Reflective Portfolio on the Evolution of Diplomacy

*Four or five of the entries you first posted on a group blog over the course of the year (I haven't posted any blog entries so far and will use the ones you create for this coursework and paste it on the blog); (About 2100 words)
*Your reflections on the negotiation simulation (about 800 words);
*A diplomatic cable reporting on an event or process (e.g. merging MFAs with development and trade ministries) (about 900 words);
*A ‘twiplomacy’ analysis, comparing the use of Twitter by two of the diplomats, embassies or foreign ministries you have followed throughout the module (about 600 words).
You are required to post at least five blog entries, each of at least 350 words, on a group blog over the course of the year. At the end, cut and paste what you consider to be your four or five best entries into the Microsoft Word template, which I shall attach to this order and pls complete it with the negotiation reflections, diplomatic cable and the twiplomacy analysis. The target word length for your reflective portfolio is 4500 words and the submitted version must be word processed and double-spaced. Please include all of the images and that'll be used in the blog entry.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR BLOGGING ENTRIES:
*You are required to post at least five entries over the course of the module, each of at least 350 words, reflecting on your weekly readings and discussions around some of the themes set out below.
Of course, we encourage you to blog more frequently than the minimum requirements set out above. Please post details of, and links to, any interesting news stories related to the module and share your opinions. You can embed pictures and video clips in your blog postings, so be creative. If you write postings on subjects in addition to the questions below with which you are pleased, you may substitute one or two such postings in place of one or two of the required subjects below (for further details see the blog submission template).
Themes for Blogging
You should post your reflections on the following issues as we move through the module. Give each posting an appropriate title which you feel sums up your opinions.
*Post One: The evolution of diplomacy: Write about either the origins of diplomacy or what you consider to be the single most significant historical change in the nature of diplomacy. Give your reasons and provide examples and illustrations (PICTURES).
*Post Two: Do you think embassies and/or foreign ministries remain of central importance in world politics today or are they obsolete? Explain why you hold your view and refer to contemporary or historical events, with links and images, to illustrate your argument.
*Post Three: Write about either a recent or historical international negotiation or international crisis and explore the role of diplomacy in its attempted resolution, whether successful or otherwise.
*Post Four: Write about an example of what you consider to be the most significant dimension of the new diplomacy (multilateralism, summitry, new actors or new technology). Explain your reasons for singling out that aspect of contemporary diplomatic practice.
*Post Five: Write about either (i) a case of either trade or environmental diplomacy, focusing on a particular aspect of the negotiations (e.g., the role of NGOs in the negotiations) or (ii) the effectiveness of the EU's diplomacy with non-EU states or organisations. Provide illustrations to support your argument.
Code of Conduct
***This is an educational blog, so please refrain from digressing into personal matters***
Blogging is a public activity and your words can have consequences. Craft them carefully! Please be aware that copying from texts or casting aspersions about the character of identifiable individuals may have legal ramifications – students are liable to be sued for plagiarism or defamation
If two of your five required postings on the blog are missing or fail to meet the above deadlines, or if you fail to comment six times on your fellow students’ postings, your mark for the seminar portfolio will be reduced by 10%.
If three or more of your postings are late, your mark for the seminar portfolio will be reduced by 20%.
If three or more of your postings are absent, your mark for the seminar portfolio will be 0%.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR DIPLOMATIC CABLE ASSESSMENT
*Place yourself in a capital or major city of your choice, in an embassy or consulate of a country of your choice.
*Report on an event for policymakers back at home, using at least two local English-language news sources (you may also use news sources in the local language if you are fluent in it). Remember the key criteria for good diplomatic reporting (Integrity, accuracy, clarity, relevancy, simplicity, consistency etc)
The portfolio will be assessed on the following:
*Sources of information (provide references)
*Organization (especially headings and the numbering of paragraphs)
*Relevance of this information to UNITED KINGDOM
*Analysis and interpretation
*Usefulness (especially setting out policy options or other recommended actions)
Therefore the cable should clearly indicate how the event or issue we are reporting is relevant to the United Kingdom and provide a commentary on it (we are not producing an objective academic overview), and should include some recommendations for action or a change in policy.
Conclude with a sentence or two reflecting on other sources of information and opinion you would seek out if you were really a diplomat in that situation (e.g., would you try to speak to civil servants in certain government departments, business leaders, civil society organisations, academics etc.?).
INSTRUCTIONS FOR REFLECTIONS ON THE SIMULATED NEGOTIATION:
This section of the portfolio encourages you to reflect on the simulated negotiation with reference to the principles of negotiation outlined by Fisher and Ury and Ross.
*You should not simply describe what happened in the simulation, but reflect on and evaluate what you experienced. For example, you may decide to write about the preparations and early stage of the negotiation, exploring Ross’s principle that you should ‘know what you want, know what you can live with’ – did the UNITED KINGDOM team have a clear understanding of what it wanted to get from the negotiations and how did that affect the outcome of the simulation?
*Alternatively, you could reflect on how well the country teams listened to and empathised with each other. Did they move beyond their official positions and begin to fully understand each other’s underlying interests? To what extend did that account for the success or failure of the negotiations?
So this is an opportunity for you to reflect on how successful the negotiation was and how you might explain the success or failure of the talks. It should combine your personal experience with the application of some of the principles of effective negotiation in an effort to explain what went well and to identify aspects of the negotiation which might have been better.
***Please select a real-world negotiation to reflect upon*** I still expect you to apply some of the principles of effective negotiation in your reflections, in order to deepen them and to provide better explanations for the success, failure or limitations of the talks in question.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR TWITTER ASSESSMENT:
*You need to set up a Twitter account if you do not already have one. Go to http://twitter(dot)com/ and create your account.
When completing your reflective portfolio towards the end of the deadline, you have to write a 600-word comparison of how two diplomatic actors (either two diplomats or two embassies or two foreign ministries) make use of Twitter. The following questions should help guide you, but you do not have to directly address all of them in your comparative analysis: What do they tweet about? Who do they follow and retweet? Who follows them? Do they use Twitter to express their own opinions or their government’s policies? Do they use Twitter to network and share information? Do they interact with non-state actors? You can include screen grabs to illustrate your analysis (by using the ‘print screen’ feature on your computer and pasting the page into your portfolio).
***Some top tips for tweeting***
*As each tweet can only contain up to 140 characters, you can shorten long website addresses using the Bitly website (https://bitly(dot)com/shorten/). Insert the full website address you want to include in a tweet, and Bitly will give you a much shorter version.
Finally, you can use Twitter to ask questions and start conversations. If you want to address one or more users in particular, insert their Twitter address (starting with @) into your tweet. They will then see that someone has mentioned them, even if they do not already follow you. You could ask them how and why they use Twitter.