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Celebrity diplomacy is not a new phenomenon. For many decades, multilateral institutions such as UNICEF (United Nations International Emergency Children’s Fund) have relied on celebrities to increase awareness to important causes and raise funds. Other times celebrities join NGOs to promote specific causes ranging from alleviating poverty in Africa to helping child soldiers rejoin society.... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. These are the five stages of grief according to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and the five emotions expressed by Twitter users since the social network was acquired by Elon Musk. It began with denial, specifically promises by Twitter executives and Musk himself that the social network would remain a vibrant town... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Israel Election: Authorities Brace for Interference – From Foreign and Domestic Actors (Haaretz Newspaper) Amazon introduces a $7.3 annual Prime Video subscription tier in India (Tech Crunch) Google Billionaire Warns US... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Market downturn sparks longest US tech IPO drought in over 20 years (The Financial Times) Clearview AI, Used by Police, Now in Public Defenders’ Hands (The New York Times) VR and... Continue Reading →
The practice of digital diplomacy has altered considerably since its inception in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Early digital diplomacy initiatives focused on using virtual platforms to overcome the limitations of traditional diplomacy. For instance, in 2008 Sweden launched the world’s first virtual Embassy in the online world of Second Life. This Embassy... Continue Reading →
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Floppy disks in Japan: Minister declares war on old-fashioned technology (BBC News) How Queen Elizabeth embraced new technologies during her reign (National Geographic) Russians will be able to buy the iPhone... Continue Reading →
On Wednesday, August 31st, it was announced that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev died aged 91. As is the case with any major event, different news outlets narrated Gorbachev’s differently. Newspapers, websites and bloggers all adopted different narratives, or frames when depicting Gorbachev . For instance, the BBC headline read “Mikhail Gorbachev: Last Soviet leader... Continue Reading →
Exploring Digital Diplomacy 