Public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, e-diplomacy, diplomacy 2.0. Has diplomacy changed that much in current years that it has divided itself into so many different strands?
In one of this blogs’ first posts, Chris stated that we are in the business of talking to strangers. We want to “explain our ideas more widely and we need to hear more widely what people think about them”. In other words, we need to engage with people beyond government, beyond the close-door meetings, beyond the two-man-in-suits meetings. We need to get to our target audience as directly as possible, and for that we need an effective public and digital diplomacy.
As you can see from my bio on the right of your screen, this is something that I am very interested in, as consequence of my work. This has brought some interesting perks to my life.
“So, what it is that you do? What do you work with?”
This is a conversation that everyone goes through at various points in their lives. Depending on what it is that you do, you get more excited or more nervous about answering it. I usually tend to get puzzled looks when replying to it. This is because I have studied International Relations and work for an Embassy, so people assume that I work with the very “traditional diplomacy”. But then I throw the curve ball:
“I work in the Communications and Public Diplomacy Team. More specifically with public and digital diplomacy.”
And that is when I get the baffled expressions.
“Hum…okay. But…what is that exactly?”
As I see it, public and digital diplomacy are just different ways – strategies if you like – to achieve the same outcomes sought by the so called “traditional” diplomacy. The FCO’s Digital Strategy was built on the core areas of the diplomatic work, looking “how digital tools had already improved foreign policy outcomes and at the potential to take that much further”. In sum, it is not about replacing diplomatic skills, but enhancing their application.
As the Foreign Secretary once said:
“There is now a mass of connections between individuals, civil society, business, pressure groups and charitable organisations which are also part of the relations between nations and which are being rapidly accelerated by the internet”
Diplomacy is the business of influencing. If we now have a number of different tools which can get us closer to our audience, why not to take advantage of that? The way I see it, diplomacy has not divided itself into different strands; it has multiplied its channels.