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While e-diplomacy is gaining momentum, there are certain factors that are hampering its implementation by governments, and by foreign ministries in particular. Uthayasankar Sivarajah and Vishanth Weerakkody examine these factors and argue that diplomats need to embrace digital diplomacy now if they are to reap its benefits.

AbstractThe past decade has seen the accelerated digitalization of foreign ministries. In this study, we conceptualize digitalization as long term process in which diplomats adopt different technologies to obtain foreign policy goals. To date, only a handful of studies have investigated which factors influence digitalization. This study sought to address this gap by examining generational gaps within foreign ministries, while investigating how such gaps may prevent diplomats from obtaining communicative goals. The study thus employed the concept of digital nativity, while examining operational and conceptual gaps between digital natives and immigrants. Using a sample of 133 diplomats from six foreign ministries, the study finds there are few operational gaps between natives and immigrants. There are, however, substantial conceptual gaps between both generations. Specifically, digital immigrants use social networking sites (SNS) for one‐way message dissemination and influence and are also less likely to interact with, or value follower feedback. The same is not true of natives. Conceptual gaps may thus prevent foreign ministries from successfully marketing new policies online or gaining valuable insight that may be integrated into the policy formulation process. The study includes a series of policy recommendation that may help ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) overcome gaps between natives and immigrants.

Among the numerous discourses on US-China relations in recent years, issues of the influence of digital international relations (which include such areas as digital/data diplomacy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) development, and the influence of information projects in social networks) are rarely given explicit consideration. At the same time, all these elements have come under the pressure of datalization and takes a big pleasure on the place of states in the world politics. This article reveals the phenomenon of one the most important element of digital international relations — digital diplomacy of the USA and China — and focuses on the political and academic discourses about this foreign policy instrument in these countries. The first part of the study presents academic discourses on digital diplomacy of Chinese and American experts, provides characteristics of PRC and US digital diplomacy, trends and role in bilateral relations. The second part of the article reflects the existing strategies and projects in Chinese and American digital diplomacy in relation to each other. The authors stated that digital diplomacy evolved from just an instrument of international information broadcasting to the full-fledged foreign policy mechanism which already has visible elements, structural connections and an evolutionary path of development with difficult methodology and institutional regulation, covering the issues of public diplomacy and cybersecurity, and which is the main instrument of the new ideological and economic confrontation of two powers.

Digital diplomacy is an efficient tool for building close relationships between countries, especially when it comes to people-to-people diplomacy (P2P). This article aims to explore how the Iranian embassy in Beijing uses Chinese social media and reveals the motivations and changes in its behaviour. The main finding was that 2019 was a turning point; before 2019, the embassy messages were more informative without targeting specifically its Chinese audience, and since 2019 the messages have been showing deeper understating the local discourse and, therefore, have been more tailored for its Chinese audience. The main reasons for that were the place of Iran in the China-US trade war, the role of the EU in uplifting Iran's status in the international community, and the Ambassadors' characteristics and background, which switched at the end of 2018. (Asian Aff/GIGA)

Exploring the 'dark side' of digital diplomacy, this volume highlights some of the major problems facing democratic institutions in the West and provides concrete examples of best practice in reversing the tide of digital propaganda. Digital diplomacy is now part of the regular conduct of International Relations, but Information Warfare is characterised by the exploitation or weaponisation of media systems to undermine confidence in institutions: the resilience of open, democratic discourse is tested by techniques such as propaganda, disinformation, fake news, trolling and conspiracy theories. This book introduces a thematic framework by which to better understand the nature and scope of the threats that the weaponization of digital technologies increasingly pose to Western societies. The editors instigate interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration between scholars and practitioners on the purpose, methods and impact of strategic communication in the Digital Age and its diplomatic implications. What opportunities and challenges does strategic communication face in the digital context? What diplomatic implications need to be considered when governments employ strategies for countering disinformation and propaganda? Exploring such issues, the contributors demonstrate that responses to the weaponisation of digital technologies must be tailored to the political context that make it possible for digital propaganda to reach and influence vulnerable publics and audiences. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy studies, counter-radicalisation, media and communication studies, and International Relations in general.

Summary
One facet of information and communication technology in diplomacy is how and to what extent states implement digital tools in their diplomatic practices. This article focuses on the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and argues that it has performed the early stages of digital diplomacy, during which it is carried out for information dissemination purposes and is mainly influenced by the domestic agenda. The research finds that Indonesian digital diplomacy is affected by various factors that have a substantial effect on the MoFA's digital diplomacy plan of action. This article is a qualitative study supported mainly by primary data from interviews with Indonesian diplomats, high-ranking officials in the Indonesian MoFA, and Indonesian scholars and citizens. The focus is on the social media activity of the Indonesian MoFA on Twitter (@Kemlu_RI), Facebook (Kementerian Luar Negeri RI) and Instagram (kemlu_ri) from 2020 to April 2022.

Summary
This article uses qualitative content analysis to understand how the International Criminal Court (ICC) uses Twitter by building on digital diplomacy literature to assess the different narratives promoted by the ICC online. I find that the ICC is actively creating narratives that position it as part of a unified global fight for justice with wide political support from states and other international organisations. This kind of public diplomacy is unique among criminal courts, with tweets aimed at bolstering political support from both elite diplomats and non-elite lay publics. At the same time, however, this rebranding effort often oversteps the ICC's limited jurisdiction, reducing complex legal topics to short, emotionally resonant phrases that fit within Twitter's restricted format. While the Court still attempts to portray its work as politically neutral and objective, the diplomatic messaging of its Twitter account sends a different message about the Court's social media agenda.

The development of the information society has initiated the need for creating new instruments with the help of which the authorities can reach out to citizens. Therefore, cyberspace has recently become a place of activity of a number of entities including state and international organizations (together with the European Union). The result of this phenomenon is the creation of the so-called digital diplomacy as new quality in the so-called diplomacy of the EU. The EU diplomacy currently uses a number of e-tools, among others, Facebook, MySpace, Daily Motion, YouTube, etc. These tools are a very good method to improve and warm up the image of the Union in the international arena. This kind of diplomacy was only formed at the beginning of the twenty-first century and has a great prospect of development, thus, it is worth considering in which direction its evolution should follow. Digital diplomacy is a de facto response to the problem of the EU communication with the outside world and the growing number of Internet users.

The European Union has historically sought to project outwards its identity, values and raison d'être during times of uncertainty and crisis. One of the core values stated to be at the heart of the European Union's identity is gender equality. Yet, while gender equality features more visibly in the European Union's external discourse as it seeks to position itself as a global leader in equality and human rights, the internal challenge posed by crisis presents a real obstacle to future developments in this area. This article examines digital diplomacy, specifically Twitter presence, as a discursive site for constituting meaning. We thus take the digital space afforded by Twitter as a site where the European Union's internal and external identity is constructed in a process of articulation and contestation. Digital diplomacy is now a salient part of public diplomacy, increasingly prioritised over 'traditional' approaches. Using data gathered from Twitter on the European Union's 60th anniversary and International Women's Day in 2017, this article provides the first in-depth study of the European Union's approach to digital diplomacy. We find the marginalisation of gender issues from the European Union's core narratives bringing into question the place of gender equality as a core value of the European Union.