The State Department's school for diplomats is looking for outside vendors to help train novice foreign service officers in the art of negotiation,
The Washington Free Beacon reported.
The Beacon noted that the solicitation came soon after Secretary of State John Kerry reached a framework agreement with Iran over its nuclear program. The Islamic Republic and the Obama administration have since offered contradictory interpretations over the deal in regard to when sanctions would be lifted.
The institute offers some 600 courses, including in foreign languages, cybertechnology and country studies, to 100,000 enrollees a year from the State Department, other federal agencies and the military.
For the planned negotiating course, the vendor is expected to teach "the essential skills, knowledge, and attitudes for U.S. diplomats to succeed in any of 275 overseas posts performing the full spectrum of political and economic work," the bid document said. "This module will focus on the complex art of negotiating across diverse cultures to find common ground for advancing mutual interests."
Those hired would also be tasked with helping diplomats comprehend "basic, universal negotiating concepts and vocabulary" and identifying the "objectives and underlying interests of negotiating parties."
Participants should come away with a better understanding of how to prepare "relevant strategies for diplomatic persuasion" and for "analyzing 'lessons learned' through debriefing to improve future outcomes," the solicitation said.
The course should also sensitize foreign service officers to cultural differences and how to build trust with representatives of foreign governments.
Instructors would show students how to apply "appropriate negotiation techniques to a given scenario, including but not limited to: clarifying assumptions ... building trust, representing one's own and others' interests, and being aware of assumptions."
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