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 →
Monday’s Digital Diplomacy 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- Meta has created a way to watermark AI-generated speech (MIT Technology Review) Immersive technology, blockchain and AI are converging — and reshaping our world (World Economic Forum) EU to take further... Continue Reading →
Digital Diplomacy in the Age of Visual AI
Last week I began exploring possible biases in popular (Artificial Intelligence) AI tools. Within the context of AI, “bias” refers to the generation of skewed output or content. AI tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot may suffer from biases because they were trained on skewed data or because humans with biases and prejudices programmed... Continue Reading →
A China-First Approach to Digital Policy Making
The digital world is presently marked by an exceptional contradiction. On the one hand, a digital and interconnected world necessitates various forms of global governance. Global agreements, institutions and frameworks are what enable the free flow of information, capital, and resources across borders. Moreover, global institutions are essential for crisis management in an interconnected world... Continue Reading →
The Many Races That Will Shape AI
There are two different prisms for investigating the relationship between technology and society. The technological prism views technology as a determining factor in society’s evolution. This prism assumes that once a new technology has been introduced, it will send multiple ripple effects through society impacting power relations, class struggles, geopolitical competitions and even norms, values, and laws.... Continue Reading →
ChatGPT and the Future of Diplomacy
In recent works, scholars and diplomats have begun to experiment with ChatGPT, the generative AI bot that has taken the world by storm. For scholars of diplomacy, ChatGPT is yet another digital innovation that may disrupt the work of diplomats. Just like social media, big data, messaging apps and bots, ChatGPT may prove both useful... Continue Reading →
Ukraine’s Unique Approach to Celebrity Diplomacy
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 →
Framing Gorbachev: How World Leaders Reacted to the Death of Mikhail Gorbachev
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 →
A Season of Faith’s Perfection: Digital Diplomacy’s Greatest Year
The universe, as we now know, began with a bang. A big bang to be precise. A cataclysmic and cosmic explosion that at once gave birth to more than 120 billion galaxies. Digital diplomacy also began with a bang, or a momentous event that instigated a global change in the practice of diplomacy. This event, according... Continue Reading →
The End of the Charm Offensive? Iran on Social Media
The 2013 election of Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran was greeted with a global sigh of relief. Here was a clear indication that Iran was willing to rejoin the international community even at the cost of halting its nuclear weapons program. From the eve of his election, Rouhani was positively depicted in Western media... Continue Reading →