Estonian School of Diplomacy

ESTONIAN SCHOOL OF DIPLOMACY was established in 1990 with the aim to train competent personnel for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was being re-created at the time. The training was predominatly diplomacy related and focused for officials of MFA. At the change of millennium ESD extended its scope to bring in broader audience including trainees from other public institutions as well as outside the country. A new training program was developed entitled International Relations and European Integration and the language of instruction was changed from Estonian to English. In 2005 ESD launched its first joint scholarship program in coopertaion with the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) to enrol students from the Ukrainian Diplomatic Academy. Soon after the Estonian and Finnish Ministries of Foreign Affairs contributed to the established scholarhip program in order to support young diplomats and state officials from Moldova and Georgia. In 2011 the US Department of State contributed to training Belarusian civil society activists at ESD. Cooperation with many other countries has been ongoing. Today ESD has more than 500 graduates dealing with foreign relations in state institutions, international organisations, non-governmental organisations as well as in private sector. Many graduates have become successful carreer diplomats holding diplomatic posts for Estonia, for the EU institutions, the EaP countries, Central Asia, Arab countries etc. ESD has contributed to institution building and curriculum development for the Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian Diplomatic Academys and training centers.