On the eve of the UN Day celebrated on October 24, the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan announced an essay contest among the country's students on the topic "The history of UN preventive diplomacy". The condition of the competition is that short essays must be written in English.

What do young men and women who master a variety of specialties know about preventive diplomacy and what stages has its evolution passed on the United Nations platform?

What do our students know about how preventive diplomacy is implemented in the Central Asian region through the activities of a special structure of the largest international organization of our time – the UN?

Why is it important to know and understand?

These questions formed the basis of the concept of the new competition of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which thus decided not just to test young people, but also to stimulate their interest in improving political literacy and political culture, which is extremely relevant in our time of rapid transformation of world processes.

In addition, the competition will give students the opportunity to test their writing skills in English – one of the official languages of the United Nations – and try them out in the journalistic genre.

In more detail about the main objectives of the contest and why its topic is really so important today, says the lecturer of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Akmukhammad Dzhumakuliyev:

– Today, the national education system is actively integrating into the international scientific and educational space, and one of the ways of this integration is the promotion of talented, initiative youth and English as the language of international communication, the most widespread in the world due to the fact that many people teach it as a foreign language.

No one doubts that knowledge of foreign languages expands personal and career opportunities, helps to better understand the world around us and conduct a dialogue – and these are necessary qualities not only for a diplomat, but also for specialists of various profiles.

Through a foreign language, they gain access to more extensive and up–to-date technical and scientific information, conduct discussions and exchange experiences with colleagues from other countries, defend their point of view or represent the interests of the country, protect its prestige in a particular field of activity - from politics, economics to culture and sports.

Now about the topic of the contest. The concept of "preventive diplomacy" has become widely accepted in world practice and includes such strategies and approaches to issues of preserving international security as peacemaking, preventing disputes between the parties, easing tensions and encouraging conflicting parties to negotiate and agreements.

The seriousness of the crisis situations that have recently arisen in many countries and regions clearly signals to us that preventive diplomacy is not just a "concept" today, but an urgent necessity and needs to restart its main mechanisms.

Turkmenistan, with its successful application of the policy of neutrality, can broadcast positive experience here, including through the example of the effective activities of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy located in Ashgabat.

It is especially necessary for young people to realize the importance of this topic, to understand its essence, to know the history of the issue in order to see the future, because it is necessary for them to implement the political course of the country. Thus, our competition has several sides – linguistic, creative and ideological. Its tasks are also built in these directions: to promote the improvement of the level of language training, intellectual potential and political education of young people.

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Applications for participation in the competition are accepted until October 20. After evaluating the works according to the point system, the jury will announce the winners. I, II and III prizes are provided. The rest of the details can be know on the IMO website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

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