Chinese Education in Diplomacy

摘要

This article reflects upon contemporary education in Chinese diplomacy covering three aspects: curriculum contents, teaching methods and teaching goals. It argues that the curriculum contents have the following shortcomings: poor awareness of the real problems in Chinas diplomatic practices, lack of global awareness that is consistent with China's image as a great country, blurring of the boundaries between academic and policy systems, oversight of practices and lack of good understanding of ancient, early modern and contemporary Chinese diplomacy and lack of adequate training in research methodologies. Teaching methods are problematic as the continued dependence on traditional historical research methods has failed to recognise the usefulness of theoretical analytic tools. Also, the value of case studies has not been fully recognised and utilised. With regard to teaching goals, Chinese diplomatic teaching desperately needs some vitality. This article makes recommendations for improving Chinese education in diplomacy, such as applying psychology in diplomatic education, offering a course on comparative diplomacy, developing a course on diplomacy theory, emphasising diplomatic history and improving the training in social sciences research methodologies.