Image
AI Governance and International Negotiation
SIPA-UNITAR Series on Negotiation and AI
|
|
||
|---|---|---|
| Time (EST): 9:00am-5:00pm |
Format: In-Person and Online |
Tuition: $5,250 Online* $5,950 In-Person** |
| Application deadline: January 18 |
Location: Columbia University and United Nations*** |
Payment deadline: January 25 |
| Certificate: AI Governance and International Negotiation |
||
Learn how AI is reshaping negotiation dynamics and gain the skills to responsibly leverage AI to strengthen negotiation outcomes, facilitate effective multilateral engagement, and contribute to coherent and responsible AI governance.
*$4,200 reduced online tuition for groups, Columbia alumni and staff, United Nations staff, and participants from Least Developed Countries, and Small Island Developing States
**$4,760 reduced in-person/online tuition for groups, Columbia alumni and staff, United Nations staff, and participants from Least Developed Countries, and Small Island Developing States
***Subject to venue availability
Overview
Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents both significant opportunities and complex challenges for multilateral negotiation and international cooperation, presenting the potential to enhance institutional efficiency, improve analysis of complex issues, support consensus-building, and strengthen evidence-based decision-making, while also raising important ethical, regulatory, and governance concerns. In response to these opportunities and challenges, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) are partnering to deliver an Executive Program Series on Negotiation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The series will equip leaders and practitioners with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the opportunities, risks, and implications of AI in negotiation, diplomacy, and international cooperation.
Negotiation in the Age of AI
The first program in the Columbia SIPA-UNITAR Executive Series will focus on AI Governance and International Negotiation. The program is designed to bridge the academic expertise of Columbia SIPA with UNITAR’s extensive experience in diplomatic training, to examine how AI is reshaping the foundations of international cooperation, negotiation, and global governance. As governments, international organizations, and private-sector actors increasingly deploy AI systems for forecasting, crisis response, data-driven policy-making, and strategic communication, the dynamics of negotiation and multilateral engagement are rapidly evolving.
Leveraging both institutions’ strengths to deliver a comprehensive educational program, the program will provide participants with an advanced understanding of how AI alters negotiation dynamics, power asymmetries, disinformation risks, and procedural fairness within multilateral settings. It will combine theoretical knowledge with practical scenario-building exercises, to help participants anticipate and navigate AI-related challenges in diplomatic settings, multilateral spaces, as well as in global security. Through this program, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to anticipate challenges and leverage AI responsibly within the above mentioned contexts.
AI Governance
As AI systems are increasingly embedded in public administration, security, and development contexts, governments and international organizations face growing challenges in ensuring that their use is safe, ethical, inclusive, and aligned with international law and human-centered values.
Building on both institutions’ strengths, the program will also provide participants with a structured overview of key global and regional AI governance frameworks, including multilateral principles and standards, ethical guidelines, and emerging regulatory approaches to examine how artificial intelligence is being governed at national, regional, and international levels. Particular attention will be given to comparative governance models, risk-based regulation, accountability mechanisms, transparency and explainability, and the role of multi-stakeholder cooperation in shaping responsible AI ecosystems.
Roundtable on AI in Multilateral Contexts
To launch the Executive Program Series, Columbia SIPA and UNITAR recently hosted a roundtable on July 22. The UNITAR - Columbia SIPA: Multilateral Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence (AI) examined how AI is transforming diplomacy, international cooperation, and global governance. The session also offered an exclusive preview of the upcoming Executive Program Series on Negotiation and AI.
Program Partner
Structure and Curriculum
Program Structure
The program will provide participants with an advanced understanding of how AI alters negotiation dynamics, power asymmetries, disinformation risks, and procedural fairness within multilateral settings. It will combine theoretical knowledge with practical scenario-building exercises, to help participants anticipate and navigate AI-related challenges in diplomatic settings, multilateral spaces, as well as in global security.
The program will also provide participants with a structured overview of key global and regional AI governance frameworks, including multilateral principles and standards, ethical guidelines, and emerging regulatory approaches. Particular attention will be given to comparative governance models, risk-based regulation, accountability mechanisms, transparency and explainability, and the role of multi-stakeholder cooperation in shaping responsible AI ecosystems. Particular emphasis will be placed on procurement regulation as a domain where AI governance translates most directly into institutional practice, together with trust and safety, red teaming, third-party assurance, and the use of regulatory sandboxes to enable responsible experimentation.
The program will move beyond conceptual treatment to engage participants directly with operational systems, including research tools, forecasting platforms, situational awareness dashboards, and negotiation simulators, supporting critical evaluation of what these tools can and cannot do in diplomatic practice. Through this program, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to anticipate challenges and leverage AI responsibly within the above mentioned contexts.
Program Methodology
The program will be delivered over a two-week period and will be jointly designed and delivered by UNITAR and SIPA. The first four sessions during the first week of the program will be delivered fully online and the four days of in-person sessions during the second week will be held on the campus of Columbia University and the United Nations Headquarters in New York City (subject to venue availability). The second week of the program will be offered in a blended format, utilizing a hybrid mode of instruction to provide participants the flexibility to join the sessions either in-person or online. The in-person component will feature site visits to leading New York City organizations and agencies at the forefront of shaping the future of negotiation and diplomacy in the age of AI and advancing AI governance.
Instructional methodologies include a range of interactive lectures, stakeholder discussions, high-level roundtables, and site visits, as well applied exercises to give participants practical, hands-on experience utilizing AI technologies to analyze scenarios, evaluate strategic options, make more informed decisions, and strengthen their negotiation skills in high-stakes environments. These tabletop exercises will incorporate real-world case studies and interactive simulations using cutting-edge research tools, forecasting platforms, situational awareness dashboards, and negotiation simulators, bringing together the appropriate focus of theory and applied methods in emerging technologies and negotiation.
Participants will not only have the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s leading experts on Negotiation and AI but also their peers working at the forefront of AI policy, diplomacy, and governance to learn how AI challenges and opportunities are being addressed across different national and institutional contexts and sectors.
Key Topics
-
AI-Driven Models for Strategic Leverage in Complex Negotiation, Diplomacy, and Conflict Prevention, including the Assessment of Negotiation Scenarios, Intelligence Analysis, and Crisis Management;
-
Development of AI Tools and Frameworks for Multilateral Organizations: Practical, Policy, and Ethical Dimensions;
-
Hands-on content, including tabletop sessions with real systems (research tools, forecasting platforms, situational awareness dashboards, negotiation simulators) followed by critical reflection;
-
Evaluation of the tool landscape to provide a framework for judging the offerings available to them (e.g. from Big Tech, startups, civic tech, NGOs, and the UN system). This would include Landscape mapping plus evaluation methodology;
-
Practical Application of AI Models to Complex Negotiation;
-
How AI can be used to facilitate negotiation.
- Governance Frameworks for Responsible and Ethical AI Use in Negotiation;
- Risk Management and AI Safety Practices;
- AI Governance and Disinformation;
- Procurement regulation, where AI policy has real consequences for organizations, alongside trust and safety, red teaming, third-party assurance, and regulatory sandboxes;
- National Approaches to AI Regulation;
- The Role of International Organizations in Shaping AI Norms.
Learning Objectives
Combining conceptual foundations with applied policy analysis, the course will equip participants with practical tools to assess governance trade-offs and institutional design choices. Participants will strengthen their ability to design, evaluate, and adapt AI governance frameworks within their own national or multilateral contexts, while contributing to coherent and responsible global AI governance.
- Analyze how AI is reshaping negotiation dynamics, power asymmetries, and institutional effectiveness within multilateral and diplomatic settings;
- Engage directly with operational AI systems — including research tools, forecasting platforms, situational awareness dashboards, and negotiation simulators — and critically evaluate what they can and cannot do in diplomatic practice;
- Identify and navigate AI-related risks in diplomatic contexts, including disinformation, privacy, procedural accountability, and the erosion of institutional trust and legitimacy;
- Apply a structured evaluation methodology to map and assess AI tool offerings from technology firms, startups, civic tech initiatives, NGOs, and the UN system;
- Leverage AI responsibly to anticipate challenges, strengthen negotiation outcomes, and facilitate more effective engagement in multilateral and global security contexts;
- Compare key global, regional, and national AI governance frameworks, including multilateral principles, ethical guidelines, and emerging regulatory approaches;
- Evaluate risk-based regulation, accountability mechanisms, transparency and explainability requirements, and multi-stakeholder cooperation as core elements of responsible AI governance;
- Apply practical governance tools — including procurement regulation, red teaming, third-party assurance, and regulatory sandboxes — to institutional AI safety and responsible deployment;
- Evaluate AI governance frameworks within national or multilateral contexts, informed by comparative institutional design choices and governance trade-offs;
- Engage with the role of international organizations and Member States in shaping global AI norms, contributing to coherent, human-centered, and inclusive international governance.
Professional Benefits
Participants in the Executive Program Series on AI and Negotiation will gain access to a range of professional, academic, and networking benefits designed to support their leadership development and career advancement in an increasingly AI-enabled global environment.
- Joint Columbia SIPA–UNITAR Certificate: Earn a Joint Certificate from SIPA and UNITAR—two of the world’s leading institutions in multilateral diplomacy, public policy, and international affairs—upon the successful completion of each program. Participants who complete all three programs would additionally receive an overarching certificate for the full series.
- Access to World-Class Faculty and Practitioners: Learn from leading academics, policy experts, diplomats, negotiators, and practitioners from Columbia SIPA, UNITAR, and the broader international community who are shaping the future of AI governance and multilateral cooperation.
- Membership in a Growing Community of Practice: Become part of a global network of professionals, diplomats, government officials, international civil servants, and regulators focused on AI, governance, negotiation, and decision-making, creating valuable professional connections that can support future collaboration, policy dialogue, and professional opportunities.
- Peer Learning and Cross-Sector Exchange: Expand perspectives through engagement with participants working at the forefront of AI policy, diplomacy, and governance from different sectors and regions and gain practical insights into how AI challenges and opportunities are being addressed across different national and institutional contexts.
- Practical Skills and Applied Learning: Acquire hands-on experience with AI-enabled tools and policy frameworks as well as immediately applicable skills through case study analysis, negotiation simulations, real-word policy exercises, forecasting tools, and scenario planning.
- Enhanced Professional Credentials: Enhance your expertise and competencies in AI, negotiation, governance, and decision-making and gain insights into emerging international norms, regulatory developments, governance frameworks, and geopolitical dynamics that are shaping the future of artificial intelligence worldwide.
- Alumni Engagement Opportunities: Receive invitations to select thought leadership events, policy forums, and networking opportunities organized by Columbia SIPA and UNITAR, to remain engaged with evolving developments in AI and international affairs.
- Exposure to Global Centers of Diplomacy: Gain exposure to the global centers of diplomacy in New York City and Geneva.
Program Faculty
The Executive Program Series on Negotiation and AI is taught by world-renowned academics, researchers, and practitioners from Columbia University; the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR); the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR); the Center for International Cooperation at New York University (CIC); the EPFL Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne; the International Peace Institute (IPI); the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI); the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (CCEIA); and the London School of Economics, and other leading institutions who are shaping the future of AI governance, multilateral cooperation, and diplomacy. The program offers an opportunity for participants to expand their professional networks and learn from some of the world’s foremost experts on Negotiation and AI.
Eduardo Albrecht is an Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia SIPA and the author of Political Automation. He is a former senior fellow at the UN University’s Centre for Policy Research—where he conducted research on the use of AI technologies in UN conflict prevention and response—and a former fellow at IPI and EIAS.
Read full bio »
Andrea Cavallaro is a Full Professor at the EPFL Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition, and a Fellow of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. His research focuses on machine learning for multimodal perception.
Read full bio »
Paige Arthur is the Director of Global Programming at Columbia Global, Columbia University. Before her current role, she served as a senior fellow at the NYU Center on International Cooperation. She recently co-authored AI for Peace, a book exploring the advancements in AI technologies and their applications in peacebuilding.
Read full bio »
Anu Bradford is a leading scholar on digital regulation, and is the Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organizations and Director of the European Legal Studies Center at the Columbia Law School, a senior scholar at the Columbia Business School, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Read more >>
Emmanuelle Cousin serves as Lead for Mediation Initiatives and Special Adviser to President to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein at the International Peace Institute (IPI), where she oversees high-level, discreet Track 1.5 mediation initiatives that that bring together diplomats, civil society, and policy experts to bridge formal and informal processes.
Read more >>
Andreas Hirblinger is a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, author of Digital Peacebuilding? The Socio-Technicality of Transforming Armed Conflict, and former researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), and the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Read more >>
Daniel Naujoks is a Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs at Columbia SIPA where he focuses on international migration and development. He has worked for UNDP, the UN Population Division, UNICEF, the EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative, and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Read more >>
Branka Panic is the Founding Director of AI for Peace, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for International Cooperation at NYU, and a TEDx speaker on AI and peace. Named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and a She Shapes AI 2024/25 winner, she is the author of Foreign Policy at the AI Frontier and co-author of AI for Peace.
Read more >>
Emrys Schoemaker is a Senior Fellow in Digital and Frontier Technologies at UNU-CPR, where he focuses on the governance of AI, data, and digital infrastructure. He leads the Global Digital Governance Lab and the Digital Sovereignty Observatory at the Graduate Institute Geneva and is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.
Read more >>
Application Process
Eligibility Requirements
The training programs are designed to build the capacities of a diverse cohort, including diplomats, delegates, international civil servants and policymakers, academics, and professionals working across the public and private sectors.
Given the senior level of the intended cohort, the program will assume working familiarity with multilateral or executive contexts and will be calibrated to the practical demands of working with AI in professional settings, equipping participants to deploy, evaluate, and govern these tools in their own institutions.
The program will be conducted in English, hence fluency in English is a requirement for participation.
Application Process
Applications for the program will be accepted through January 18, 2027. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and qualified candidates may receive admission decisions prior to the application deadline. As spaces are limited, prospective participants are encouraged to submit their applications as early as possible to ensure full consideration. Successful applicants will receive additional information regarding enrollment, program logistics, and pre-program preparations following their acceptance.
A small amount of financial assistance is available for participants from Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and refugees (equivalent to 20% off the program fee). We encourage you to submit your application and indicate within the application that you are interested in being considered for a scholarship. Applications requesting financial assistance will be reviewed as part of the admissions process, and we will do our best to accommodate as many qualified applicants as possible.
Learn from two of the world's leading institutions on international affairs and diplomacy. Understand the new dynamics of negotiation. Prepare to lead in an AI-enabled world.
Contact
The Picker Center for Executive Education
Laura McCreedy
Manager of Executive Education
Email Exec Ed Manager
Columbia University | SIPA
Picker Center for Executive Education
118th Street, Room 400
New York, NY 10027
P: +1 212-854-0791