Diplomacy is not immune to the Covid-19 virus. For the first time since the 17th century, diplomats and world leaders no longer meet face-to-face to address shared challenges or resolve shared grievances. The UN is closed, the WTO is out of session and G7 meetings take place through video conference calls. Embassies, traditionally tasked with... Continue Reading →
Are Local Employees the Unsung Heroes of Digital Diplomacy?
The past decade has seen the accelerated digitalization of diplomacy. While scholars, diplomats and diplomatic institutions are still searching for a definition of the term “digital diplomacy”, most agree that digital technologies have substantially affected the practice of diplomacy. Over the past four years alone, digital technologies have been employed in nearly all realms of... Continue Reading →
Narrative Alignment as Public Diplomacy Evaluation
Despite the emergence of new technologies the task of evaluating public diplomacy activities remains a daunting one. While scholars and practitioners have offered numerous definitions for the term public diplomacy, they have yet to agree upon a method for measuring the impact of public diplomacy activities. Some have suggested that public diplomacy is a means... Continue Reading →
Working Paper- The Contradictory Trends of Digital Diaspora Diplomacy
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 in the Age of Algorithms
Last week I published the first in a series of posts dealing with issues that arose in the recent Digital Diplomacy Conference held in Tel Aviv. While last week I blogged about digital diplomacy that is targeted at domestic populations, this week's post will deal with another issue that arouse at the conference- diplomacy in... Continue Reading →
The State of Russian Digital Diplomacy
Recent moths have seen an abundance of articles dealing with Russia's use of trolls in order to shape online public discourse regarding its foreign policy. According to one article, the Kremlin now manages a troll army used to promote Russia's stance on numerous issues (e.g., Ukraine, Syrian Civil War, Iran nuclear agreement) and discredit Russia's opponents.... Continue Reading →
Should ambassadors tweet in addition to their embassies?
Last week, Molly McCluskey published an article in the Washington diplomat dealing with Swiss digital diplomacy in Washington D.C. According to the article, the new Swiss ambassador to Washington has deiced to place a greater emphasis on the embassy's digital outreach. The article caused me to contemplate the benefits of Ambassadors tweeting on their own... Continue Reading →