History

The Department of Diplomacy was first established in the Central Political School in 1930 through the mandate of the KMT central Congress after the Northern Expedition was completed and the country united. It was believed that competent diplomats were essential in counteracting the invasion of the great powers.

The Department was reinstated in Taiwan with the Executive Yuan's approval in July 1954, and the Department of Diplomacy was given permission to enroll new students soon after. In November 1954, the Graduate Institute of International Law and Diplomacy was established, and the Department of Diplomacy restored the enrollment of new students in the following year. In 1995, the Graduate Institute of International Law and Diplomacy was merged with the department and became the Master's Program in the Department of Diplomacy.

Students of the first class of the Department of Diplomacy were selected through competitive oral and written exams and were screened among students who had completed first two years in the university. Eleven students passed the tests and transferred to the Department and became the first class. Job prospect of working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and commendable teaching helped set the standard and record of keen competition—many applied but few were enrolled. It won the Department an incomparable fame during the first enrollment in the school after restoration. The top candidate was Robert Pin-chuan Chen in 1955, currently the President of Shu-te University, and the one admitted to the Department at the lowest rank was qualified to enter any department in the country. Decades afterwards, the Department kept the highest admission standard ever. After the country withdrew from the United Nations, the admission standard remained above average.

The first chair of the Department of Diplomacy was the late International Court Judge Meh Hsu, with term of office lasting from 1930-1939. The enrollment was suspended in 1937, 1939, and 1940. After that, the successors include Long Liang, Shih-fu Chen, Tung-hai Lin, and Tso-liang Hsiao. The university was restored in Taiwan, and the President Ta-chi Chen served concurrently as the chair. Afterwards, there were Pei-chi Miao, Chih-tai Lee, Jeanne Tchong-koei Li, Chien-min Chu, Rolet C. S. Chen, King-yuh Chang, Wei-cheng Lee, John K. T. Chao, David S.Chou, Deng-ker Lee and Chung-chian Teng in succession. Currently, Ming Lee is the chair. For more than seventy years, the Department of Diplomacy has been deemed the most unique department that has no comparable institutes in the nation, as the one with the longest history and notable reputation in the university.