MS
Oct 31, 2019
Absolutely incredible course in diplomacy that gives you a perfect glimpse of understanding how diplomacy works in practice and what achievements you need to posses in order to become a good diplomat.
TR
May 1, 2020
Absolutely incredible course in diplomacy that gives you a perfect glimpse of understanding how diplomacy works in practice and what achievements you need to posses in order to become a good diplomat.
By Carlos J D L C M
•May 28, 2024
Es un curso práctico bueno bueno.
By Шыңғысбек С
•Nov 27, 2021
This course was very helpful
By Mohammed T ( M
•Jun 2, 2017
A very open ended course.
By Phumlani M
•Aug 24, 2017
Great course! Thank you.
By 俞婧瑶
•May 30, 2018
课程再系统化一些就好了,目前只有几个教授的访谈
By Giacomo G
•Apr 4, 2023
good for beginners
By Rakesh N
•Jul 27, 2020
Wonderful course.
By Marna P
•Aug 21, 2018
good introduction
By marvin s
•Oct 19, 2021
Its a blessing.
By Tahmid A
•Jun 12, 2020
Well explained
By sadik o
•Jun 28, 2021
great course
By Isabella S
•Nov 11, 2019
Great Course!
By Maluwe G K J K
•Feb 9, 2017
Excellent Job
By Juana L
•Mar 10, 2022
good course!
By Kgotso N
•Feb 2, 2021
Great course
By Darijo P
•Apr 30, 2020
Good course.
By Caleb D
•Jan 23, 2023
Good course
By Mostafa H
•Oct 20, 2024
Perfect
By Bucher L
•Apr 3, 2020
Great !
By Lugard O
•Oct 3, 2019
Helpful
By yann m
•Jun 16, 2024
super
By Mfitundinda A
•Aug 22, 2020
4/5
By PerinAnn K
•Aug 12, 2020
Depending on what you're looking for, you might find this course very insightful or a complete waste of time.
For someone new to the concept of diplomacy, using this to get a base level understanding and come to your own opinions of what composes diplomacy, it's a good course. The material is pretty straightforward, gives a multi-faceted purview, and basically facilitates the learner to draw their own meanings.
However, if you want anything beyond this, you might be disappointed. The instructor (Dr Simon Rofe) contributes virtually nothing beyond asking 3 questions to a number of different people. There are no insights from his side, and no attempt to synthesise the varying opinions. The peer-review assignments are a mixed bag, as I did read many insightful answers, but received very minimal feedback on my own answers.
I also found the Discussion Forums completely useless - not a single student seemed to be here to talk about the subject or learn more. Everyone just wants reviews on their assignments to pass on to the next week. If the course could be tweaked to encourage more healthy discussion, or students could even take initiative to respond on these forums, this might have led to a more purposeful learning experience.
To conclude, for someone who had never learned about diplomacy before, I got an introduction that was useful and enabled me to draw my own understanding on the topic. If I was paying for a certificate, however, I would have been disappointed. (Also, each week's content is very brief and this takes no time at all to complete - again good for if you want to rush through it, not great if you were looking for more detailed insight.)
By Fred V
•Aug 2, 2020
We have a lot of respect for SOAS (actually, we studied there long ago). We have a lot of respect for the diplomacy profession. We think we could learn a lot from this course. Our expectations were high. In this review, we benchmark the course to what how good it may have been.
By professional habit or not, the course does not always steer away from a self-serving representation of diplomacy as the work of heroes who can save the world from conflicts and others. The course keeps to general presentations of out-of-action diplomats. We regret not to have seen more and deeper analysis on case studies of diplomatic negotiations: the national and personal dilemma, the planning and execution of negotiations, the gate-keeping of politicians and journalists, interactions with intelligence, etc. This may be a matter for another course?
By Philippe B
•Aug 20, 2022
The course serves as a simple introduction to diplomacy and the areas of activity of a diplomat. However, one does not gain in-depth knowledge and one only scratches the surface of this interesting topic. Furthermore, the assignments are corrected and evaluated by other cours-members, which is nice but not beneficial for one's own progress and knowledge. There is also a lack of interesting course material, apart from the approx. 3 minute videos of the various professors, you have to read endless texts and papers, which usually have no direct connection to the final assignment. It would be cool if the material was more interactive, more in-depth, and more broad but also more exclusive. The course is good but basic.