Scholars have long since asserted that nations have images. Although scholars differ on what these images consist of, and whether these images can be managed, they nonetheless agree that like consumer brands, nations elicit cognitive associations in people's minds. Upon hearing the name “Germany”, for example, certain associations may spring to people’s minds be it... Continue Reading →
The Dangers of the AI Hype
A version of this post was originally published on E-IR website and can be found here According to Dr. Dan Kotliar, technological advancements are accompanied by a certain degree of hype, or hyperbolic discourse. The internet, for example, was accompanied by a democratization hype with scholars and pundits arguing that the internet would enable new... Continue Reading →
AI and the Decline of Reality in Public Diplomacy
By Giles Strachan and Ilan Manor In 1957, the physicist Hugh Everett proposed the Many-worlds Interpretation of reality. Quantum physicists had discovered that fundamental information about particles was unknowable until the particles were observed. At this point, reality re-asserts itself, as in the famous example of Schrödinger’s cat, which is both alive and dead until... Continue Reading →
Leveraging AI in Diplomacy: LLMs As Opinion Aggregators
The rapid development of AI tools has caused a frenzy in foreign ministries (MFAs) as diplomats across the world are trying to identify the risks and benefits brought about by artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Mistral, Claude, Gemini and DeepSeek. Diplomats’ attempts to grapple with the professional and societal ramifications of AI has taken... Continue Reading →
AI Power and its Impact on Digital Diplomacy Research
Throughout the 1980s, noted British historian Eric Hobsbawm delivered a series of lectures examining the academic study of history, and the state of social history, his chosen field. Hobsbawm’s lectures offer much needed insight into the study of digital diplomacy, in general, and the study of AI’s potential impact on diplomacy. For example, Hobsbawm argued... Continue Reading →
On DeepSeek, AI and “Post-Time”
Sociologist Manuel Castells famously argued that digital societies relentlessly strive to annihilate time and space. Time is annihilated by the reversal of traditional roles and life experiences. Such is the case with a 30-year-old tech CEO that manages 50-year-old employees or in the view of retirement as a second adolescence, a period of experimentation, of... Continue Reading →
The Past and Present Clash Between AI and Diplomacy
Historian Eric Hobsbawm dedicated much of his academic work to exploring the impact of the past on present-day societies. For Hobsbawm, the past was always present. Yet the function that the past plays in the present could differ greatly. During times of upheaval, the past can serve as a roadmap or template for overcoming adversity.... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Digital Diplomacy Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Inside the powerful Peter Thiel network that anointed JD Vance (The Washington Post) China Is Closing the A.I. Gap With the United States (The New York Times) OpenAI working on new... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Digital Diplomacy Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- How Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Became Tech’s Steely Eyed A.I. Gambler ?(The New York Times) Google Close to Its Biggest Acquisition Ever, Despite Antitrust Scrutiny (The New York Times) ‘Amazing’ new technology... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Digital Diplomacy Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Iran-linked Website Leaks Secret Israeli Data (Haaretz Newspaper) The Technology Powering Taylor Swift, Netflix and the Sphere (Bloomberg) AI scientist : "We will expand intelligence a millionfold by 2045"| (The Guardian)... Continue Reading →