Three Central-European diplomats visited Clingendael for a tailor-made, half-day course. During one of the workshops, they discussed some of the main security challenges facing the EU with Clingendael Senior Research Fellow Dick Zandee.

In the long run, Dick Zandee argued, our major security challenges will not come from Russia but rather from Africa, the Middle East, and even Asia. Dick Zandee further argued that at this moment a major challenge for policy makers in the EU is to adapt EU Security and Defence policies to new threats (e.g. cyber). Those systems are currently all designed according to Cold War realities from the nineties, and need to be revived.

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European Diplomatic Programme
The three junior diplomats participate in the European Diplomatic Programme (EDP) - an annually rotating network of 60 junior diplomats from all EU member states.  Every year the EDP is being organised and hosted by the member state that holds the EU presidency; currently the Netherlands.

The EDP programme consists of four separate modules combining skills and knowledge. Traditionally, the second module offers the diplomats the opportunity to visit an EU capital in a smaller group, to learn more about some specific fields of their interest. Coming April the group will gather again in Brussels, following a one-week training in EU negotiation skills.

Photo: EDP participants during their first training module in Luxemburg, November 2015