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 →
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 →
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 United Nations is turning to artificial intelligence in search for peace in war zones (The New York Times)The Internet is Rotting (The Atlantic)Google boss Sundar Pichai warns of threats to... Continue Reading →
Biden Goes Viral; But Not Among Diplomats
On January 20th, as President Joe Biden took the Oath of Office, he also gained control of the @POTUS Twitter account (President of the United States), one of the most followed accounts on Twitter. Both his predecessors had amassed a vast following online with Donald Trump reaching some 90 million followers and Barack Obama 137... Continue Reading →
10 Tips to Increase ROI on #DigitalDiplomacy
On Friday, December 2nd, the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group, and the Latvian Mission to Geneva, co-hosted a Digital Diplomacy event at the UN headquarters in Geneva. The purpose of the event was to examine whether there is a Return On Investment in digital diplomacy activities. The event demonstrated that the first stage of digital... Continue Reading →
On Papal Digital Diplomacy
The Catholic Church is no stranger to diplomacy. Indeed since its formation the Church has been at the forefront of diplomatic activity, firs in Europe and then around the world. Popes often served as arbiters in European conflicts while Papal legates served as ambassadors to foreign courts. Even the first foreign ministry was founded by... Continue Reading →
Towards a Network Model of Diplomacy? The Case of the UN in Geneva
In recent years, several international relations scholars have called on nations to adopt a network model of diplomacy. The term Network Diplomacy often refers to nations' need to create temporary coalitions in order to achieve their foreign policy goals. Such coalitions may be viewed as networks with each member of the coalition serving as a... Continue Reading →
Why the UN Should Promote Digital Diplomacy
On January 30th 2015, the UN in New York held its first social media day. Social media professionals, practitioners of digital diplomacy and academics from various fields were all invited to share their knowledge with regard the use of social media in the conduct of diplomacy. In addition, the day included several panels such as... Continue Reading →