What is the eligibility level for this summer school?

The Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School is designed for high-school level students.

Where is the summer school located?

The summer school is located in the city of Oxford, GBR.

What is the format of the program?

The program is a summer school format, offering an intensive period of study in international relations and diplomacy.

Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School 2026

Name: Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School 2026
Start: 2026-08-02T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-08-15T00:00:00Z
Location: Oxford

Aug 2–15, 2026Oxford, United KingdomIn-person

Happening nowRegistration open

The Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School offers a concentrated program in international relations and diplomacy, designed for high-school students. Held in Oxford, GBR, the program provides an immersive experience in a historic academic setting. Participants engage with key concepts and practices in global affairs, fostering an understanding of the complexities of international relations.

Committees & topics

Model UN session
Global Politics: Power Shifts in a Multipolar Order · International Relations: Theory, Institutions, and State Behavior · Diplomacy: Statecraft in an Era of Disruption · International Law: Sovereignty, Accountability, and Enforcement · Global Policy: Governing Transnational Challenges · Conflict Resolution: Mediation, Peacekeeping, and Post-War Order · Human Rights: Universality Under Pressure · Global Trade: From Hyper-Globalization to Strategic Decoupling

Why it matters

Understanding international relations and diplomacy is increasingly vital in a world characterized by interconnected challenges and opportunities. This program offers an early introduction to the frameworks and skills necessary for navigating global dynamics. For high-school students, it represents a foundational step towards careers in diplomacy, international organizations, or global policy-making.

The curriculum is structured to provide both theoretical knowledge and practical insights into how nations interact, negotiate, and address shared concerns. By engaging with these topics at a formative stage, participants can develop a critical perspective on current events and the historical forces that shape them. This early exposure can significantly influence academic and professional trajectories, preparing future leaders to engage thoughtfully with complex international issues.

How to prepare

Prospective participants should focus on developing a strong foundational understanding of global political geography and current events. Familiarity with the roles of major international organizations and key diplomatic concepts will be beneficial. Engaging with resources that explain the principles of international law and foreign policy decision-making will also enhance the learning experience.

To maximize the benefits of this program, students might consider exploring topics such as "Engagement Strategies" and "Dynamic Analysis" to better understand the practical application of diplomatic principles. Additionally, reviewing case studies of historical and contemporary diplomatic challenges can provide valuable context. The program's setting in GBR offers a unique opportunity to connect academic learning with the historical evolution of international relations.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United Kingdom

A historical center of diplomatic thought and practice, GBR offers a rich backdrop for studying international relations.

Role in topic

GBR has a long-standing tradition in diplomacy and international relations, hosting numerous international organizations and contributing significantly to global policy discussions. Its academic institutions, particularly in Oxford, are renowned for their contributions to the field.

United States

A global superpower with extensive diplomatic engagements and influence.

Role in topic

The USA plays a pivotal role in international relations through its economic, military, and diplomatic power. Its foreign policy decisions often have far-reaching global implications, making it a crucial case study in diplomatic studies.

China

An emerging global power reshaping international diplomatic landscapes.

Role in topic

CHN's growing economic and political influence has significantly altered the global diplomatic arena. Understanding its foreign policy and engagement strategies is essential for comprehending contemporary international relations.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Model UN session

Global Politics: Power Shifts in a Multipolar Order

The post-Cold War unipolar moment, in which the United States stood as the sole superpower, has steadily given way to a more contested international system. The rise of China as an economic and military peer competitor, Russia's revanchist foreign policy culminating in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the growing assertiveness of middle powers such as India, Brazil, and Turkey have reshaped global politics. Forums like the G20 and BRICS+ now rival the G7 in setting agendas on currency, development finance, and security. Core disputes center on the legitimacy of the rules-based international order, the reform of UN Security Council membership, and the weaponization of economic interdependence through sanctions, export controls, and supply-chain decoupling. Strategic competition over semiconductors, critical minerals, and AI has fused economic policy with national security in ways not seen since the 1970s. Today, global politics is defined less by ideological blocs than by issue-specific coalitions, with many states in the Global South pursuing strategic non-alignment. The challenge for delegates is to navigate a system where great-power rivalry coexists with the urgent need for multilateral cooperation on climate, pandemics, and AI governance.

Key players

Model UN session

International Relations: Theory, Institutions, and State Behavior

Modern international relations as a discipline emerged from the wreckage of the two World Wars, with the founding of the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1945 institutionalizing the idea that interstate conduct could be regulated by shared rules. Realist, liberal, and constructivist schools have since competed to explain why states cooperate, balance, or go to war, and these debates underpin contemporary policy choices on alliances, deterrence, and humanitarian intervention. The core dispute in current IR practice is whether sovereignty remains the organizing principle of world order or whether transnational challenges—climate change, pandemics, cyber threats, mass displacement—demand pooled authority. The expansion of NATO, the evolution of the European Union, and the proliferation of regional bodies such as ASEAN, the African Union, and Mercosur reflect different answers to that question. Today, IR is being tested by the erosion of trust in multilateral institutions, the return of conventional war in Europe, and contests over norms in cyberspace and outer space. Delegates must weigh how states reconcile national interest with collective action when the costs of unilateralism are rising but the political appetite for binding cooperation is uneven.

Key players

Model UN session

Diplomacy: Statecraft in an Era of Disruption

Diplomacy as an institutionalized practice traces back to the Italian Renaissance and was codified globally by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which remains the bedrock of immunities, missions, and consular practice. The twentieth century saw the rise of summit diplomacy, shuttle diplomacy, and multilateral conference diplomacy at venues like Bretton Woods, Helsinki, and Camp David, complementing traditional bilateral channels. The core contemporary dispute concerns how diplomacy adapts to a more transparent, accelerated, and contested environment. Social media has compressed decision cycles and exposed back-channel negotiations; sanctions and visa bans have become routine instruments; and the expulsion of diplomats has surged since 2018, particularly between Russia and Western states. Meanwhile, new tracks—climate COPs, AI safety summits, digital governance dialogues—have expanded the diplomatic agenda beyond traditional security and trade. Today, practitioners debate the future of embassies in an age of digital communication, the role of Track II and citizen diplomacy, and how mediators such as Qatar, Norway, Oman, and Switzerland sustain dialogue in conflicts from Gaza to Venezuela. Delegates should consider how procedural craft, personal relationships, and credible commitment still shape outcomes that algorithms and pressure campaigns cannot.

Key players

Model UN session

International Law: Sovereignty, Accountability, and Enforcement

International law evolved from the law of nations articulated by Grotius in the seventeenth century into a dense web of treaties, customary norms, and judicial bodies. The UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court collectively form the modern framework governing war, peace, human rights, and state responsibility. The central dispute is enforcement. The International Court of Justice can adjudicate only with state consent, the ICC's reach is limited by non-membership of major powers including the United States, China, and Russia, and Security Council vetoes routinely block action on Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza. Recent cases—South Africa's genocide proceedings against Israel at the ICJ, the ICC arrest warrants against Russian and Israeli leaders, and the Special Tribunal proposals for the crime of aggression in Ukraine—have tested the credibility of international justice. Today, debates center on universal jurisdiction, the law of cyber operations (informed by the Tallinn Manual process), corporate accountability for human rights abuses, and the codification of crimes against humanity. Delegates must weigh how to strengthen compliance without alienating the powerful states whose cooperation any legal order ultimately requires.

Key players

Model UN session

Global Policy: Governing Transnational Challenges

Global policy refers to the negotiated rules and standards that govern issues no single state can manage alone: climate, pandemics, finance, migration, and emerging technologies. The Bretton Woods institutions, the WTO, the WHO, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change emerged in successive waves to address such collective-action problems, but the architecture is uneven and increasingly contested. Core disputes today include the pace and equity of the energy transition under the Paris Agreement, the negotiation of a WHO Pandemic Agreement following COVID-19, reform of the international financial architecture sought by the Bridgetown Initiative, and the governance of artificial intelligence following the Bletchley and Seoul AI Safety Summits. Developing states argue that current rules entrench historical inequities, while major economies resist commitments that constrain industrial or strategic flexibility. Today, global policy is increasingly made in plurilateral and minilateral settings—G20, G7, BRICS+, Climate Vulnerable Forum—rather than in universal bodies alone. Delegates must consider how to design policy that is both ambitious and implementable, balancing scientific urgency with political feasibility and questions of climate finance, technology transfer, and burden-sharing.

Key players

Model UN session

Conflict Resolution: Mediation, Peacekeeping, and Post-War Order

Modern conflict resolution draws on the UN Charter's Chapter VI provisions for pacific settlement and Chapter VII enforcement, supplemented by regional mechanisms under the African Union, OSCE, and ECOWAS. Landmark settlements—Camp David (1978), the Dayton Accords (1995), the Good Friday Agreement (1998), and the Colombian peace process (2016)—offer templates of negotiated transition, while UN peacekeeping has deployed more than 70 missions since 1948. The core dispute is that classic mediation models are struggling against today's protracted, internationalized, and fragmented conflicts. Wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, the eastern DRC, and Gaza involve multiple state sponsors, non-state armed groups, and transnational criminal networks. UN peacekeeping has contracted, with the closure of MINUSMA in Mali and MONUSCO's drawdown in the DRC, while ceasefires increasingly collapse within months. Today, practitioners debate the merits of inclusive versus elite-pact mediation, the sequencing of justice and peace, and the role of women and civil society mandated by Security Council Resolution 1325. Delegates should weigh how to revive credible mediation when great-power rivalry undermines impartial guarantors and when local actors increasingly reject externally imposed frameworks.

Key players

Model UN session

Human Rights: Universality Under Pressure

The international human rights regime was built on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and expanded through the ICCPR, ICESCR, the Convention against Torture, CEDAW, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, among others. The Human Rights Council, established in 2006, conducts the Universal Periodic Review of every UN member state and mandates Special Rapporteurs and Commissions of Inquiry on country and thematic issues. The core dispute concerns universality versus cultural and political particularism. States including China, Russia, and several G77 members increasingly invoke sovereignty and developmental rights to push back against civil and political rights scrutiny, while Western states are criticized for selectivity and double standards, particularly in their responses to Gaza compared to Ukraine. New frontiers include the right to a healthy environment (recognized by GA Resolution 76/300), digital rights and AI accountability following the 2024 OHCHR work on emerging technologies, and the protection of climate-displaced persons outside the 1951 Refugee Convention. Today, the regime is stretched by atrocities in Sudan, Xinjiang, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Gaza, by closing civic space worldwide, and by the rise of transnational repression. Delegates must consider how to defend universal norms while reforming a system whose credibility depends on consistent application.

Key players

Model UN session

Global Trade: From Hyper-Globalization to Strategic Decoupling

The post-1945 trading system was anchored by GATT and, from 1995, the World Trade Organization, which institutionalized most-favored-nation treatment, dispute settlement, and progressive liberalization. China's 2001 WTO accession accelerated a phase of hyper-globalization, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty but also concentrating manufacturing supply chains and producing political backlash in advanced economies. The core contemporary dispute is the partial unraveling of that consensus. The WTO Appellate Body has been paralyzed since 2019 due to US blocks on member appointments; the US–China tariff war begun in 2018 has hardened into structural rivalry over semiconductors, EVs, and critical minerals; and industrial policy—the US Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act, the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, China's Made in China 2025—has returned to the center of economic strategy. Carbon border measures, export controls, and outbound investment screening are reshaping trade flows. Today, regional and plurilateral agreements such as RCEP, CPTPP, USMCA, and the AfCFTA are filling gaps left by multilateral stagnation. Delegates must consider how to reconcile open trade with national security, climate goals, and demands for resilient supply chains, and whether the WTO can be reformed before it is rendered marginal.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Rahul Gandhi Defends Tamil Nadu's Autonomy

India's 131st Amendment Bill

West Bengal 2026 Election

Trump's Legal Battles Impact 2026 Elections

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Conflict Resolution

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Media & Press Relations

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

United Kingdom High School August 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School 2026

Aug 2–15, 2026Oxford, United KingdomIn-person

Happening nowRegistration open

Committees & topics

Model UN session
Global Politics: Power Shifts in a Multipolar Order · International Relations: Theory, Institutions, and State Behavior · Diplomacy: Statecraft in an Era of Disruption · International Law: Sovereignty, Accountability, and Enforcement · Global Policy: Governing Transnational Challenges · Conflict Resolution: Mediation, Peacekeeping, and Post-War Order · Human Rights: Universality Under Pressure · Global Trade: From Hyper-Globalization to Strategic Decoupling

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United Kingdom

A historical center of diplomatic thought and practice, GBR offers a rich backdrop for studying international relations.

Role in topic

United States

A global superpower with extensive diplomatic engagements and influence.

Role in topic

China

An emerging global power reshaping international diplomatic landscapes.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Model UN session

Global Politics: Power Shifts in a Multipolar Order

Key players

Model UN session

International Relations: Theory, Institutions, and State Behavior

Key players

Model UN session

Diplomacy: Statecraft in an Era of Disruption

Key players

Model UN session

International Law: Sovereignty, Accountability, and Enforcement

Key players

Model UN session

Global Policy: Governing Transnational Challenges

Key players

Model UN session

Conflict Resolution: Mediation, Peacekeeping, and Post-War Order

Key players

Model UN session

Human Rights: Universality Under Pressure

Key players

Model UN session

Global Trade: From Hyper-Globalization to Strategic Decoupling

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Oxford IR & Diplomacy Summer School 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Rahul Gandhi Defends Tamil Nadu's Autonomy

India's 131st Amendment Bill

West Bengal 2026 Election

Trump's Legal Battles Impact 2026 Elections

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Conflict Resolution

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Media & Press Relations

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

United Kingdom High School August 2026

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

RUSI Latin American Security Conference 2026

Link India Strategic Dialogue on Bangladesh Elections 2026

UK Trade Policy Forum 2026

Colombia’s armed conflict in regional and global context: Peace prospects, Venezuela spill over, and geopolitics ahead of elections

Meeting on “Transatlantic Security Amid Geopolitical Fluctuations”

Security and Resilience

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

RUSI Latin American Security Conference 2026

Link India Strategic Dialogue on Bangladesh Elections 2026

UK Trade Policy Forum 2026

Colombia’s armed conflict in regional and global context: Peace prospects, Venezuela spill over, and geopolitics ahead of elections

Meeting on “Transatlantic Security Amid Geopolitical Fluctuations”

Security and Resilience

Frequently asked questions