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 which was being re-created. At the change of millennium ESD extended its scope to focus on broader audience including trainees from other public institutions as well as from outside the country. A new training program was developed entitled International Relations and European Integration focusing also to international audience, and the language of instruction was changed from Estonian to English. In 2005 ESD launched the 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. Since 2011 the US Department of State contributed to the training of the Belarusian civil society activists at ESD. Today the ESD has more than 500 graduates working in the field of 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, EEAS as well as for the EaP countries, Central-Asia, Afghanistan. ESD has contributed to the establishment, institution building and curriculum development of the Armenian Diplomatic Academy and the Georgian Diplomatic Training Center. ESD operates as a foundation/ non-profit institution with an objective to promote theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of international relations, European integration, diplomac and public administration reform. In this framework ESD organises: scholarship programs advanced tailor-made training courses for foreign servants management and consultancy of international training projects scientific research and development consultations publishing.