The Diplomatic Council looks back on an extremely successful 2023 and looks forward to the new year 2024 with great confidence.
New DC missions in Europe, Asia and North America
The Diplomatic Council has further consolidated its position in Europe with new missions in France and Poland, whose Head of Missions introduced themselves at the DC Summer Party. As a result of this expansion, numerous high-caliber new members have already joined the Diplomatic Council in 2023. The majority of the new members are traveling internationally, thus strengthening the Diplomatic Council's global network.
In Asia, progress was made in 2023 in the ASEAN states, particularly Thailand, and China. The DC Mission CLMTV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) has been given the new name DC Mission Mekong Countries to reflect its expanded radius of action. In the USA, new members have joined, primarily from Silicon Valley, whose personal networks extend into the circle of tech elites such as Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Elon Musk. For 2024, a new DC Mission in Canada has created an additional basis for further growth in North America.
Engagement with the United Nations
Delegates from the Diplomatic Council took part in important UN conferences in 2023. These include the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, the UN Commission on Science and Technology in Lisbon and the Geneva Peace Week. In addition, the Diplomatic Council was present at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai with a much-noticed public contribution to the discussion on replacing fossil fuels with a global methanol economy. For 2024, the first confirmations for the participation of DC delegations in UN sessions have been received from the United Nations.
DC Publishing makes great progress
The publishing arm of the Diplomatic Council (DC Publishing) made great progress in 2023. A milestone was the publication of the first biography of AI researcher Prof. Dr. Sebastian Thrun, which took place practically at the same time as the new "AI wave". The press response was just great.
Good success with collaborations
The strategic collaborations with United Interim and Steinbeis Augsburg Business School were a great success in 2023: Events, contacts, members, books... On an international level, the close cooperation with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) with activities in over 200 countries has proven fruitful. With GEN, we have launched the Global Committee for Innovation, Sustainability & Entrepreneurship + Education (DCISE), which has held several business-meets-diplomacy events in Asia. The Diplomatic Council is entering 2024 with another new cooperation with Protocol Today ("Soft Diplomat Skills"). A first joint international conference already took place at the end of 2023.
Focus on AI, ESG and communication
The Diplomatic Council has been pursuing the key topic of artificial intelligence since 2021 - and expanded it considerably in 2023. Together with scientists and business experts from the USA, Australia and Europe, we conducted an international AI project on the impact of artificial intelligence on business decision-makers. Another focus in 2023 was on ESG, i.e. environmental, social and governance issues. Together with Steinbeis, the Diplomatic Council launched an ESG certificate valid for European companies for the first time, which complies with the requirements of the United Nations. In 2024, we will also focus on the topic of communication. After all, communication is the basis for everything according to the principle "you cannot not communicate" (in diplomacy, "no answer is also an answer").
DC Quantum Leap
The Diplomatic Council's strategy with the new global initiative "DC Quantum Leap", launched in 2023, is aimed far into the future. Quantum computing is seen as "the next big thing" with computer performance that is still hard to imagine today. The fundamental change is easy to explain: In future, data will no longer be transmitted and processed via electrons (as in today's computers) but via photons, i.e. light. With Harald A. Summa, one of the fathers of today's Internet, as Chairman of this initiative, the Diplomatic Council is ideally placed to play a key role in establishing an ecosystem around the new technology.