Are Retired Ambassadors Digital Diplomacy Assets?0

• "Classic " Diplomacy, Digital Diplomacy, Public diplomacy
• 26th May 2019

The origins of digital diplomacy may be traced back to the search for “cost-effective” diplomacy at the beginning of the 21st century. The end of the Cold War was accompanied by reductions in the funds allocated to public diplomacy activities. The demise of the Soviet Union was supposed to be replaced by a homogenous capitalist world order headed by the United States. There were no more publics that needed to be influenced. Yet the 9/11 terror attacks, and subsequent War on Terror, all demanded a renewed commitment to public diplomacy. This commitment was not necessarily supported by new resources. MFAs thus began to search for cost-effective diplomacy, a quest that led them to the digital world. Through digital technologies MFAs could create virtual global Embassies, converse with global populations and manage their nation’s image without building new facilities or erecting new establishment in the physical world.

More than a decade into the era of digital diplomacy it is evident tha..

Foreign Service Stereotypes0

• "Classic " Diplomacy, Digital Diplomacy, Public diplomacy
• 24th May 2019

When I was in college, I longed to travel and get paid to do it. So I asked a family friend—a British businessman—for career advice, adding that I’d never work for the government, that I didn’t want to give up being “me.” His response: “It’s entirely possible to be your own [person] in the Foreign