The inaugural online course for the Asia-Europe Public Diplomacy Training Initiative will take place between 12 May and 13 July 2014. It will help improve Asia-Europe relations by enhancing public diplomacy efforts among the members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process. The 25 participants for the course are young experienced diplomats selected from ASEM countries with a keen interest in Asia-Europe relations.
The course consists of 8 core modules providing hands-on skills to devise and implement a successful public diplomacy campaign. Expert public diplomacy practitioners and senior diplomats with the support of European and Asian diplomatic academies have contributed and vetted the course material. The online platform, operated by ASEF’s partner organisation, DiploFoundation, will allow a highly interactive participation. The course material was drawn from a previous ASEF-sponsored study published in two volumes: Asia in the Eyes of Europe and The EU through the Eyes of Asia.
The Asia-Europe Public Diplomacy Training Initiative is a joint cooperation between the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the DiploFoundation in Switzerland, and the National Centre for Research on Europe (NRCE) at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. The initiative receives financial support from the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.