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In January 2025, the Trump White House unveiled a new Twitter/X account titled “Rapid Response 47.” From the perspective of digital diplomacy, such an account may be of strategic importance. The ubiquity of social media, smartphones, and digital technologies has ushered in an era of instantaneous news dissemination and real-time crisis communication. In this dynamic... Continue Reading →
Diplomacy hinges on credibility. As Ben Mor aptly notes, “being perceived as honest and reliable is a necessary condition for obtaining and holding the attention of target audiences, as well as for effective persuasion.” States that are perceived as duplicitous or deceptive struggle to engage with global publics, let alone persuade them to accept their... Continue Reading →
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 →
The past week saw the launch of DeepSeek, a Chinese Generative AI tool. The launch of a Chinse rival to American AIs such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude caught the world by surprise and sent global markets into a tailspin. Tech stocks, and chip stocks in particular, plummeted with Invidia losing $600 Billion in a... Continue Reading →
For nearly a decade, the term digital diplomacy has been closely associated with social media. In many MFAs, digital diplomacy units are actually tasked with managing social media empires that span hundreds of accounts across numerous platforms. Although social media has remained central to the practice of digital diplomacy, its use has changed over the... Continue Reading →
Note: This post was co-authored by Bar Fishman and Ilan Manor and was originally published on the USC CPD Blog. In recent years, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and now rebranded X, has lost millions of users. This process began following X’s acquisition by tech mogul Elon Musk during 2022. Musk’s contentious policies, which... Continue Reading →
The rapid and consecutive launch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools over the past two years has generated a global frenzy. Large language models such as ChatGPT and Gemini have already amassed hundreds of millions of users and have been hailed as ushering in a new technological era marked by limitless data-driven insight and creativity. Global... Continue Reading →
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 →
On July 21st, Elon Musk shared a tweet featuring an AI-generated fashion show of world leaders. The AI fashion show soon went viral, given the satirical depiction of world leaders and due to its realistic appearance. Although the fashion show was clearly generated by AI, the video did demonstrate the extent to which this technology... Continue Reading →
The term ‘dual-use technology’ is used to denote technologies that may have both civil and military applications. Such is the case with Global Positioning Systems or GPS which are used to help track and identify targets for missile attacks and are also used to help drivers navigate in cars. Another example is drones which may... Continue Reading →
Exploring Digital Diplomacy 