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On Nation Branding: While the practice of digital diplomacy brings with it many benefits to foreign ministries, its practice also poses many challenges. From the need to coordinate messages on a global scale, to the training of diplomats and ambassadors in the use of social media platforms, the practice of digital diplomacy requires a growing... Continue Reading →
There is a popular urban legend according to which during the space race of the 1960's, NASA spent substantial resources on developing a special pen for Astronauts that could work in a zero gravity environment. Instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on a Cosmonaut's pen, the Russians simply used pencils. While this is more... Continue Reading →
Two weeks ago I published an analysis of the 2015 MFA social network. My analysis found that over the past year Norway's MFA has become one of the most dominant foreign ministries among its peers. In fact, Norway's MFA is one of only four foreign ministries to rank high on all three parameters I evaluated... Continue Reading →
When studying the Cold War, one cannot help feeling overwhelmed by the amount of acronyms used by both the US and the USSR. From NATO and ICBMS (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) to SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and VOA (Voice of America), acronyms seem to have played a major role in this prolonged global conflict.... Continue Reading →
The underlying assumption of nation branding is that countries have images, whether they manage them or not. Moreover, some believe that national images serve as stereotypes as they enable people to make sense of the world around them. Viewing national images as stereotypes leads to the conclusion that altering a nation's image is a prolonged... Continue Reading →
A Swedish diplomat once asked me how one can reduce the complexities of international diplomacy to a 140 character tweet. I responded by saying that Twiplomacy must be regarded as an art form, one that uses the language of twitter in order to condense foreign policy initiatives or official statements into short bursts of diplomacy.... Continue Reading →
Nation Branding refers to a process by which a nation's image can be proactively managed, monitored and evaluated in order to improve the nation's reputation amongst international audiences. Many view nation branding as an economic necessity given the fact that in the globalized marketplace nations compete with one another over a shrinking pool of financial... Continue Reading →
Two months ago I concluded a three week exploratory study of Digital Diplomacy channels operated by foreign ministries. The study aimed to explore differences between official twitter channels and Facebook profiles and answer the age old question- are different messages used in different mediums? While three weeks are a relatively short period in the physical... Continue Reading →
