21st Century Vatican Diplomacy

3 credits

Vatican City is known as a key listening post, where diplomats from around the world exchange information with Vatican personnel and each other. These diplomats also engage with their Vatican counterparts to address foreign policy challenges on nearly every continent. This course explores the world of Vatican diplomacy from the point of view of the practitioner, as the instructor is a former U.S. diplomat with experience at the Vatican. The course segments are: 1) Introduction to the practice of diplomacy and diplomatic roles; 2) The structure of foreign policy elements of the Vatican; and 3) Case studies of diplomatic issues in which the Vatican has played a role. In this, the longest segment of the course, we will pay special attention to the new pontificate of Pope Leo XIV as we study the engagement of his recent predecessors. Assignments include work with tools of the trade, such as diplomatic cables and briefing papers.