Montenegrin Foreign Minister Đorđe Radulović at Alumni Spotlight

Summer School for Young Diplomats “Gavro Vuković” manages to spark long lasting connections and creates alumni network that is of vital significance.

During the next five months we will put some additional light on 10 alumni from different corners of the globe and find out, through 10 questions, what they are doing now and what perception they have about contemporary international relations but also what kind of messages they have for future Summer School participants.

We are pleased to have Đorđe Radulović, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro as the first one under the spotlight.

1. Describe your career path in 100 words.

I started my diplomatic career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Secretary General. After that, I assumed position in Directorate for Bilateral Affairs, and subsequently at the Cabinet of State Secretary for Political Affairs. From 2016 to 2020, I was in our Embassy of Montenegro in Bucharest, Romania, of which I served as Charge d’ Affairs a.i. from September 2017 to June 2018. After returning to Ministry, I was covering the post of Director of Department for European Neighborhood Policy, and Director of Department for EU.

2. Your Summer School experience in one sentence.

An unique opportunity to share opinions and experiences with colleagues from over the globe, on current geo-political trends, at one place.

3. What are the major global challenges of diplomacy at the 21st century?

We are all witnessing tremendous alterations happening at the global forum. The 21 st century shown us that change is inevitable and that has become one of the main characteristics of modern society. In that vein, having in mind importance of diplomacy in regard to international matters, we are well aware of necessity to adopt to our new reality. Diplomacy has become pluri-directional, multilayered, intensive and unpredictable due to increased number of performers and dialogue among them, communication modules and complexity of objectives. In my humble opinion, major global challenges for diplomacy, according to above mentioned characteristics, will be health issues, environment protection and climate change, cyber opportunities and threats, fight for energy and water (caused in decreasing in the natural resources of the same) and nuclear power.

4. What skills and knowledge the emerging generation of diplomats should focus on?

I think that this epoch represents a truly precedent in perceiving the international relations so far. Everything is changing with great velocity and it is often very hard to distinct crucial from less important events and messages. In the time when technology has reached highest levels of development, with widely covered global scene by all medias, it is vital for all diplomats to shape their analytic side in order to provide their states with essential and key point messages and findings. It is expected from today’s diplomats not just to know few foreign languages and be polite and well and widely educated, but to be familiar with many topics that bother international community such
as environment issues, climate change, green economic growth, gender equality, poverty reduction and social exclusion etc. Above all this, it is crucial to understand geo-political trends and politics, in order to give qualitative contribution in building of dialogue and strengthening ties among countries and other subjects of international relations.

5. How Summer School might contribute to empowering young diplomats?

I honestly believe that this kind of platforms strongly promote further education and practical skills needed for this profession. Open conversation and debate with some of the most prominent diplomats, experts in the field of international relations, policy makers and game changers, is of the utmost importance for building wide perspective of knowledge and understanding of sensitive transformation on global level.

6. World after COVID 19? What diplomacy can do to support post COVID 19 recovery?

It is more than clear that COVID 19 will leave detrimental implications on our economy, finance, stability, policy making and last, but not the least, our life style. Adapting to new reality of daily routine, new perception of life itself will be a great challenge. So, we can only imagine what would be the implications of that in terms of international dialogue and relations among countries and nations. We are aware that we, as diplomats, have special responsibility when it comes to renovation and rebuilding trust and open conversation.

“Diplomats have special responsibility when it comes to rebuilding trust”

It is our duty to work on establishing new mechanism of communication among nations, suitable for the new circumstances, and act diligently on intensifying the interstate contacts, in order to overcome every single aspect of this crisis, which consequences will surely last for next few years. Supporting global initiatives regarding health, economic, environment and cultural recovery will be of crucial importance for further international development.

7. What could be the role of  “vaccine diplomacy” in shaping the future international relations?

Vaccine diplomacy is completely new instrument and negotiation model we are witnessing these days, that copes with various challenges on a daily level. We see that all world’s leading countries and play-makers are negotiating day to day in order to provide the doze of vaccines needed for their population. This pandemic had shown us that every corner of the world has same problems and needs when it comes to health, and that we all striving to the same goal – providing the best possible conditions for our citizens. On the other side, we were able to see that every country has its own path in achieving this goal, and in some way, it can be seen as self-concerned and pragmatic with not enough space for helping the others, less powerful and developed. In that vein, I would like to express my sincere belief that global solidarity will be additionally reinforced through “vaccine diplomacy”.

8. If you could recommend a book on diplomacy and international relations to global community of young diplomats, what would it be?

• Nations and Nationalism, Ernst Gellner
• American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, Samuel P. Huntington
• The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
• Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, Richard Clarke
• Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon

9. Your recommendation / advice for the future participants of Summer School for Young Diplomats “Gavro Vuković”.

I strongly advice all the participants to make and nurture connections developed during the Summer School, and stay in touch after it, because only through open dialogue we can make this world a much better place to live.

10. Your suggestion for empowering Summer School Alumni Network.

More practical work, study cases, debates on current international issues as well as need to further enhance portal youngdiplomats.me so participants can continue to share their views and thoughts after Summer School.

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The XIV Summer School for Young Diplomats will take place in period from 5 to 9 July 2021.

Stay connected and find out more about this year’s topics, speakers and participants.