In the autumn of 1960, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) inaugurated the Seminars in Diplomacy under the direction of Dr. Robert A. Lystad. The purpose of these Seminars for diplomats from the developing countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East was "to provide an opportunity for the careful exploration of the basic political forces and institutions to which the foreign policies of all states must respond." The Carnegie Endowment supported the program from its beginning through the end of 1965; early in 1967, the Rockefeller Foundation began funding the Seminars and continued to do so until their termination in 1978.

During the eighteen years that the Seminars were held, more than 750 diplomats from over fifty countries attended; each series drew an audience of between nineteen and fifty. There were two lecture series each academic year: one during the fall semester and one during the spring. Each series consisted of six two and a half hour sessions, during which a lecture was presented, followed by questions and discussion; prior to each lecture, the foreign diplomats were provided with reading materials related to the topic under consideration. At the end of the six-week session, a weekend conference at the Airlie Foundation in Warrenton, Virginia was held, which provided the diplomats with opportunities for informal discussion. In 1972, when the Tinker Foundation inaugurated a similar lecture series at SAIS for Latin American diplomats, the weekend conference included the participants of both programs. These Airlie Conferences continued until 1977, when the costs became prohibitive.

The Seminars in Diplomacy drew heavily from the SAIS faculty for lecturers, but there were also many speakers from a wide variety of other sources. These included the United States government (especially the Department of State), foreign governments, other academic institutions, research institutes (e.g., the Brookings Institution), international organizations (e.g., the United Nations, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [World Bank] and the International Monetary Fund), corporations and consulting firms, foundations, labor organizations, and the press, both scholarly and popular. Among the more well-known speakers were Dean Acheson, Christian Herter, Helmut Sonnenfeldt, and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

The lecture series considered a wide variety of topics in international relations, politics and economics, both from a theoretical perspective and with reference to current events. Of perennial interest was international economics, specifically economic development, inflation and cartels. The Seminars also examined aspects of U.S. foreign policy, such as arms control, East-West relations, the Middle East, Southeast Asia (particularly Vietnam), human rights and trade policies. Also of interest to seminar participants were U.S. political institutions: the presidency (especially the repercussions of Watergate), the Congress, the military, the intelligence community, elections, and the role played by the mass media and special interest groups. Other topics which the Seminars treated included international organizations (e.g., United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European Economic Community) and such environmental issues as pollution, population problems, ocean policy and the energy crisis.