News Releases

Diplomatic Academy International Sanctions Module Builds Capacity in Caribbean Countries

For Release Upon Receipt - March 16, 2020

St. Augustine


A cadre of diplomats and officials from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados were among 14 participants who on March 12, successfully completed a first-of-its-kind, specialized Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC) module entitled Understanding International Sanctions: Implications for the Caribbean. The four-day training module was held at the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI).

Taught by some of the world's preeminent authorities in the international sanctions field, this first-time DAOC module offering was designed with a Caribbean audience in mind.   This inaugural cohort of module participants included senior legal, technical and policy staff from the ports management sector and Trinidad and Tobago-based regional organizations, along with private sector actors drawn from Trinidad and Tobago's customs brokerage sector and legal fraternity, among others. Members of academia also took part, ostensibly representing the disciplines of international relations and economics. 

The module's core teaching team was led by Professor Thomas J. Biersteker, a senior academic based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. His co-facilitators were Dr. Zuzana Hudáková of CERI, Sciences Po in Paris and Dr. Erica Moret of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. The module instructors, who adapted the content of this DAOC training module drawing on training previously offered at the United Nations (UN) level, have extensive experience in working on UN, United States and European Union sanctions, which collectively form the focus of the module in question.

Drawing on lectures, interactive discussions, expert panels and group exercises/simulations, the module provided participants with practical and detailed insight into those three sanctions regimes. This was achieved from the vantage point of the 'sanctions cycle'; namely, design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and redesign of sanctions. In this regard, participants also explored the roles and responsibilities of a variety of stakeholders.

The DAOC has added this module to its suite of cutting-edge training programmes and positioned itself to provide learning solutions in this area as a direct response to some Caribbean state and non-state actors' heightened interest in international sanctions-related matters.

Launched on 6 May 2014, the DAOC is the Caribbean's premier professional development-oriented diplomatic studies training centre. An integral part of The UWI St. Augustine Campus and the Institute of International Relations, it aims to provide high-quality, immersive learning and short-term, hands-on practical training in modern diplomacy education, as a complement to formal training and on-the-job training in that area. The Academy has a proven track record of offering training services to government, business and civil society organizations, as well as international organizations, leading to a Certificate of Training.

 

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About the DAOC

 

The DAOC is a first-of-its-kind, practitioner-focused diplomatic studies training centre, which continues to make a major contribution to the effective and impactful conduct of Caribbean diplomacy. Its realization stems from an exemplary partnership between The UWI St. Augustine Campus and the government of the day of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The DAOC has yielded substantial and complementary benefit to the IIR, which was established in 1966 by agreement between the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Government of Switzerland.

Integral to the DAOC’s mission is its commitment to help close human resources capacity gaps in international affairs and diplomacy in the Caribbean, by providing capacity-building and skills development training in diplomacy to up and coming diplomats and to aspiring diplomats from the Caribbean Region. This diplomatic learning and training facility also strengthens the University’s capacities for research/analysis, knowledge‐sharing, advocacy, and partnerships and dialogue on the relationship between diplomacy and the Caribbean broadly conceived, with the goal of helping to facilitate policy-relevant awareness-raising on international affairs issues of import (and that are topical) to the Region.

The Diplomatic Academy derives its character from its global outlook, real-world impact and Caribbean mindedness which, in sum, constitute The DAOC Advantage™.

For more information, please visit https://sta.uwi.edu/daoc/

 

About The UWI

For more than 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students across five campuses: Cave Hill in Barbados; Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda; Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago; and an Open Campus. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018 and 2019. The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.

As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of “The”)

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