New! 🤖 AI Apprenticeship for International Organisations in Geneva blended course
The course will be of interest to staff of international organisations based in Geneva. Selected applicants will be granted a full course fee waiver. Apply now!
Register now to reserve your place in our specialised summer courses!
👉🏼 Application deadlines for certificates issued by Diplo: 25 May 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 admissions@diplomacy.edufor further information.
Main takeaways from our recent events
◆ WTO deadlock, AI boom: Unpacking MC14 and looking ahead
This webinar unpacked digital trade-related developments at the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14) and looked ahead to their implications for the rapidly expanding AI economy. Watch the recording below!
Blogs and publications
◆ The role of the World Data Organization on the digital sovereignty chessboard
Beijing hosted the founding assembly of the first international organisation dedicated specifically to data governance and development.
As data flows cross borders, governance lags behind. Could the World Data Organization bring order to the digital realm, or create bottlenecks? The implications for sovereignty and equity are profound. Read the blog post!
◆ Pakistan’s diplomatic moment: Mediation in an age of noise
The role of a mediator is often most effective when it is least visible.
In today’s world of threats, sanctions, and public ultimatums, the quiet actions of middle powers are becoming increasingly important. Pakistan’s recent efforts to mediate between the United States and Iran highlight this shift. Read the blog post!
◆ Statecraft in the age of the algorithm
Diplomacy is moving from careful, step-by-step conversations on X to the fast, emotional style of TikTok. But this is not simply about foreign ministries learning to chase trends or pandering to Generation Z. It is about the privatisation of statecraft. When the world’s oldest sovereign institutions are forced to bow to the algorithmic whims of ByteDance and SiliconValley, the very architecture of international relations is altered. Read the blog post!
◆ Why AI procurement is the new frontier of diplomacy
The real action in AI is not at global summits, but in the often-overlooked world of procurement contracts. Smaller countries usually face a tough choice: either rent technology from big tech companies, or risk falling behind.
These models give countries a way forward, but having the code is not enough. Digital sovereignty can slip away in the details of a weak contract. A country loses control if a deal lets vendors make updates on their own, stores data logs in other countries, or relies on unclear rules about how the model is managed.
The main point is simple: diplomats and IT teams need to work closely together. Procurement is not just a business task, but a mini-constitution for a country’s digital future. Read the blog post!
◆ The gap between AI rules and AI reality
Artificial intelligence governance has no shortage of ambition. Treaties are being negotiated, national strategies are being published, and international summits are occurring more frequently. However, two of the most important regulatory efforts underway right now, one in Europe, one in the United States, are both running into serious trouble. Their challenge lies in the gap between writing rules and making them work in practice, which turns out to be wider than expected. Read the blog post!
◆ The Cambridge History of the First World War
The three-volume Cambridge History of the First World War highlights a shift from single, overarching explanations to lived experiences – how families, women, and societies actually experienced WWI. Read the blog post!
◆ The uncertain ethics of Ebola treatments
The Ebola debate is not only about medicine – it is also about ethics. Should experimental drugs be tested through controlled trials for future knowledge, even if that means some patients receive placebos and lose their best chance now? Read the blog post!
◆ What Europe needs is a ‘Bismarck’
Was the decisive diplomatic model of the 19th century really Vienna in 1815 – or Berlin in 1878? Could Bismarck’s political realism, rather than Vienna’s search for consensus, offer the more useful guide today? Read the blog post!
◆ Metaverse’s decline and the harsh limits of a virtual future
As Meta scales back Horizon Worlds, the metaverse stands as a costly lesson in hype, platform power, and failed digital futurism. Read the DigWatch analysis!
◆ UN kicks off Global Mechanism on ICT security, road ahead murky
The long-awaited Global Mechanism has finally launched, creating the UN’s first permanent forum on ICT security, but its inaugural session left many questions about how it will actually work. Here is why it matters and what to watch as the Mechanism takes shape. Read the DigWatch analysis!
◆ The implementation of the EU AI Act with a focus on general-purpose AI models
The EU is entering the implementation phase of its Artificial Intelligence Act, with new obligations emerging for providers of general-purpose AI models. Guidance from the European Commission and the AI Office outlines compliance expectations as the EU puts its risk-based AI governance framework into operation. Read the DigWatch analysis!
◆ When the code is everyone’s, who is responsible for its security? And do UN cyber norms have anything to say about it?
When open-source code runs inside hospitals, power grids, and national identity platforms, and nobody remembers installing it, who is responsible when something goes wrong?
In March 2026, the Geneva Dialogue invited 30 experts to take part in a fictional OSS supply-chain crisis to stress-test UN cyber norms against operational reality. We have published the key highlights from the scenario session and developed a short video to bring the scenario to life. Read the Geneva Dialogue opinion!
◆ Weekly #257: AI meets cybersecurity as project Glasswing takes flight
In the latest issue of the DW Weekly newsletter:
AI meets cybersecurity as project Glasswing takes flight
CISA warns of attacks on US critical infrastructure
US Supreme Court narrows ISP liability
Greece sets digital age of majority
Brazil launches national centre for assistive technology
In our March 2026 issue, we analysed the WTO MC14 deadlock that led to the lapse of the e-commerce moratorium. We examined two US jury verdicts holding Meta and YouTube liable for harms to minors, shifting attention from content to platform design. We unpacked the launch of the UN’s new Global Mechanism on ICT security, and the questions surrounding its role. We explored the idea of buying intelligence by the metre, and what it could mean for control, access, and the future of AI, and recapped March’s key digital policy developments and Geneva discussions shaping global governance.
◆ Data and Digital Trade Law: Balancing rules, policy space and development
Dr Marilia Maciel’s (Director of Digital Trade, Diplo) new policy primer, Data and Digital Trade Law: Balancing Rules, Policy Space and Development, was published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) as part of the “Building Blocks of Digital Trade Regulation” series. Read the IISD Report!
