Diplomacy in the Digital Age
- By Brian Hocking and Jan Melissen
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 26, 2015
4 The Changing DNA of Diplomacy
There are two interconnected perspectives to the broader context of diplomatic change and adaptation in the digital diplomacy debate: diplomatic processes, geared towards the functions of diplomacy, and diplomatic structures, focusing on the institutions of diplomacy such as foreign ministries. Debates about diplomacy have regularly muddled arguments about the role and importance of the key functions of diplomacy with arguments about specific institutions. As we have seen, interpretations of the consequences of change in information and communication technologies tend to focus on the specific features of technology. They place less emphasis on the context in which they develop. 'Digital diplomacy' therefore becomes a shorthand term for developments conditioning and conditioned by the emergence of digital modes of communication.
Diplomatic processes in the digital age
In the diplomatic arena all things 'online' blend with the 'offline': ICT trends impact on pre-existing, hybrid modes of diplomacy. In this connection, the use of the Web 2.0 metaphor crops up regularly in the literature. Luk Van Langenhove employs it to describe the transformation from 'closed' to 'open' multilateralism, including a wider range of stakeholders in diverse networks required to deal with increasingly multifaceted policy agendas. In national governments, we discern a trend towards more systematic reflection on 'networked diplomacy', which has become a growing preoccupation among Asian governments – including China, South Korea and Japan – as much as in the West. Referring to the 'offline' context to the impact of 'online' technologies, Fergus Hanson succinctly sums up the key focus of what he terms 'eDiplomacy': “the use of the Internet and new Information and Communications Technologies to help carry out diplomatic objectives”. As he notes in his 2012 study of digital diplomacy in the US State Department:
State has already begun conceptual work on the idea of “networked diplomacy” – that is, moving beyond the traditional siloed approach to information gathering in capitals, where every embassy closely guards all its information, to a networked approach where information is easily shared between like-minded governments.
'Networked diplomacy' can here be identified as the underlying theme – at the interface of hybrid diplomacy and the impact of ICT trends – and marked by a growing range of non-state players, linked policy agendas and a greater space for citizen involvement. The current emphasis on networks, and hence the acceleration of 'horizontal' relationship dynamics, does not gel with the traditional bureaucratic culture and corresponding work processes of hierarchical and institutionalized diplomatic environments. Networked diplomacy as a systematic activity rather than diplomats' second nature can, in a way, be seen as the basis of 21st century diplomatic practice. It implies a conceptual upgrade to new functions, shifting roles and changing relationships with external stakeholders.
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