AGS Hosts Professional Development Programs for International Diplomats and Government Officials

The American Graduate School in Paris is hosting a series of professional development and capacity building programs in diplomacy, in partnership with the Académie des Métiers de la Diplomatie, led by former director of programming at Academic Diplomatique Internationale, Mbarka Zineddine. These programs are aimed at current and aspiring diplomats, government officials, journalists, and other professionals involved in international relations.

Similarly to AGS’s graduate degree programs in International Relations and Diplomacy, the faculty teaching in those programs includes former ambassadors and other high-level diplomats and practitioners: Ambassador Jean-Claude Cousseran (former French Ambassador to Syria, Turkey, and Egypt), Ambassador Christian Connan (former French Ambassador to Mali, Haiti and Cambodia), and Ambassador Daniel Jouanneau (former French Ambassador to Canada, Lebanon, Mozambique, and Pakistan), as well as German diplomat Ambassador Wilfried Bolewski (former Chief of Protocol under Chancellor Angela Merkel), Marie-Claire Faye (who was in charge of French diplomatic protocol under Presidents Mitterrand and Chirac), and Middle East geopolitics specialist Agnès Levallois.

This collaboration was inaugurated on October 18 with a two-week intensive program on Diplomatic Protocol and Diplomatic Practices offered to top officials from the Ministry of Defense of Ivory Coast.

“AGS’ academic expertise complements AMD’s professional approach, and provides faculty drawn from the international community to work alongside those from French government and foreign affairs," says AGS Director Larry Kilman. "This makes for a fertile and exciting area of collaboration. We are happy to be contributing to AMD’s development and looking forward to developing new programs together.”