5 November 2019, Geneva, Switzerland- UNITAR, in partnership with Kudelski Security, was pleased to provide a face-to-face training workshop to officials from governments, academia and international NGOs in the context of the Geneva Peace Week 2019. The workshop’s content was Diplomacy 4.0, UNITAR’s new concept addressing the intersection between diplomacy and recent technological and scientific advances. It came just weeks after UNITAR launched its new e-Learning course on Diplomacy 4.0, encompassing modules on neoteric diplomats, digital diplomacy, cyber security, artificial intelligence, internet governance and science diplomacy.

During the training workshop, UNITAR and its partner Kudelski Security provided participants with a deeper insight into the realm of cybersecurity and its relation to peace, using simulation exercises, case studies, and other pedagogical tools. The workshop covered extremely topical areas such as current cyber vulnerability, autonomous weapons system, international surveillance, critical infrastructure protection, blockchain and cybercurrencies, e-government, training the future workforce and legal cyber frameworks. It highlighted the sheer amount of challenges government officials and other international actors face in the cyber domain, stressing the limited time and resources available to formulate appropriate strategies to address them. Overall, the training workshop was successful in providing participants with first-hand knowledge and skills to effectively navigate the cross-section of diplomacy and cybersecurity

UNITAR received highly positive feedback from the participants of the workshop and we look forward to organising further training activities with Kudelski Security in the near future.