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This handbook delves into the shifting power dynamics in diplomacy, exploring the establishment of embassies in technology hubs, the challenges faced by foreign affairs departments in adapting to digital technologies, and the utilization of digital tools as a means of exerting influence.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Certainty of Uncertainty and Public Diplomacy -- Part I: Heteropolar World, Global Uncertainty and Public Diplomacy -- Chapter 2: The "American Century" is Over – the US Global Leadership Narrative, Uncertainty and Public Diplomacy -- Chapter 3: From External Propaganda to Media Diplomacy: the Construction of the 'Chinese Dream' in President Xi Jinping's New Year Speeches -- Chapter 4: Climate Change Begins at Home: City Diplomacy in the Age of the Anthropocene -- Chapter 5: 'Rough Winds do shake the Darling Buds of May': Theresa May, British Public Diplomacy and Reputational Security in the era of Brexit -- Part II: Regime Shifts, Institutional Uncertainty and Public Diplomacy -- Chapter 6: Public Diplomacy in the Age of 'Post-Reality' -- Chapter 7: The Manufacturing of Uncertainty in Public Diplomacy: A Rhetorical Approach -- Chapter 8: Russian Public Diplomacy: Questioning Certainties in Uncertain Times -- Chapter 9: The Confucius Institute and Relationship Management: Uncertainty Management of Chinese Public Diplomacy in Africa -- Part III: Public Diplomacy Practice and Uncertainty Management -- Chapter 10: Managing Disinformation Through Public Diplomacy -- Chapter 11: Economic Determinants of India's Public Diplomacy Towards South Asia -- Chapter 12: Managing Uncertainty: The Everyday Global Politics and Post-9/11 US Public Diplomacy -- Chapter 13:Foreign Correspondence and Digital Public Diplomacy -- Conclusions. .

AbstractThis article outlines three major features of the digital society (information sharing, a levelled‐playing field, and reciprocal surveillance) and explores their manifestation in the field of diplomacy. The article analyzed the international network of 78 Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) on Twitter during the critical period of its growth between 2014 and 2016. To explain why some MFAs follow or are followed by their peers, both internal (Twitter) and external (gross domestic product) factors were considered. The analysis found the principle of digital reciprocity to be the most important factor in explaining an MFA's centrality. Ministries who follow their peers are more likely to be followed in return. Other factors that predict the popularity of MFAs among their peers are regionality, technological savviness, and national media environments. These findings provide a broader understanding of contemporary diplomacy and the fierce competition over attention in the digital society.

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.

AbstractRecent years have seen mass adoption of social media by ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). However, diplomats are still searching for ways to evaluate their online activity and assess the impact of online activities on offline diplomacy. This article argues that the centrality of a diplomatic institution to a Twitter network of its peer can be used to evaluate both online and offline diplomacy. Central actors on Twitter can set diplomats' offline agenda, influence how diplomats view issues being debated in diplomatic forums, gather information relevant to the policy formulation process and become information brokers between nations. Moreover, through a two‐year analysis of the Twitter networks of MFA and UN missions we demonstrate that diplomatic institutions can perform an act of upward social media mobility by which they become more central to Twitter networks. We also show that hard power resources such as the relative wealth of nations and their population size does not guarantee online centrality. Thus, diplomatic institutions may suffer from downward social media mobility in which they become less influential online. Finally, we identify a set of digital tactics and strategies that enable MFAs and embassies to become more central to Twitter networks of their peers.

Summary
The proliferation of social media has had a profound impact on the practice of diplomacy; diplomats can bypass the press and communicate their messages directly to online audiences. Subsequently, ministries of foreign affairs (MFAS) are now mediatised; they produce media content, circulate content through social media and adopt media logics in their daily operations. Through a case study of the Israeli MFA during the 2014 Gaza War, this article explores the mediatisation of MFAS. It does so by analysing how the Israeli MFA crafted frames through which online audiences could understand the war and demonstrates that these frames evolved as the conflict unfolded. It then draws attention to the important way in which MFAS are now media actors through a statistical analysis, which demonstrates that the use of images in tweets increased engagement with the Israeli MFA's frames. Finally, the article illustrates how these frames were used to legitimize Israel's actions, and delegitimise those of Hamas.

This article investigates how diplomatic networks move into a new digital media platform, namely Twitter, through the analytical lenses of networked diplomacy studies and mediatization. We employ the studies in the former field to argue for the need to study the entire network to evaluate diplomatic relations, rather than relying on bilateral relations alone. Mediatization is then introduced to argue that moving to a digital platform (i.e., digitization) is a process in which countries might end up enjoying different levels of technology adoption. We first use social network analysis to compare the sizes and structures of brick and mortar embassy networks and Twitter following–follower relationship networks among ministries and ministers of foreign affairs of 130 countries. We then present a theoretical explanation of digitization of diplomatic networks. Our findings suggest that the majority of countries still have a larger diplomatic presence offline compared to their Twitter network. However, the structures of offline and online networks are similar, showing that countries have diplomatic relations (whether brick and mortar embassies or Twitter links) with the same groups of countries. We conclude by presenting the variance of the digitization process among countries.

Recent years have seen the migration of Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) to social media in a practice referred to as digital diplomacy. Social media enable MFAs to craft frames so as to influence audiences' perception of foreign affairs. Such framing is especially relevant during times of war as states seek to legitimize their policies. Notably, given that social media are inherently visual platforms, MFAs are now visual narrators. Few studies to date have extended the reach of framing theory to that of digital diplomacy during conflict. This study addresses this gap by analysing 795 tweets published by the Israeli MFA during the 2014 Gaza War. The authors' analysis demonstrates that the Israeli MFA crafted 14 linguistic frames that were used to legitimize Israel's policies. Notably, the MFA used images to support these frames and it is through images that the linguistic frames were made to resonate with Israeli strategic narratives. The authors pay attention to how images published by the Israeli MFA constitute three visual tropes and highlight how images function to augment frames (which focus on the present) to broader narratives that involve the past, present and future. Here, they explore how images invoke the past to illuminate the present and future, and create a shared identity in the context of the Gaza War.

Dr. Ilan Manor is a leading scholar in the digitalization of public diplomacy and a senior lecturer at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. From the beginning of his academic career, Dr. Manor invested in researching the digitalized practices and strategies of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and conceptualized the expression "the digitalization of public diplomacy" to explore how digital technologies shape the norms, values, and working routines of diplomats and diplomatic institutions. Based on the hypothesis of transparency as the core of social media technology, Dr. Manor mentioned that diplomacy has also had to become more open, especially in public diplomacy. Traditional secret diplomatic negotiations are under universal scrutiny by netizens because they are digitalized. Thus, the public wants diplomats to be more open and transparent in their professional activities. However, digitalization also brought a series of communication problems, especially in the time of geopolitical uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. In the academic dialogue, Dr. Manor has analyzed the conceptualization, practices, and challenges of the digitalization of public diplomacy in the framework of the current geopolitical context and global crisis and reviewed the long-term conceptual debate in public diplomacy scholarship on the value of soft power in the digital age. The last part of this dialogue focused on using visual supports in the international communication arena, criticizing the omnipresent use of memes and gifs of the Russian and Ukrainian governments during the war and questioning the public(s) in the digitalization of public diplomacy.