Many people will wish to forget 2020. A year of fear and angst; lockdowns and isolations and one virus that brought the world to a halt. Indeed, the Covid19 virus transported the world to a previous era, one in which reaching another city, let alone another country was impossible. Airports, the signature of the networked... Continue Reading →
Twitter and Diplomatic Signaling: The Case of Joe Biden
Two week ago, I analyzed the speed with which world leaders employed Twitter to congratulate Joe Biden on his election. Indeed, within two hours of CNN’s projection of a Biden victory, more than twenty world leaders tweeted at the President elect. These included the leaders of Germany, Canada, the UK, Norway, France, Sweden and the... Continue Reading →
Nostalgia’s Role in Digital Diplomacy
On Nostalgia Nostalgia is a basic human emotion. Strangely, it is a combination of two contradictory emotions- a sweet longing for the past and a pain emanating from the fact that the past can never be fully experienced again. Throughout history, nostalgia has served as a social and political tool, a means of gathering support... Continue Reading →
Leveraging Big Data During Pandemics
Last week I had the opportunity to interview a software analyst working for one of the world’s most popular search engines. The analyst is part of a crisis response unit whose main task is to offer answers to Covid related queries. To do so, the crisis response team must gather reliable information from all over... Continue Reading →
Corona and the European Commission
Last week I analyzed Corona-related tweets published by the European External Action Service (EEAS). This week I turned my attention to the European Commission. The Commission is, in essence, the governing body of the EU. It helps manage the EU’s external and internal affairs. The prolonged Brexit debate emphasized that while the UK viewed the... Continue Reading →
The Ethical Limitations of Digital Diplomacy: When MFAs Use Your Data
On January 17th, 2020, the US State Department official launched a Center for Analytics (CfA). According to the State Department website, the center will This unique asset helps U.S. diplomats use analytics to addresses key challenges, such as prioritizing issues for diplomatic engagement and aligning Department resources with U.S. foreign policy priorities… As directed by... Continue Reading →
The UK as a Russian Battleground State
Since its emergence nearly a decade ago, digital diplomacy has been accompanied by a need to justify its costs. This is due to the fact that senior diplomats and policy makers often regarded digital diplomacy as a fad rather than a strategic tool for achieving foreign policy goals. This negative view of digital tools led... Continue Reading →