Latvian Digital Diplomacy—Approaches and Policy

Abstract

Changing the habits of information consumption and the presence of digital communication in society necessitates also the national diplomatic services to adapt to the new challenges and use of digital communication channels. The aim of the study is to find out the development of the implementation of digital diplomacy tools in the diplomatic service of Latvia and the influence of institutional factors in the mentioned processes.Study of publicly available documents regulating the communications process were carried out and direct interviews with the management of the MFA Communication Directorate were executed.According to the study findings, digital diplomacy is regulated by the general procedures of public administration as well as the MFA Communication Strategy, which establishes the general principles of communication and relationship building with stakeholders.MFA is aware of the importance of digital diplomacy and the need to develop this direction, but more exigent activity is limited because of other diplomatic service priorities. The limited institutional capacity and the available financial and human resources limit the implementation of these processes in a short time period, thus possibly losing the competition to the countries with similar historical, political and socio-economic level of development in the battlefield of public diplomacy.