 the New York and DC study tour runs in April and we will be visiting both New York and Washington DC. These tours basically have two distinct phases. The first one is in New York, which focuses on the United Nations. So there we have various UN agencies come to visit us, where they speak about their particular area. So we will have someone from the Security Council, someone from the General Assembly, someone proceeding with sustainable development goals. The second phase of the trip is in Washington DC and there we visit the State Department and think tanks that operate in Washington. So these are, if you like, foreign policy and diplomacy implementers in the State Department and influencers in think tanks. And so there's quite a good sort of juxtaposition between the two sort of types of diplomatic actor that we're going to go and visit. So what's the tour included? So we'll spend six nights in the United States. Everybody should arrive on the Sunday, or we have our first team meeting because we're in the UN first thing on the Monday morning. We start with the tour of the building, including the General Assembly and the Security Council room, and then we go on to our presenters. So it'll be quite intense two days there at the UN. And then on Wednesday, you have a morning free and then the early afternoon we travel to Washington. And in Washington we visit across the two days, the State Department, and a wide spectrum of think tanks, including the Kato Institute, the Hoover Institute, the United States Institute for Peace, and the United States State Department. So that's quite a broad view of different sort of policy makers and policy influencers, views on how diplomacy, international relations, U.S. foreign policy should work. We also go to the Capitol building where we have a tour there. And usually a member of the United States legislature can also come and speak to us about some more of those interests and more sort of domestic foreign policy influences. So the last year at the UN, we heard from a wide variety of speakers covering sort of just like high politics in sort of the areas of foreign and security policy, treaties, role of the general assembly, peacekeeping operations, sort of how the UN gets involved in those. But we also had people from the more sort of economics-y sort of sides of the tour, looking at sustainable development goals, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, et cetera, et cetera. So quite a variety of different talks in that building. And that will concentrate on the first two days. In D.C., visiting the State Department, we speak to section experts basically in their field. So last year we had quite an interesting discussion of U.S. trade policy with their economics team, who deals with how the United States negotiates trade agreements, how it deals with, so I suppose it could be the moment at the time, how it's dealing with China and increased tariffs and how you apply those. And these are practitioner diplomats who will work in various areas of U.S. diplomacy, many of whom have been abroad and come back in the cycle of a foreign policy, foreign service officer. They're also quite good at answering questions for those of you who want to enter foreign services about what the life is like in various, particularly in the State Department. We also visit sort of non, they are governmental institutions funded by the government, but they are not implements to the U.S. government. So independent government-funded organizations like the United States Institute of Peace, which is mandated by Congress, it's funded by Congress, but it's not a government agency. It's a non-governmental think tank, effectively, which advises the U.S. government on peacekeeping, how to promote peace in certain areas of the world. Last year we had a particular focus on Afghanistan and in South Asia. Those of you on our South Asia degree are probably quite interesting to you. This is very different to sort of the active policy think tanks, which have sort of political leanings, whereas the United States Institute of Peace is bipartisan. Many of the think tanks we go to in Washington are obviously partisan and they influence, try to influence foreign policy. So I think this tour is really a unique opportunity to engage in two very distinct diplomatic environments, one which is effectively an international organization, an international organization with a sort of civil service implementation sort of focus, whereas the other is a very political, Washington is a very political animal, and see the politics and the politics of international relations. Okay, well I think I'm going to hand over to Ola now, and he can speak to you about the tour to Addis. Thanks very much for listening. Right, so usually around April we organize a study tour to Addis Ababa, and so next year the study tour is going to take place from Sunday the 5th of April to Friday the 10th of April. So it's a five day long study tour. So what I'll be doing is giving you an overview of what to expect from the study tour, as well as a few bits of information about accommodation travel and other activities that we'll engage in outside the formal activities during the study tour. Okay, so the reason we choose Addis Ababa is because it is home to a number of international organizations that operate in Africa, such as the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the European Union External Action Service, also the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, and other think tanks such as the CDRC, which is the Center for Dialogue, Courage and Cooperation. And so Addis Ababa, as opposed to many other African cities, has an unusually high concentration of these sorts of organizations, and so ford you the opportunity to make the most of your five days is there. And so the study tour is co-led by CISD, the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy, and the Royal African Society, which is led by Dr. Nick Westcott. Nick Westcott will be with us throughout the tour, and he has had quite extensive experience in Addis, and so I think there's no better guide than Nick Westcott for this sort of tour. Okay, so in terms of accommodation, and I'll talk about travel arrangements shortly, we'll be staying at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa, and the hotel is quite central to most of the organizations in Addis, so everywhere seems to be about a 10 to 20 minute drive from the hotel, and so accessibility is maximized when we stay at the Hilton Hotel. Each participant will have their own room, usually a double room, and a breakfast is included with accommodation costs. We usually have lunch and dinner outside the hotel, but that is also covered by the study tour. Okay, and so essentially what the tour includes, as I've said earlier, is five nights stay at the Hilton, all meals while in this. Also all internal transport is taken care of, so we usually have a tour bus, essentially, that cases to allow essential travel needs. If you perhaps want to pop into the local market or want to do some individual sightseeing, that wouldn't be necessarily covered by the study tour, but all group travel and essential travel is covered. We usually also have a public lecture during the study tour organized by CISD and also the Shrap Weapons Project, and so you have the opportunity to assist in organizing this event and also in terms of networking with the guests that come to this event. In terms of the international organizations that we'll be visiting, we have extensive opportunities to network with the individuals that would be seen in these organizations, so for example, in the African Union, we usually have an entire day in the African Union, which begins with a tour of the facilities of the building and the conference rooms, and then we have briefing sessions with the African Union Leadership Academy, and then we usually engage in discussions with some of the commissioners, and so last year we engaged with the commissioner for trade, Ambassador Machembe, and we were able to gain a lot of insight into the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which was the hot topic at the time, and the same goes for the other organizations that visit, such as the European External Action Service and UNEKA, which I'll talk about in more detail soon. So the African Union, as I said earlier, we have a private briefing with commissioners that are available at the time. We also have extensive briefings with the African Union Leadership Academy, and you get a good overview of what the African Union does in terms of its different executive organs, such as those in trade and industry, political affairs, economic affairs, the other secretary general, and the Leadership Academy. The African Union also provides lunch and tea breaks during the tour, a certain all-inclusive package for the day. Up next we have the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the visitor UNEKA usually sees us covering topics such as regional integration, governance, climate change, natural resource management, etc. And in this particular package we also have access to some of the senior officials that run UNEKA. And so last year we had a private briefing with the United Nations Secretary General, his special representative, which was Hannah Tete, to the African Union, and she gave us a lot of valuable insight with regards to the nature of the relationship between the United Nations and the African Union, and also other relevant international organizations that work in Africa. Interestingly, we also had Hannah Tete attend our public lecture as a special guest, and so there was additional opportunity to network with her after the UNEKA study tour day. The EU External Action Service is also one of the major international organizations that operates in Addis, and last year we were very fortunate to meet a number of senior officials that work in the EEAS. And so we had a briefing session, an extensive briefing session with them, followed by a drinks reception, and this was hosted by Ranieri Sabotuchi, who is the EU Ambassador to the African Union and the Director of the External Action Service. And there were also a number of senior diplomats available for students to network with. It was rather interesting that we had a one-to-one student ratio for these diplomats, and so students got a lot of time to really engage with with each of these diplomats and ask about their work and also introduce them. So discuss future prospects, usually future employment prospects. So overall, the tour gives you ample opportunity to network with these important people. We also had a visit to the Ethiopian foreign ministry. At the foreign ministry, we had a private briefing with the foreign minister at the time, Herib Zemene. We talked about Ethiopia's peacekeeping operations in Somalia, recent discussions with the rich here, and interestingly, while we were at the foreign ministry, significant political events happened in Sudan, and we sort of had a bird's eye or first hand view as to how crisis management looks like in real time. And so we got a lot of insight and a lot of information about what was going on in Sudan at the time. And so that just shows how dynamic the study tours can be and how much access you will be granted. During the study tour. So we uploaded a map of key tour locations so that you can check them out at your spare time. And what you can see from the map is that everything is within a stone through distance. And so it is a rather convenient study tour where we can get everything done in five days. So before I conclude, I'm just going to go over the relevant information that isn't perhaps covered in the slide. And so in terms of the travel arrangements, for example, you'll notice that it starts on a Sunday and officially and on a Friday. However, because of individual concerns and individual travel abilities, feel free to speak to Fadil early enough in case you need to modify your travel, your arrival or departure date. However, costs for accommodation after the 10th of April, which is the Friday, will have to be covered by students that want to stay in Addis for a longer period of time. In terms of visas, Ethiopia operates the visa on arrival scheme. But we also usually have a list of the members of the study tour. And so once we get to the airport, you usually find your name on this list and you shall be granted the visa on arrival. The cost for the visa is usually included in the study tour. So that's also an additional perk of participating in this tour with us. I believe there's a lot more information in terms of the general administration of the study tour that Fadil can perhaps speak to when you guys ask your questions. And so if you have any questions, feel free to pop them in the chat section and myself or Fadil would endeavor to answer these. Thank you.