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.