Digital Diplomacy

Ministarstvo odbrane Rusije namerava da napravi sopstveni filmski studio na parku „Patriot“, u kojem je upravo završen Međunarodni vojno-tehnički forum „Armija 2019“. Kako se...

“ambassadors of the Internet”, says Jovan Kurbalija (55) in Geneva is called. In 1992, the native Serb invented the “digital diplomacy”. What is the...

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is crying out for change more than ever before. The decade-long tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister has plunged this key government agency, tasked with managing and carrying out Israel’s foreign affairs, to unprecedented lows. In many respects, the MFA i

In 2015 Dr. Elad Segev and I examined the Selfie Diplomacy of the US State Department. We defined selfie diplomacy as the use of social media sites to proactively manage a nation’s image. In this sense, selfie diplomacy is akin to nation branding campaigns in which a nation’s image can be created, monitored and evaluated so as to enhance a nation’s attractiveness among a foreign audience. Yet selfie diplomacy also differs from nation branding as it overcomes the limitations of traditional branding campaigns. The first limitation of nation branding campaigns is their inability to react to changes in the media’s depiction of a given nation. This is because nation branding campaigns consist of pre-authored messages and narratives. Yet political crises, wars, contentious foreign policies and the actions of national leaders can all influence the media’s depiction of a nation rendering its branding activities meaningless. The greater the gap between a nation’s identity claims, and the media..

When evaluating the digitalization of public diplomacy, one can segment this process into two stages. The first stage lasted from circa 2007 to 2014. It was during this stage that diplomats and diplomatic institutions began to experiment with digital technologies. In 2007 the Swedish Institute launched one of the world’s first virtual embassies. In 2011 the UK Foreign Secretary held one of the world’s first live Twitter Q&A sessions while in 2012 the White House live tweeted a state visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron. It was during this stage that diplomats sought to leverage digital technologies toward engaging with digital publics and fostering relationships with foreign populations. The first stage of public diplomacy’s digitalization came to an abrupt end in 2014 as Russian special forces crossed the border into Eastern Ukraine. The Crimean Crisis was not just a diplomatic crisis that ruptured relations between Western nations and Russia. It was also a digital crisis wh..

At the secretary of State’s direction, McGuigan convened a Digital Diplomacy Council that includes all IT leaders and projects throughout the department. It will first address cybersecurity reliability and then enterprise architecture.

Zubeida Mustafa | Viewpoint | May issue, Published 9 hours ago, newslinemagazine.com; see also, "Twittering; or, Where are the Emily Dickinsons at the State Department?," Huffpost, 07/20/2009 The battle of tweets we have been witnessing of late, reminds us that we have certainly come a long way from the style in which diplomacy was conducted since 1648. That was the year when the Peace of Westphalia launched the modern secular sovereign state system. It introduced new guidelines for states in their dealings with one another. They demanded “accuracy, calm, patience, good temper, modesty” from an ideal diplomat, as defined by Harold Nicolson, the British diplomat famous for his books and diaries. Donald Trump’s twitter page in Washington, DC using a Game of Thrones-styled montage. In April 2019 the US President tweeted “Game Over” declaring himself fully vindicated in the investigation into Russian election meddling and alleged collusion in the 2016 presidential elections.With the ad..

People from around the world rely on State.gov as a primary resource for information on U.S. foreign policy. With you in mind, we’ve completely...

Daryl Copeland discusses his book, Guerrilla Diplomacy: Rethinking International Relations, in which he charts the course for a new kind of diplomacy, one in tune with the demands of today's interconnected, technology-driven world.

The origins of digital diplomacy may be traced back to the search for “cost-effective” diplomacy at the beginning of the 21st century. The end of the Cold War was accompanied by reductions in the funds allocated to public diplomacy activities. The demise of the Soviet Union was supposed to be replaced by a homogenous capitalist world order headed by the United States. There were no more publics that needed to be influenced. Yet the 9/11 terror attacks, and subsequent War on Terror, all demanded a renewed commitment to public diplomacy. This commitment was not necessarily supported by new resources. MFAs thus began to search for cost-effective diplomacy, a quest that led them to the digital world. Through digital technologies MFAs could create virtual global Embassies, converse with global populations and manage their nation’s image without building new facilities or erecting new establishment in the physical world. More than a decade into the era of digital diplomacy it is evident tha..