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It began with a necklace. A diamond necklace to be precise. It was purchased from two Jewish jewellers on behalf of the French Queen Marie Antoinette in 1785. The necklace, comprised of 647 stones, and weighing 2,800 carats, never made it to the Queen. Rather, it fell into the hands of a charlatan women who... Continue Reading →
Over the past week, several newspapers have published stories focusing on the activities of U.S. embassies during Pride Month. Specifically, these stories have dealt with the creative ways in which some embassies hoisted the rainbow flag during Pride Month. Unlike the Obama era, the Trump administration has banned the use of the rainbow flag thus preventing... Continue Reading →
Traditionally, diplomacy rested on proximity. Ambassadors to foreign nations resided in court so that they could assess the temperament of a monarch, create alliances with noble families, gather gossip from local scoundrels and coordinate action with their peers. Proximity has remained important in the 21st century. Ambassadors to multi-lateral organizations essentially reside in a new... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Note: This post was originally published on the blog of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and was co-authored with Corneliu Bjola. In 1988, Robert Putnam conceptualised diplomatic negotiations as a two-level game in which national and international politics often collide. In this framework, constituents and interest groups (labour unions, activist groups, etc.) pursue their interests at... Continue Reading →
Note: This post was co-written with Prof. Corneliu Bjola and first appeared on the USC Center for Public Diplomacy Blog On the 1st and 2nd of February 2017, the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group (DigDiploRox) took part in The Hague Digital Diplomacy Camp. Organized by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Camp sought to explore the... Continue Reading →
2017 marks a decade since the advent of “digital diplomacy”. What began as an experiment by a select number of foreign ministries has transformed into routine practice for diplomats and embassies the world over. To mark this occasion, I will be publishing a series of working papers. The goal of this series is to reflect... Continue Reading →
Digital diplomacy is no longer a novel phenomenon. In one form or another, digital diplomacy has existed for more than a decade. And yet scholars and practitioners continue to explore the practice and definition of digital diplomacy. During this process, different scholars and MFAs have offered different terms to understand the utilization of digital tools... Continue Reading →
The age of Simulacra Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is known for his theory of signifier and signified. A "signifier" is a verbal reference to a given object, while "signified" is the actual object being referred too. For instance, the word "chair" is the signifier for the object on which individuals sit in an office... Continue Reading →
