Digital Diplomacy

Last week I had the opportunity to partake in a conference organized by the Diplo Foundation asking- what do we mean when use the term “digital diplomacy”. During the conference I was asked three questions on the past, present and future practice of digital diplomacy. This post includes my answer and analysis. Q: How have areas of focus and priorities in digital diplomacy changed over time and what are some of the key issues going forward? I think there are four main issues that will shape the practice of digital diplomacy in the coming years. First, is managing the relationship between nations states and big tech. Many have talked about the need to regulate tech companies. According to the Economist, data is the new oil. And just as the US regulated and broke the monopoly of Standard Oil, it may break the monopoly of Facebook. Yet at he the global level, there is need for cyber accords that create an international normative framework that regulates big tech companies and that regul..

Written by: Joanne Sweeney, CEO, Public Sector Marketing Institute and Author, Public Sector Marketing Pro Digital communications transformation in Government and public sector is shaking up traditional work practices, challenging leadership’s personal bias and re-framing the fundamental premise of ‘in the public interest’. Add in a global pandemic and you have no choice but to rethink digital diplomacy in a world where there are more people using social media than are not. The public interest, previously dictated by civil and public servants, politicians and policy makers, is increasingly in the hands of the people – those that Governments are there to serve – because of social media. The real battle online is attention But what does success actually look like online? In my view, there are seven core goals of digital diplomacy: Build public trust Generate citizen engagement Motivate the public to take a specific action based on factual information Communicate real-time public i..

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