Course Description

The purpose of this applied course is to equip students with practical knowledge and skills to address
some of the most pressing foreign policy issues around the globe.

Students will have the opportunity to directly engage with and learn from a former President of the
United Nations General Assembly, official candidate for the UN Secretary General, Foreign Minister
and Foreign Policy Advisor to a Head of State.

The professor will reveal how real-life diplomatic negotiations unfold. He will offer students a unique
professional perspective on running competitive campaigns in the UN and other international
organizations. The cohort will learn how these international campaigns test the core tools of diplomacy
and statecraft, such as negotiations, bargaining, alliance formation, intelligence sharing, all used under
the constraints of national politics.

The course will also put the students at the center of engagement: they will have to debate, sometimes
with harsh arguments; to compromise, often one for another fundamental principle; and to redraw their
red lines, all while maintaining their diplomatic posture, in order to elect the new Secretary General
of the UN. The course will coincide with the real UNSG election, scheduled for 2026. This is indeed a
unique offering of this course.