Diplomacy in the Digital Age
- By Brian Hocking and Jan Melissen
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 26, 2015
5 Conclusion
Why interpreting the digital age and digital diplomacy matters for government
• Digitalization is here to stay – and so is diplomacy. For governments, reconciling the implications of digitalization with the functional performance of diplomacy is no small challenge, but is essential to achieving global and national needs.
• Foreign ministries should work out what they mean by 'digital diplomacy'. The term requires a greater degree of precision than is commonly given in government circles, which reminds of vague references to 'soft power' by political leaders and diplomats.
• Digital diplomacy is more than the application of social media to familiar diplomatic functions, even though the challenge of their use in diplomacy should not be underestimated. Many diplomats and foreign ministries still apply analogue habits and norms to a digital world.
• Understanding digital diplomacy starts with understanding the offline world. Digital diplomacy is a complex amalgam of developments in the 'offline' international policy environment (and a new 'online layer' which adds significant dimensions to each of these. Those who do for instance not understand the importance of networking as the basis of diplomatic practice, including the need of expanded actor participation, will not get very far in understanding diplomacy in the digital age.
• Digital diplomacy is closely linked to associated debates about e-participation and e-government but has its own distinctive agendas. Digitalization agendas focusing on issues such as cyber security and Internet freedom will become as significant for diplomacy as utilising the technologies on which they rest.
• Those in government should not be lured by explanations of the digital age that are rooted in technological determinism. Innovations in communications technologies depend above all on environmental factors.
• Diplomats will need to apply their skills to disentangling and interpreting key arguments about digitalization. Does it require rewriting the script of foreign policy or is its scope as more limited?
What digitalization will and will not do to diplomacy
• Reactions to developments in communications technologies and interpretations of their implications for diplomacy generally move through several phases: from a mix of scepticism and hype to gradual acceptance and mainstreaming within organisations. Most foreign ministries are just entering the digital age and find themselves in the first phase.
• Diplomats will find the modalities of digitalization in constant flux and they therefore need to 'retool' on a continuous basis. Much of what is now regarded as revolutionary will soon be seen as commonplace or outdated.
• The gap between governments that do no invest in understanding the impact of digitalization on diplomacy and those that do will widen with the speed and velocity that are characteristic of the digital age.
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