China gives a nod to ‘Twiplomacy,’ MOFA launches Twitter account0

• Digital Diplomacy
• 19th January 2020

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang addresses a press conference, Beijing, China, January 13, 2020. /Photo via China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs In an era when Twitter diplomacy has become ubiquitous to global affairs with the U.S. President Donald Trump being one of the foremost proponents of “Twiplomacy,” China has finally chosen to use the

2019- The Year in Which Digital Diplomacy Research Came of Age0

• Digital Diplomacy
• 26th December 2019

When asked what is the enlightenment, Kant answered “Enlightened is man’s ascension from his self-imposed immaturity”. When reviewing the study of digital diplomacy, 2019 is the year of maturity. In 2015, scholars mainly asked who? Who manages the digital accounts of MFAs/embassies and multi-lateral missions? This was an important question. If digital diplomacy managers were former journalists, then perhaps diplomats viewed digital tools as new means for framing government communication. If, on the other hand, digital accounts were managed by social media wizards, then perhaps MFAs focused their efforts on attracting digital publics. An important activity given that without the public, one cannot practice diplomacy. Lastly, if digital accounts were managed by diplomats, then perhaps MFAs viewed Facebook and Twitter as foreign policy tools. Answers, we soon discovered, were diverse. While some MFAs hired former journalists, others hired social media experts while still others trained ve..

Pull Versus Push in Digital Diplomacy0

• Digital Diplomacy
• 23rd December 2019

The Crimean Crisis has been regarded as a turning point in the relationship between Western Europe and Russia. The Crisis, which burst onto the scene in December of 2013, saw strongly worded tweets followed by troop convoys, financial sanctions and the expulsion of diplomats. In the wake of the Crisis, governments in Western Europe came to regard Russia, and not terrorism, as the greatest threat to national security. The new fault lines drawn around the Crimean Peninsula were soon evident in multi-lateral forums that were plagued by paralysis. A world in which Russia and Western Europe do not collaborate is one in which the Security Council is reduced to a debating society while UN agencies such as the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) are rendered irrelevant.

Yet the Crimean Crisis was not just a diplomatic crisis. It was a digital crisis which forced diplomats and their institutions to re-conceptualize how they use digital technologies. Prior to the Crisis,..