Hello my fellow student!!!
This afternoon some of the New Diplomacy students including myself went to the Swedish Embassy to visit, we were welcomed, addressed by the 2nd person in charge at the embassy after the Ambassador. I was really surprised for the fact that he sacrificed and gave some of his time to us senior students, many thanks to him and to our Professor Dr Steven Curtis.
Basically he talked about what their embassy do in general in different country such as London and Berlin. I must say that, I am very impressed for the fact that a country like Sweden which is composed of nine million habitants has an organisation to help developing countries and now attract more UK citizen to visit their country than their citizen coming to the UK.
His Excellency Augustsson himself said that Diplomacy have had a significant changes from the Old system of diplomacy to the Modern system. He also stressed that the facility with technology, communication and media challenges more their work as information could be spread easily and they have to be very careful about what they say.
The old diplomacy was all about secrecy before and I am pleased to announce that, despite the fact that we have learn this at University or read in books, the openness of the Modern Diplomacy have been reconfirmed this afternoon by his Excellency as most of their files are open to the public.
It might interest you to know that Diplomatic corps in the EU countries have a sort of solidarity between the members as they belong to same political and cultural entity and also that his Excellency Augustsson really knows his job as most of what he talked about today was before said to us by our Professor. He talked about shifting resources which literally means that opening new embassies in certain countries such as Mali and closing some, the embassy in Dublin is one example.
Two questions then arise: do you think that it will be necessary to have Diplomats in different countries if state can get information as quick as their want now days? And do you think Diplomat’s jobs are being challenged with the foreign minister experts working with them alongside?
The trip was educative, enlightening and encouraging. I was particularly impressed that such a high profile diplomat stop his job to spend well over an hour with us. The trip gave an indepth knowledge of diplomats day to day activities and how it has change over the years. Although it is very easy to get any information you want from a country these days without a resident embassy. The presence of an embassy in a country is very important for these reasons;
ReplyDelete1. Not every information can be discussed over the phone or use of new media technology.
2. A diplomat or consular in a country helps in building good relations with the various departments or ministries for the benefit of his country.
Many thanks to the Deputy Ambassador For Sweden His Excellency Augustsson, our lecturer Professor Dr Steven Curtis and Rebecca.
SWIDISH EMBASSY VISIT IN LONDON
ReplyDeleteHello everyone, I start by sending my apology for this late postage.
I was amongst the students that visited the Swedish embassy and i found it very interesting.I think that we were very lucky to be received by the deputy ambassador Mr Augustsson who manage to show us the difference between theory and practice and much more.
For instance he insisted that ambassy is not about foreign policy only but working with others ministries like finance ministry, agricultural, entreprise ministry for example. As a member of the European Union, Sweden find it very important to maintain the network organisation witin the E.U and that is why there is a solidarity between E.U members. We learned that it is much more easier to open an embassy than to close one because of diplomatic tensions that could occured or the justifications about the closure compare to the joy when opening one in the host country.
We also learned that modern technology is very important but direct communication, the 'added value'(direct contact) and honesty in diplomacy could never be replaced by technology according to Augustsson.