A chapter by UNPO Secretary-General Mercè Monje Cano and Oxford Professor Fiona McConnell explores how diplomatic training can empower marginalized communities and challenge state-centric diplomacy.
A new academic volume, Diplomatic Training: Histories, Geographies, Politics, brings together leading scholars and practitioners from around the world to explore how diplomacy is learned, practiced, and challenged. Among its featured contributions is a chapter by UNPO Secretary-General Mercè Monje Cano and Professor Fiona McConnell (University of Oxford), highlighting the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization’s (UNPO) pioneering work training “Unrepresented Diplomats.”
The chapter makes a clear and timely case: diplomacy is not only for states. Indigenous peoples, minorities, stateless nations, and other marginalized communities are already engaging in international advocacy, often with limited resources and under significant risk. Yet access to training and institutional knowledge remains scarce.
Since 1991, UNPO has supported indigenous, minority, and occupied peoples in advancing their rights and pursuing non-violent solutions to conflict. Training has always been central to this mission, evolving from early programmes on basic diplomacy and UN processes to specialized initiatives on human rights advocacy, media engagement, digital campaigning, and youth participation.
These efforts now come together through the Unrepresented Diplomats Training Programme and the UNPO Academy, which provide practical, flexible training tailored to the realities faced by non-state diplomats. By equipping unrepresented diplomats with the tools to navigate international forums, the UNPO Academy is helping to cultivate a new generation of advocates, one that not only seeks access to existing systems, but also works to transform them.
Diplomatic Training: Histories, Geographies, Politics is now published and available via Manchester University Press:
https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526188762/
