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The Digitalization of Diplomacy: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Terminology

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The Digitalization of Diplomacy: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Terminology WORKING PAPER SERIES Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group Oxford Department of International Development University of Oxford Ilan Manor The Digitalization of Diplomacy: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Terminology DigDiploROx Working Paper No 2 (Jan 2018) Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................... 3 The Digitalization of Diplomacy - the Need for a New Term ................... 4 The Digitalization of Diplomacy - A Definition ....................................... 6 The Digitalization of Diplomacy - Mutual Influence ............................... 9 The Digital Research Corpus .................................................................. 12 Conclusions ........................................................................................... 17 To cite this work: Manor, Ilan, “The Digitalization of Diplomacy: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Terminology,” Working Paper No 2. Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group (Jan 2018), Available from: http://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/sites/www.odid.ox.ac.uk/files/DigDiploROxWP2.pdf 2 1. Introduction media profiles while the MFAs of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have all 2017 marks a decade since the advent crafted policies for digital diaspora of “digital diplomacy”. What began as outreach. Studies even suggest that an experiment by a select number of African MFAs are as active online as foreign ministries and diplomatic their Western peersv. pioneers, has now become standard practice for diplomatic institutions The past decade has also witnessed the world over. Early examples of increased academic interest in “digital diplomacy” include Sweden’s “digital diplomacy” with scholars virtual embassy to Second Life, evaluating the digital practices of launched in 2007, and the formation embassies, diplomats, MFAs and of a US digital outreach team in world leaders. 2006i. To date, scholars and practitioners Over the past decade, the utilization have offered different terms to of digital technologies in diplomacy conceptualize the growing influence has become increasingly diverse. of digital technologies on diplomacy. Within the realm of public diplomacy, These have included net diplomacy, Norwegian Ambassadors are using cyber diplomacy, diplomacy 2.0, Skype to converse with university networked diplomacy, real-time students, while Palestine is diplomacy and 21st century statecraft embracing Facebook as a medium for (See Hocking & Meissen’s 2015 report engaging with Israeli citizensii. The for their taxonomy)vi. Similarly, while Indian MFA (Ministry of Foreign the Israeli MFA uses the term ‘digital Affairs) is developing computer diplomacy’, the Finnish ministry games for children of Indian proposes the term ‘diplomacy in the Diasporas, while the Georgian digital age’. The difference between Diaspora Ministry offers online the two in not merely semantic. The courses in the Georgian language. UN latter implies that the conduct of Ambassadors are employing diplomacy has remained similar but WhatsApp to coordinate their votes it is now practiced in new digital on various resolutions while the environments. Digital diplomacy, by Kenyan foreign ministry is contrast, is a term that could allude to increasingly using Twitter to deliver an entirely new form of diplomacy. emergency consular aidiii. More recently, MFAs have begun to employ The plurality of terms relating to software programmers so as to technology's impact on diplomacy analyse big data sets and manipulate stems from the fact that new social media algorithms using Botsiv. platforms, tools and practices continue to immerge. In 2016, MFAs The utilization of digital technologies were increasingly concerned with the in diplomacy is now also a global use of Twitter to manage their phenomenon. The MFAs of Egypt, national image. Nowadays, MFAs are Jordan and Qatar all operate social developing algorithms to fracture 3 echo chambers of hate and technologies on the radicalization. Similarly, MFAs are conceptualization, practice and migrating to new digital arenas such institutions of diplomacy. as Wikipedia and Google Earth. Additionally, I demonstrate the manner in which this term can help Numerous scholars and diplomats scholars map the existing research have adopted the term “digital corpus and identify new avenues of diplomacy” when referring to the research. intersection between digital technologies and diplomacy. This paper therefore aims to clarify a However, scholars have yet to offer a fractured terminology through the clear definition of this term. The introduction of a new and more search for such a definition is an inclusive term “the digitalization of important one. For practitioners, diplomacy”viii. definitions help conceptualize how diplomacy should be practiced, what 2. The Digitalization of working routines need to be altered Diplomacy- the Need for a New and which skills must be acquired. If Term diplomats conceptualize the world as networked they may increasingly Recent years have seen an abundance strive to become nodes in trans- of terms referencing the influence of national advocacy networks. But if digital technologies on diplomacy. diplomats conceptualize the world as Some terms focus more on the hierarchical they may place an conceptualization of diplomacy in a emphasis on engaging with elites. digital world. Such is the case with ‘networked diplomacy’ and ‘21st Definitions are also important to century statecraft’. Other terms scholars who rely on them to centre on the characteristics of digital formulate hypotheses, select case technologies. Examples include: studies and identify research ‘public diplomacy 2.0’, which draws avenues. Indeed the terms ‘public its name from the concept of web 2.0; diplomacy 2.0’ and ‘networked ‘net diplomacy’, which relates more diplomacy’ have both stimulated broadly to the internet and considerable academic researchvii. ‘Twiplomacy’, which references Twitterix. Some terms even focus on In this working paper I argue that the attributes of the digital society. none of the terms employed thus far These include ‘selfie diplomacy’ and in the context of digital technologies ‘real time diplomacy’x. Finally, terms and diplomacy are sufficient. In such as “cyber diplomacy” relate to addition, I propose that practitioners new diplomatic arenasxi. and scholars adopt the term “the digitalization of diplomacy” in Other scholars employ the term reference to the impact of digital “digital diplomacy”. Yet, this term has technologies on diplomacy. It is my traditionally been defined within the contention that this term more fully context of specific studies. For encapsulates the influence of digital instance, in 2015 Segev and Manor 4 defined digital diplomacy as the use engage and the technologies they of social media by a state to achieve employ to achieve their goals. Even its foreign policy goals and manage more importantly, digitalization is a its national imagexii. The same year process that, over time, redistributes Bjola and Holmes defined digital power within diplomatic institutions. diplomacy as a tool for change management while in 2012 Potter Second, the aforementioned terms stated that digital diplomacy is the fail to clearly identify the domains of conduct of diplomacy through diplomacy that are influenced by networked technologiesxiii. Finally, in digital technologies. While some 2016, Manor re-defined digital terms focus on digital platforms, diplomacy as the overall impact ICTs others relate to the audiences of (Information and Communication diplomacy, while still others deal Technologies) have had on the mostly with the conduct of conduct of diplomacy- ranging from diplomacy. As such, none of these the email to smartphone terms offer a systematic classification applicationsxiv. through which the influence of digitalization can be investigated. In What emerges from the addition, none of these terms aforementioned definitions is a state encapsulate the overarching influence of fractured terminology in which digital technologies have had on some terms are too broad, such as diplomacy. “digital diplomacy, while others are to narrow, such as “Public Diplomacy Lastly, digital technologies do not 2.0”. merely offer new functionalities. Rather, they promote new norms and Additionally, it is the contention of facilitate new behaviours. These, in this working paper that none of the turn, influence the practice of aforementioned terms, including diplomacy. For instance, digital digital diplomacy, are sufficient as technologies enable individuals to they fail to capture three distinct create and disseminate content on a features of the intersection between global scale. This has given rise to a diplomacy and digital technologies. new form of journalism known as “citizen journalism”. From a The first feature is that digitalization normative perspective, citizen is a process rather than a binary state. journalists are seen as adding to the In other words, one cannot separate diversity of voices heard in the digital diplomats into those that are digital town square. From a behavioural and those that are not. Rather, perspective, internet users diplomats, MFAs and embassies are increasingly seek the analysis of all undergoing a process of citizen journalists. The rise of citizen digitalization. This process is journalists, and their ability to influencing the manner in which influence how publics perceive issues diplomats envision their world, the and events, prompted MFAs to habits of their intended audiences, migrate
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