The Studium and the Punctum

Virality in is the new black in digital diplomacy, and rightly so, one may add! For Ministers of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and embassies, being on social media is no longer only about presence and networking, but about standing out through the virality of their messages. Creating content that is shared exponentially on social media, in a very short timeframe, with multiple levels of reactions from a mosaic of audiences is, to put is simply, ‘pure gold’ from a communicational persp...

The scope, volume and intensity of global data connectivity are expected to explode in the coming years. The disruption produced by this transformation will have far-reaching implications for the way in which individuals, communities and societies define and conduct themselves and for the way in which public diplomacy as a practice of building bridges with foreign publics.

The full version of our article, published in the recent Special Issue of the Hague Journal of Diplomacy on "Debating Public Diplomac...

Like many other technologies, digital platforms come with a dual-use challenge that is, they can be used for peace or war, for good or evil, for offense or defence. The same tools that allow ministries of Foreign Affairs and embassies to reach out to millions of people and build ‘digital’ bridges with online publics with the purpose to enhance international collaboration, improve diaspora engagement, stimulate trade relations, or manage international crises, can be also used as a form of “sharp power” t...

Commenting on the challenges that the Digital Age has generated for the craft of diplomacy, the former U.S. Secretary, John Kerry, provocatively remarked that “the term digital diplomacy is almost redundant -- it's just diplomacy, period.” For Kerry, digital technologies in general, and social media in particular, do help advance states’ foreign policy objectives, bridge gaps between people across the globe, and engage with people around the world, but ultimately they fulfill the same core diplomatic fu...