministry and a mission as separate things, recognise what makes a particular act official, and explain why a person without a stated mandate cannot bind a state to anything.

1. 1.1Lesson 1.1 — State, government, ministry, mission
2. 1.2Lesson 1.2 — What makes an act official
3. 1.3Lesson 1.3 — Mandate, agency and why an unofficial actor cannot bind a state

Describe the working structure of a resident mission, the outline function of its principal officers and sections, and correctly refer accreditation and consular questions to the competent authority rather than answering them from general knowledge.

1. 2.1Lesson 2.1 — The mission as a working building
2. 2.2Lesson 2.2 — Officers, consular work and locally engaged staff
3. 2.3Lesson 2.3 — Accreditation in outline, and how a mission receives work

Describe, in general and non-legal terms, why the frame of privileges and immunities exists and what it is said to attach to, and correctly refer any specific legal question to a competent authority rather than answering it.

1. 3.1Lesson 3.1 — Whose question this is
2. 3.2Lesson 3.2 — Waiver, and who does not own it
3. 3.3Lesson 3.3 — Territory you describe, not adjudicate

Read, build and support a bilateral visit as a programme designed to deliver a written objective, distinguishing the substantive meeting from its margins and recognising when a missing objective, not a logistical fault, is the true cause of failure.

1. 4.1Lesson 4.1 — Invitation, agreement and the objective that must be written down
2. 4.2Lesson 4.2 — The instrument, not the schedule: meeting, margins and deliverables
3. 4.3Lesson 4.3 — Logistics, the counterpart's constraints, the read-out and the unwritten objective

Read a multilateral meeting as a governed room the learner does not control, act correctly as delegate or observer within it, and judge when a procedural or drafting question must be referred rather than resolved alone.

1. 5.1Lesson 5.1 — Who is in the room, and what they can do
2. 5.2Lesson 5.2 — Drafting, brackets and the cost of an intervention
3. 5.3Lesson 5.3 — Groups, coordination and the small delegation

Work correctly to a written or verbal instruction in an official encounter, keep inside its mandate and fallback, deliver or receive a démarche as a defined act, and record a position without inventing what was not said.

1. 6.1Lesson 6.1 — Working to instruction
2. 6.2Lesson 6.2 — The démarche and the discipline of listening
3. 6.3Lesson 6.3 — When the instruction runs out or does not fit the room

Work correctly through an interpreter, produce and read a reporting note as an instrument of record rather than a transcript, and apply ordinary confidentiality and need-to-know discipline without invoking any classification system as authority.

1. 7.1Lesson 7.1 — Working through an interpreter
2. 7.2Lesson 7.2 — The reporting note as an instrument of record
3. 7.3Lesson 7.3 — Classification, handling and how confidentiality is ordinarily lost

Judge when hospitality, a gift or an invitation is a legitimate working instrument rather than a source of undue influence, extend the courtesies a host owes a visiting delegation correctly, and recognise the point at which a private actor who has touched an official channel must refer or withdraw.

1. 8.1Lesson 8.1 — Hospitality as a working instrument
2. 8.2Lesson 8.2 — Gifts, invitations and the appearance of influence
3. 8.3Lesson 8.3 — Escalation, referral and honest withdrawal