The US advisory commission on public diplomacy recently published a report titled "Can Public Diplomacy Survive the Internet: Bots, Echo-Chambers and Disinformation". As the title implies, this report takes the view that the threats of digitalization may soon outweigh its benefits. Actors employing digital technologies can now stifle internal opposition, fracture and manipulate the media ecologies... Continue Reading →
How Palestine Digitized It’s Public Diplomacy
NOTE: This blog post originally appeared on the USC CPD Blog and was co-written with Professor Marcus Holmes In 2011, the U.S. State Department launched Virtual Embassy Iran, a web-based platform that aimed to promote American “values and culture” to Iranians. This embassy served as an example of how diplomats can use digital technologies to... Continue Reading →
Digitizing the EU’s Public Diplomacy in Israel
Introduction The relationship between Israel and the European Union has been strained for some time. Indeed it is enough to review op-eds published in Israeli newspapers to sense the resentment Israelis hold towards Brussels. This is, in part, a result of three EU policies. The first is the EU’s ongoing critique against Israeli settlements and... Continue Reading →
On the use of videos in Digital Diplomacy
Images & Diplomacy Images have traditionally played an important role in diplomacy. For instance, paintings were often used to bare testimony to diplomatic summits and conferences. Such is the case with Gerard ter Borch’s painting of the treaty of Munster. Additionally, political cartoons were used to narrate a nation’s foreign policy, frame its adversaries, manage... Continue Reading →