Diplo Academy upcoming courses and programmes
🍂 Applications open! Diplo’s 2026 winter online courses
- AI Technology, Policy and Governance
- Diplomatic Communication
- Multilateral Diplomacy Institutional Aspects
- Humanitarian Diplomacy
- Public Diplomacy Essentials
Register now to reserve your place in our specialised winter courses!
👉🏼 Application deadlines for certificates issued by Diplo: 26 January 2026
For further information and to apply, click the course titles above or visit Diplo Academy’s course catalogue.
◆ Need financial assistance? Scholarships are available!
Thanks to support from the government of Malta, partial scholarships are available for applicants from developing countries to attend upcoming Diplo online courses. These scholarships cover 30%–60% of course fees and can be applied to most 2026 online courses. Browse our course catalogue and contact us at [email protected] for further information.
Upcoming events
◆ Gaming and Africa’s youth: Opportunities, challenges, and future pathways (3 Dec.)
Africa’s youth population, the largest and fastest growing in the world, faces an urgent unemployment challenge. Yet amidst this, a thriving gaming culture is emerging across the continent, fuelled by the digital revolution. Globally, gaming is more than entertainment – it’s a billion-dollar industry creating jobs, exports, and innovation.
Can Africa transform its youth gaming culture into a productive, ethical, and inclusive economic force? Join the discussion on 3 December 2025, 13:00–14:30 UTC. Register now!
Main takeaways from our recent events
◆ Safe, secure, and trustworthy AI: What is it and how do we get there?
The dialogue explored issues related to the interplay between AI, human agency, and human rights; ways to ensure safe, secure, and trustworthy AI; and the role of International Geneva in advancing the governance of such systems. Read the event’s key insights!
Blogs and publications
◆ History of Diplomacy and Technology: From Smoke Signals to Artificial Intelligence (2nd edition)
The expanded second edition of History of Diplomacy and Technology is now available as an eBook on Amazon Kindle. The book explores how diplomacy evolved hand in hand with communication technologies – from the invention of writing and the postal system to the telegraph, radio, and today’s AI-driven diplomacy. It reveals how each technological shift, whether the printing press or the internet, transformed the ways in which nations negotiated, cooperated, and resolved conflict. Get your copy!
◆ AI and human creativity: Who should hold the brush?
‘I want AI to do my dishes so I can be free to write and paint, not to write and paint for me so I can wash the dishes.’ This simple statement captures a profound anxiety as we face an uncomfortable question: are we building tools that free human creativity, or replace it? Read the blog post!
◆ AI as a companion in our most human moments
More people are turning to AI not just for information or productivity, but for emotional support. While this trend raises important questions about the role of technology in our most human moments, it also reveals something profound about the gaps AI is filling in our lives – and the careful balance we must strike between embracing its benefits and maintaining our capacity to think and choose for ourselves. Read the blog post!
◆ Monroe Doctrine and Gunboat diplomacy 2.0
Gunboat diplomacy has taken on a new form in the twenty-first century, blending naval presence, sanctions, and strategic signalling to influence without confrontation. Rooted in the Monroe Doctrine, this modern approach reflects how the United States balances deterrence and diplomacy under today’s global constraints. Read the blog post!
◆ Hydrogen diplomacy: Fueling the future of global influence
Hydrogen is an energy source that inspires both immense optimism and significant challenges. Its basic concept is elegant: fresh water is split into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The resulting product is ‘green’ hydrogen – a means of converting excess wind and solar energy into hydrogen molecules that can be stored, transported, and later used in industry, transport, heating, or electricity generation. Green hydrogen offers a viable decarbonisation pathway for steel production, the automotive sector, and logistics. Read the blog post!
◆ The screen and the state: When Netflix met geopolitics
It is quite possibly one of the most intriguing geopolitical phenomena of our time. Netflix has, almost by accident, become one of the most powerful purveyors of soft power on the planet. So where does this leave the old art of diplomacy? Read the blog post!
◆ How analogies shape collective thinking and politics
How do ideas spread through society? The blog traces how medical metaphors – from infection to immunity – shaped politics, nationalism, and even war. Read the blog post!
◆ The impact of NGOs on international policymaking
Who really shapes global rules today – governments or NGOs? The blog post explores how private groups now influence policies once made only by states. Read the blog post!
◆ Most transformative decade begins as Kurzweil’s AI vision unfolds
AI no longer belongs to speculative fiction or distant possibility. In many ways, it has already arrived. Ray Kurzweil – one of the most prominent futurists of the past half-century – predicted that AI would change everything. The 2020s may well prove him right. Read the DW analysis!
◆ Is the world ready for AI to rule justice?
AI is reshaping the justice system with unprecedented efficiency, but true progress depends on humanity’s ability to balance innovation with responsibility and ethical judgement. Read the DW analysis!
◆ The AI gold rush where the miners are broke
Billions chase AI’s promise, while the profits hide in the server room – drowned by power bills, depreciation, and unrealistic expectations. Read the DW analysis!
◆ Weekly #236: Promise and peril: The world signs on to the UN’s new cybercrime treaty in Hanoi
In the latest issue of the DW Weekly newsletter:
- The world signed on to the UN’s new cybercrime treaty in Hanoi
- Regulators close in on BigTech
- Washington redraws tech alliances with Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing
- Europe tightens grip as Nexperia cuts off Chinese plant
- Microsoft Azure outage underlines global cloud vulnerability
- Are AI systems fair and safe? Caribbean women weigh in through UNESCO survey
Latest videos
◆ DW Shorts #32: Google buries its AI results & quantum computing breaks record
In the latest episode of DW Shorts:
- Google quietly buries AI answers
- Why AI work feels both chaotic and precise
- CalTech’s quantum leap into 6100 qubits
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