In a gesture considered to be the first of its kind in the region, the Mohamed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa Academy for Diplomatic Studies held a consultative meeting titled “Diplomatic Training in the Time of Covid-19”, on Wednesday evening, June 10, 2020, through visual communication with the participation of more than 20 Executive Directors of regional and international diplomatic institutions.
This meeting came as a step that reflects the universality of the current crisis, which casts a shadow over the practices of academic institutions and produced a new trend towards redesigning programs and training courses to match the current status changes.
During the meeting, various experiences in the field of diplomatic training were reviewed, and the successive phases of these experiences were transferred from the concept of traditional training to the concept of distance training, in addition to identifying the most prominent differences and similarities between synchronous and asynchronous education.
The participants also touched on the importance of digital diplomacy that dominates the current scene in light of the pandemic, how digital diplomacy has strengthened the importance of diplomacy in general as a form of soft and influential powers, and how it is applied, which has become imperative in a world that is constantly changing.
The meeting ended with the most important recommendations extracted from the reality of events and experiences mentioned, in order to develop and design diplomatic training plans in a manner that takes into account primarily the factors of flexibility and speed of adaptation.
