Diplomatic Training in Response to Fake News and Disinformation

In this interview with Tinatin Bregvadze, the Acting Head of the Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training And Research Institute, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, she spoke about the need for adequate training and proper sharing of information, she believes that it is important to begin this training at early stages in order to mitigate the growing trends of misinformation.

How was the Diplomatic Training Institute established? Can you share with us briefly?

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had carried out extensive work on the study component for a long time, although it was structured as a LEPL in 2012. The Centre is named after Levan Mikeladze who was a very distinguished person, and highly respected both in his personal and professional life. Mikeladze is deserving of so much respect even after his unfortunate death. Levan Mikeladze’s brilliant work in the formation of Georgia’s foreign policy is recognized both within our ministry and internationally so, it is very important for the institution to bear this man’s name.

The Institute was initially focused on training diplomats, and developing various programs that helps strengthen the Georgian diplomatic corps while enhancing their theoretical and practical knowledge. About a year and a half ago, the institute carried out some reform which further expanded its mandate and added other important functions. The most important reform in the institute is its new analytical and research direction, which currently employs eight “distinguished ambassadors” who have held senior diplomatic posts at various times and in different countries, but are not currently engaged as diplomats. These ambassadors are involved in both educational, analytical and research activities.

You embarked upon many projects for the Ministry staff and other public servants. Which of these projects would you highlight as the most interesting?

As I mentioned in the last question, our mandate has grown, and besides providing quality diplomatic programs to our diplomats, and equipping the Ministry staff with various skills and knowledge, one of our strategic goals is to keep a broad audience engaged at all times. So, we have defined target groups and we believe that it is crucial to provide them with accurate and professional information about our foreign policy. These important target groups of young people, students, and professionals, have a high chance at becoming future employees of the ministry therefore, it is important to keep them informed and for them to have the right expectations and a healthy view about diplomatic service. We are often confronted with problems arising from people who have formed a wrong opinion about this profession, and this is why we believe that we must try to make the people who are going to choose diplomatic careers better prepared.

Also, we do a lot of work with public officials because we think it is very important for everyone to speak one language, and operate with the same information on the genuine and official position of the country on current processes. I think this is of particular importance today as we are in an era where false information and misinformation have become huge problems. When we look at the challenges of our country, it is especially important for us to counter false information about our country and our ongoing processes with correct information from a professional standpoint. In addition to raising awareness, professional discussions are needed for the exchange of ideas, visions, concepts, and exchanges between different sectors. These may not only be among civil servants, but the academic scope that we can cover through these efforts looks interesting and promising because it is in the university and science spaces. From these spaces, we can create new knowledge that can then be formed into a specific policy. These discussions will aid communication and will ensure the most possible engagement on any of the tasks we strive to accomplish as projects.

I wouldn’t say that there is a particular project that I like the most or I think is most important because all of these projects are necessary, and with more involvement we will be carrying out similar activities across all sectors – from the media, academic, non-governmental or state sectors.

How do you inform foreign diplomatic staff about Georgia, and what specific programs do you have planned in this regard?

First of all, I would like to mention the free Georgian language lessons we have organized for foreign diplomats in Georgia. These lessons are important because I have a lot to learn about the process of teaching the language and a lot more about Georgia. This year, we had a surprise influx of foreigners, at the Georgian language program. Since its inception, we have not witnessed such a high interest.

Going by the previous question, I have to say that there is one project I particularly like. This project is called “About Georgia,” and it is an interactive training course for diplomats living in Georgia and foreigners working in various organizations. The program covers lectures, field trips to museums, and we have one of those exclusive sessions that mostly fascinate foreigners. We equally attend rehearsals of the Sukhishvili’s ensemble and they find this to be very interesting for them. We also organize wine and city tours amongst other programs. We do not wish to deceive ourselves or to create false assumptions about this country under this program, i.e., we do not want to make this country seem like the coolest country in the world. I am against that. There are three main areas that we focus on in this program. One, we talk about Europe and European civilization which is not something new, and most people are quite aware of Georgia’s efforts to get into Europe. Europe is our natural space and we are only trying to come back and share our historical experience. The second is Georgia’s foreign policy and historical review, which Georgia has been striving for throughout its history. The third area is Georgia’s very good and interesting cultural direction. Based on these three key components, the program is structured around 15 meetings and lasts for two months. The program has received very positive reviews. The foreigners like it and they often point out that this is a place where they can get information about Georgia and gain experiences that they can’t get when visiting as a tourist, or staying for a short working trip. Therefore, we think it’s all very important.

Can students or any interested persons participate in your projects and attend your events?

Of course they can. We work with donors in this regard, or sometimes with our own funds, to open up spaces for everyone. We may not have a course designed for them, but we always open them up to public meetings with an interesting speaker about a topical issue, or general topics. We try to always respond to things that are relevant at the time and you know it’s very dynamic, and the world is always changing but we will always try to make it accessible to everyone.

We also have courses that we offer to the general public. These courses have fees attached to them, but we are trying to be less keen about the money so that these fees will not pose hindrances to students but will rather create access for students and anyone interested. The fees are somewhat inevitable for these courses and this is why they cannot be totally free. We have announced three of these courses already. The interest is very high, and I am very happy about that. When we organized a summer course as a pilot for these courses, I was very surprised to see a group in August that attended throughout, and we’re just very pleased about that. The responses we gathered have served as an indicator to me that the demand for information and education in this country is steadfast, and it is very gratifying to see that the new generation is different. As much as we hope for their knowledge and skills in the future, we have to invest in it today with the right amount of energy and time. This will help us set a very good trend.

What are your plans for the future?

After the recent changes we made in the institute, the first thing was to try to avoid chaotic work. So, we wrote our strategy, which was not a bulky two hundred-page document, but a threepage document which contained a chart of what we are going to do next, and how we plan to execute our strategy. With this, we know exactly where we want to be at every specific time, and we want this institution to become a hub, where any process that relates to international relations and foreign policy would be referred. This would be irrespective of the educational direction, intellectual processes, or so on. That is, we want to eventually cover as much of the area as possible. We of course, want to create programs that are of high-quality and tailor-made for our diplomats, because this is very important. If you look at the experience of developed countries, diplomat institutions are very important everywhere. As I said, there is often a misconception about this profession, and since I started working here, it is particularly frustrating to me that people think that diplomats live in a good country, go to reception, talk to colleagues and that’s it. This is a very naive view of this profession and during the last one and half year, I have visited many of our embassies, and that convinced me that this is really a soldier’s job, and these are people who serve the country effortlessly like soldiers. In some embassies, there are only three or four people employed, who take on the job of forty people, and this is often the case when there is a very important specific political achievement about a country. In fact, having three people do the job meant for thirty people is not really possible. Most times, one person takes on these tasks and when the results are finally earned; their names often remain in the shadows. I think that we all need to raise awareness about this and get more people to appreciate the work of diplomats, because they selflessly serve their country just like soldiers at war.