coursemapLoading course
Department of International Relations · ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Leadership and Diplomacy is designed for students interested in studying diplomacy from a leadership perspective. The course examines the role of leadership in the evolution and changing nature of the diplomatic dialogue between states over the past century, concentrating on challenges for diplomatic leadership at this moment in history. These challenges include: great-power leadership, notably the special role of US leadership; changing diplomatic practices requiring leadership, such as the widespread use of summit, conference, and public diplomacy; revolutionary and post-colonial leadership; individual leadership (the UN secretary-general) and moral leadership (Nelson Mandela); “middle power” and small-country leadership; regional diplomatic leadership; and, finally, non-state alternatives to state-based diplomatic leadership. The course will be useful not only for those students contemplating diplomatic and government careers, but also for those whose future work in business, the media, or the non-profit sectors will require interaction with foreign ministries, embassies, and international organizations.
Class participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3
Three empirical Tests (three count)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4, 5
Mid-semester paper
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4, 5
Final exam (take-home)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4, 5
10 hours per week comprising a mix of in-class lectures, interactive tutorial discussions and exercises along with individual reading and assessment
Pauline Kerr and Geoffrey Wiseman (eds), Diplomacy in a Globalizing World: Theories and Practices, New York, Oxford University Press, 2018. Preliminary Reading Warren Bennis, “Understanding the Basics,” On Becoming a Leader, New York: Addison-Wesley, 1994, pp. 39-51 Corneliu Bjola, “Diplomatic Leadership in Times of International Crisis: The Maverick, The Congregator, and The Pragmatist,” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 10, no. 1 (2015), pp. 4-9 Harold Nicolson, “The Ideal Diplomatist,” Diplomacy (first published in 1939), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969, pp. 55-67 Harold Nicolson, “The Transition Between the Old Diplomacy and the New,” The Evolution of Diplomacy (1954), New York: Collier, 1966, pp. 99-125 Kenneth M. Jensen (ed.), Origins of the Cold War: The Novikov, Kennan, and Roberts ‘Long Telegrams” of 1946, rev.ed., Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1993, preface, pp. 3-31, 73-95 Prudence Bushnell, Terrorism, Betrayal & Resilience: My Story of the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings, Potomac Books, 2018. Geoffrey Wiseman “Distinctive Characteristics of American Diplomacy,” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 6, nos. 3-4, December 2012, pp. 235–259. Andrew F. Cooper and Jérémie Cornut, “The changing practices of frontline diplomacy: New directions for inquiry,” Review of International Studies, (2018), pp. 1-20.