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The advent of digital diplomacy was closely associated with the practice of public diplomacy. The State Department first migrated online to converse with Muslim internet users and establish new ties throughout the Middle East. The Swedish MFA created the world’s first virtual Embassy in order to interact with global computer users while the Israeli foreign... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- China’s rulers want more control of big tech (The Economist)Who Is Making Sure the A.I. Machines Aren’t Racist? (The New York Times)China builds advanced weapons systems using American chip technolog (The... Continue Reading →
Comment: This post about International Women’s Day was written from a man’s perspective. It is thus highly likely that the analysis in this post would benefit from the insight of women. I encourage women readers to comment on this post and offer their own analysis of the tweets analyzed below. This insight will be integrated... Continue Reading →
Diplomacy’s digitalization has advanced at a remarkable speed. MFAS, once defined as archaic institutions who lack the communicative culture to adapt to new technologies, have launched virtual Embassies, created smartphone applications, built blog sites, established big data units and have taken to writing their own algorithms. While not all digital initiatives have ended in a... Continue Reading →
When researching digital diplomacy, one soon realizes that every foreign ministry (MFA) has undergone a unique process of digitalization. The digitalization of the US State Department rested, among other, on the appointment of two digital enthusiasts- Alec Ross and Jared Cohen. Canada’s digitalization was facilitated by a change in administration as the Trudeau government urge... Continue Reading →
Last week I had the opportunity to interview a software analyst working for one of the world’s most popular search engines. The analyst is part of a crisis response unit whose main task is to offer answers to Covid related queries. To do so, the crisis response team must gather reliable information from all over... Continue Reading →
The past two years have seen the growing use of humor and satire in digital diplomacy. Memes, GIFs, pop references and BLOCK CAPITALS have become another instrument in the diplomatic toolkit. One of the earliest successful uses of humor in digital diplomacy occurred during the Crimea Crisis of 2014 when the Canadian Mission to NATO... Continue Reading →
In 1986 a new press attaché was appointed to the Israeli Embassy in London. His first task was to establish close working relationships with the editors of Fleet Street, the home all major British newspapers at the time. One of the attaché’s most important meeting was with the journalist writing the editorials for the Times... Continue Reading →
James Pamment has written that for most of the 20th century the term public diplomacy was associated with the term propaganda. According to the Oxford Dictionary propaganda relates to information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view. During the 21st century, the field of public... Continue Reading →
In many respects, 2017 was a year of digital uncertainty. It was a year in which digital platforms were used to weaponize uncertainty. It was a year in which the societal role of digital platforms became uncertain. It was a year in which the relationship between states and tech gaits became uncertain. And it was... Continue Reading →
