Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- The TikTok Teens Go To Washington (Data & Society) The Data Delusion (The New Yorker) The Vulkan Files: Secret trove offers rare look into Russian cyberwar ambitions (The Washington Post) ChatGPT... Continue Reading →
Challenger 2: Transparency and Military Aid in the Digital Age
On Monday, the British Ministry of Defence tweeted that the United Kingdom (UK) had decided to send a squadron of Challenger 2 Tanks to Ukraine thus accelerating “Ukrainian successes”. This new ‘arms package’ comes in the wake of heated debates on social media. In recent days, Twitter has been abuzz with rumors that European nations... Continue Reading →
What Role Does OSINT Play in Ukraine Crisis?
One of the defining characteristics of the Russia-Ukraine War has been the emergence of OSINT, or open-source intelligence. The term itself is not new. Several years ago, the British Foreign Office created an ‘open-source intelligence unit’ tasked with gathering information from online sources. This information would then be used by British diplomats to obtain foreign... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- The Supply of Disinformation Will Soon Be Infinite (The Atlantic) Preparing for a Russian cyber offensive against Ukraine this winter (Microsoft Blog) The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (GCHQ) Why is Elon... Continue Reading →
Real Time Diplomacy During the Russia Ukraine War
In 2012, Philip Seib published the book “Real-Time Diplomacy”. Seib argued that digital technologies in general, and social media in particular, had expedited the practice of diplomacy. The reason for this was the acceleration in news coverage made possible thanks to the emergence of citizen journalism. Seib viewed social media as a competitive arena in... Continue Reading →
Estonia, War Monuments and Strategic Communications
In 2014, Russia launched a stealth invasion of Ukraine. Resulting in the annexation of Crimea, the 2014 invasion saw the mass utilization of social media by Russian state authorities, the Russian foreign ministry and Russian diplomats. Russia’s digital communications rested on four arguments. First, that the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from... Continue Reading →
This is Russia: Satire and Attribution in the Russia Ukraine War
On Thursday, July 28th, a video supposedly touting the benefits of moving to Russia began to gain traction on Telegram. Titled “This is Russia”, the video identifies the many benefits of moving to Russia at this moment in time. For instance, unlike Europe or America, Russia currently boasts cheap gas, fertile soil, low-priced electricity, delicious... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Must Read List
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: MI5 and FBI heads warn of ‘immense’ threat (BBC News)North Korean hackers are targeting American healthcare organizations (TechCrunch)How Ukraine Is Winning the Propaganda War (Wired)Japanese court ruling poised to... Continue Reading →
Digital Diplomacy in #Ukraine- A Case of Strategic Transparency
The age of social media is the age of total transparency. Studies have found that the more personal a tweet or Facebook post, the more a user bares his soul, the more Likes they will garner. And as social media users wish to be seen and Liked, they become accustomed to sharing all facets of... Continue Reading →