Harnessing Diplomacy for International Development

Much contemporary practice of diplomacy deals with issues of international development, or the distribution of global public goods. Gaps between poor and rich countries, as well as poverty within nations, shape certain debates. Development issues and dilemmas underpin tensions in multilateral and regional negotiations about climate change, official development assistance, reform on multilateral development banks and the IMF, remittance flows, labour mobility, cross-border infrastructure and many other issues. This course will help students: - understand the global architecture that deals with development issues such as the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, OECD, and UNDP; as well as strategies used by individual countries such as the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review in the USA; - identify and analyse several development issues from the perspective of developing country actors and developed actors; - examine in detail certain negotiations such as the Doha Development round of the World Trade Organisation; - and examine emerging trends to deal with development issues such as the BRICS Bank, the Small Island Developing States Forum and south-south cooperation. Diplomacy and Development will be the first such course of its kind, drawing together an understanding of international development issues and systems with the role of the diplomat and formal negotiations.