TheOxford University Diplomatic Studies Programme (formerly known as theForeign Service Programme) is a long-running programme of courses offered by theUniversity of Oxford in the field ofdiplomacy. The programme was originally established in 1969 in partnership with theForeign and Commonwealth Office, with the intention of educating diplomats of newly independentCommonwealth countries.[1] The programme has since run continuously, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2019, and now consists of a Master of Studies (MSt) in Diplomatic Studies. It is customised for professionals, typically early to mid-career diplomats and other international relations practitioners who seek the combination of academic and vocational study. The annual intake has a global reach, and participants come from a wide range of countries.[2] Over its many years within the university, alumni of the programme have included royalty and heads of state, as well as senior government figures from all over the world.[3][4][5]
Building on a long history of the universities ofOxford andCambridge being linked to theBritish civil service, in 1926 they jointly created a Tropical African Services Course on behalf of the British Colonial Office.[6] This programme continued in varying forms and under different names for another forty-three years, as the Colonial Administrative Service Course (1934), the Devonshire Course (1945), Course 'A' and 'B' (1953), the Overseas Service Course (1962) and, finally, the Overseas Course in Government and Development (1964).[7]
As many Commonwealth states gained independence, their governments sought trained diplomats to staff their Foreign Services. In response to this need, in the 1960s, the Overseas Course was adapted to allow for a small Foreign Service component, morphing, in 1964, into a coherent and more integrated Foreign Service Training Course under the auspices of the Overseas Service Course. Examinations were instituted in 1966.
When the Overseas Service Course was discontinued in 1969, the Foreign Service element of that course was transformed into the Foreign Service Programme, based out ofQueen Elizabeth House, Oxford.[8] In the decades that followed, the programme expanded its audience to governments in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. After theFall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the Foreign and Commonwealth and Office requested places be made available to newly independent former Soviet countries, to help to build their diplomatic capacity. In 2010, the programme moved to theDepartment for Continuing Education at Oxford, and in 2017 it changed its name to the Diplomatic Studies Programme, reflecting the more common terminology in the modern academic field.[9]
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