Innovations in Foreign Policy

The Consulate General of Germany in New York hosted a Digital Diplomacy meetup event yesterday featuring Andreas Sandre in discussion with Mashable’s Editor-at-Large, Lance Ulanoff. Andreas presented the main ideas in his newly released book - Digital Diplomacy: Innovations in Foreign Policy, and Lance asked some tough questions regarding the nature of diplomacy and how digital is shaping its future. 

(Andreas and Lance looking dapper)

One of the main takeaways was the potential for big data as it applies to everything - from how countries can help citizens to how governments can help other governments through tools built from collecting, analyzing and sharing big data sets. Andreas also describes this as the road to “Digital Diplomacy 3.0”. If “Diplomacy 2.0” was about “Transformational Diplomacy” in real-time then its next-gen version is about collaboration and working together across sectors to explore how digital technologies (beyond social tools) can make a positive impact on diplomacy and shape the future of diplomatic trade craft.  

(View of the UN from the German Consulate) 

I had the pleasure of first meeting Andreas in 2012, shortly after I began working as a practitioner. The idea of Digital Diplomacy was fairly new at the time (after all, it usually takes about 5 years for the public sector to catch up to developments in the private sector, as Lance was quick to point out in the discussion). Andreas was, and has since been, one of the leading influencers in this space. I eagerly read his white-paper-turned-book, Twitter for Diplomats, published online by the DiploFoundation and this very tumblr was inspired by Andreas himself. During our first meeting in Georgetown, I mentioned that I was saving a lot of articles on the subject of Digital for Diplomacy and he encouraged me to share them on tumblr, which I eventually did a few months later. Therefore, this “curated repository of knowledge on digital diplomacy” is largely thanks to Andreas and his e-diplomacy blog!

(Posing with Andreas)

I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting Lance previously, when I worked in the private sector (which now seems like a lifetime ago!). During Social Media Week 2012, I helped to organize a panel on “Social Sharing and the Art of Doodling” featuring Lance (an avid doodler), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Bettina Korek (For Your Art), Erin Sparling (Wall Street Journal), Doug Jaeger (School of Visual Arts), and moderated by Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director of the New York Tech Meetup. Lance was a great addition to that panel and it was wonderful to see him speak again, this time in conversation with Andreas. 

(Andreas and Lance in discussion)

Many thanks again to the team at the German Consulate for organizing this event, and to the speakers, and of course, also to the attendees from the Digital Diplomacy Meetup. We had representatives from governments across Europe, the US State Dept, and Asia, and it was a real treat to see that interest in this topic continues to grow. 

(Pictured with my counterparts from Denmark and Canada!)

I’m looking forward to seeing what lies ahead for “Digital Diplomacy 3.0”. Though my professional development has been focused on social media as a tool for public diplomacy, I am personally excited to see how digital in all its forms will continue to shape society, and by extension governments. 

Check out the German Consulate’s Storify to see mentions of last night’s event!

And if anyone has an idea for an upcoming Digital Diplomacy Meetup or Digital Diplomacy Coalition event in NYC, please feel free to reach out! 

Digital diplomacy: UN’s Department of Political Affairs in 140-character bursts

un-dpa:

The Department of Political Affairs’ presence on social media is relatively new but clearly growing. DPA joined Twitter, the platform that now counts the vast majority of the UN’s 193 Member States as participants, in 2012. The Department, along with the ever greater number of government officials active on Twitter, are all staking a distinct claim in the burgeoning digital diplomacy universe.

As the DPA Twitter account nears 100,000 followers, Politically Speaking looks at how some in the UN use this powerful platform.

Read More

Contest and conquest: Russia and global internet governance #igcbp15

As I begin to prepare for my online course in Internet Governance with the DiploFoundation, I have begun to seek out articles on how IG is impacting diplomacy and foreign affairs. Recently, I came across this paper by JULIEN NOCETTI published in International Affairs Volume 91,  Issue 1, pages 111–130, January 2015. I thought it was worth the share. The full text can be found on Wiley Online Library.

Contest and conquest: Russia and global internet governance

BY JULIEN NOCETTI

Article first published online: 15 JAN 2015

DOI: 10.1111/1468-2346.12189

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2346.12189/full

ABSTRACTION (excerpt):

For more than a decade, Russia’s foreign policy has sought to challenge the international consensus on a number of issues. Today, as the international internet ecosystem is becoming more volatile, Moscow is eager to shift the western narrative over the current global internet governance regime, in which the United States retains considerable leverage. In a context wherein states increasingly forge links between cyberspace and foreign policy, this article explores Russia’s deepening involvement in internet governance.

An excerpt from the article:

“This growing politicization of ‘all things digital’ illustrates three major current trends. First, many governments are attempting to exert sovereignty in cyberspace in the same way as they do in physical domains. The fact that private companies are dominant in this complex ecosystem is unsettling to many policy-makers, as is the unfettered internet access of their fellow citizens.

Second, governments are struggling to keep up with the pace of technological change, with technology evolving faster than law-making efforts; this disparity is calling into question the very nature of the Westphalian nation-state and its capacity to adapt to current challenges, leading to a profound reconfiguration of government-to-government and government-to-citizen relationships in the twenty-first century.

Third, there is a developing sense, underpinned by demographic factors, that the internet environment is quickly becoming more international and less western-centric. Over the next decade, the internet’s centre of gravity will shift to the east and south. Even in 2012, 66 per cent of internet users were living in the non-western world, and the number of users across the globe is expected to rise  from 1.9 billion in 2010 to 3 billion by 2016. But there are also profoundly political factors involved: an increasing number of governments are no longer comfortable with the current system of internet governance and are seeking to challenge the historical dominance of the United States in the cyber domain.”

In conclusion…

“This article illustrates an unquestionable trend: internet governance has become an increasingly divisive foreign policy issue.”

READ THE FULL TEXT HERE

Julien Nocetti 112 International Affairs 91: 1, 2015 Copyright © 2015 The Author(s). International Affairs © 2015 The Royal Institute of International Affairs.

#SocialUN recaps & video

The UN’s first-ever Social Media Day was a huge success. Congrats to the Department of Information’s Social Media Team on such an amazing event! More than 9,000 tweets (and counting) used the #SocialUN hashtag.

You can now watch the five sessions online here.

Keynote address by Adam Snynder

Tweeting from the top: Ambassadors and digital diplomacy

Making the most of social media platforms

Turning moments into movements

Social media trends for 2015

Check out the UN’s Storify summarizing online activity from #SocialUN and see more at: http://blogs.un.org/blog/2015/02/03/recap-from-un-social-media-day/#sthash.B2fnBG3s.dpuf

Interested in #DigitalDiplomacy? Tune in Friday for #SocialUN!