A Digital Strategy for Post Pandemic Diplomacy
As assured by both scholars and professionals from multiple fields, including diplomacy, virtuality has come to stay as a working method and to coexist in the “hybrid” world of the future alongside the formats we were so comfortably used to before the COVID-19 pandemic forced confinement.
Diplomacy was not and will not be an exception. As it has been stated from this space, the digitalization of diplomacy revealed the many advantages that it adds to traditional diplomatic work, advantages that were deepened and certainly catalyzed as never before as a result of the needs imposed by the pandemic.
Even before this, the emergence and acceleration of the new Information and Communication Technologies had opened up the international scene to new actors through processes that scholars such as Spanish academic Juan Luis Manfredi described as “disintermediation” of resources and processes, shaking old hierarchical structures of traditionally constituted powers. On the other hand, this brought about new problems in terms of security and confidentiality, multiplying the sources of legitimacy, participation and communication. In short, a kind of online diplomacy had been emerging in which the internet and social media had also begun to be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.
After the “prime time” of the exclusive digitalization of diplomacy, as the world advances, not smoothly, towards a normalcy branded as “new” because it is still far from that of the pre-pandemic world, the presence and acceleration of technology increasingly applied to diplomacy challenges us to think about how to defend and promote national interests in a digital environment, keeping intact the essence of diplomatic activity.
It is high time to analyze the lessons learned through a fundamental prism: the necessary call for innovation and digital disruption also in the exercise of diplomacy. Ultimately, it is about embracing new technologies, making use of their many tools, with the due precautions and use guidelines necessary for institutions traditional such as foreign ministries where “innovation and tradition can coexist in foreign policy”, as affirmed by Italian expert Andreas Sandre, author of the book Digital Diplomacy, who rightly argues that diplomacy needs to open up to new ideas — and greater collaboration with stakeholders — to face the new challenges of the digital age and an increasingly complex and interconnected world.
Challenges may be greater for foreign services, but so are the new and valuable opportunities revealed during the confinement that forced diplomats to use knowledge management and digital resources more efficiently and strategically, to improve communication channels for consular affairs, to promote public diplomacy in general and to even venture virtually into activities traditionally reserved for face-to-face diplomacy with real people.
With so many lessons learned, it is ultimately all about designing a digital diplomacy strategy that generates value, beyond a mere transmission of data, press releases or a succession of photographs of official meetings.
Such a strategy should deepen those actions seeking to identify specific audiences to which the messages are directed, in particular to spot their demands and interests to accordingly determine the contents and objectives to achieve through diplomatic action. It will be key to be open to what public diplomacy scholars call “listening”, that is, to be open to exchanges and dialogue, whenever the subject-matter allows, and be thus ready to defend in the competitive market of virtuality the ideas, principles and values that underpin foreign policy. Equally important is establishing performance indicators in advance to be able to measure the effectiveness of diplomatic action and, in the light of measurable results, to assess necessary adjustments or modifications. All of which requires close internal (off and online) and external coordination among the different governmental agencies involved (Foreign Ministry, other relevant ministries and agencies, as well as the network of representations abroad).
Along this path, several trends and growingly less implicit mandates can be identified which, without the aim of being exhaustive, I intend to describe as reflections to take into account when conceiving a digital diplomatic strategy for strategic communication.
1. ADVANCING FROM “BUSINESS AS USUAL” TO DIGITAL DISRUPTION
Time is up for diplomats to become digital disruptors and promote change within and beyond their institutions through the strategic use of innovation and technology to fulfill their functions. This is about nothing less than not losing that same innovative spirit that in many cases -forced by circumstances- professional diplomats from around the world discovered when the pandemic was hitting hard and confinement compelled them to be creative, to think beyond traditional formats and to design new concepts and products.
Undoubtedly, there will always be new frontiers to be reached in terms of always evolving innovation and objectives may have to be expanded continuously, but the important thing is to establish a culture of innovation and have clear and precise guidelines for digital diplomatic action in those fields where such action is not only possible but also promising and effective.
In this spirit, a further step should be taken to go beyond the use of social media to complement them with other digital resources allowing for technological developments to facilitate and complement diplomatic work, as was the use of videoconferencing platforms and chatbots in some consular systems in the midst of the pandemic.
2. ADVANCING FROM ADAPTATION TO ADOPTION
Although the academic debate between the “adaptation” and the “adoption” of technological resources in diplomacy concludes agreeing on the final goal, that debate is not entirely peaceful as to the meaning and order attributed to each of the two terms when referring to the use, incorporation and necessary adaptation that Foreign Ministries make of both existing and specifically-developed “tailor-made” technology to fulfill foreign policy goals.
To adopt existing technological resources to adapt them to be applied to the purposes pursued constitutes, in a nutshell, the shared purpose if the aim remains to maximize the application of information and communication technologies to diplomatic activity.
In what at a first glance may look like the reverse path, it is also true that diplomats had to adapt the technologies that already existed and that they were already using, in general, in their private lives, to later adopt them in their professional work.
In an attempt to reach a Solomonic solution to this open debate not so much on substance as on scope, scholars such as Corneliu Bjola affirm that we are now in an intermezzo between the “adaptation” forcing us to analyze current technological issues in order to know how to adapt them, and the necessary subsequent “adoption” of whatever works and should be hence applied to diplomatic action. Others, such as Ilan Manor, argue that digital diplomacy is “between adoption and adaptation”, oscillating between the investment in technology that Foreign Ministries are making and thus “adopting”, and the “adaptation” that diplomats make of existing resources available for others purposes and that they adapt for the exercise of their work.
Ultimately, it is about knowing how to use the available technological resources to adjust (adapt) them with a view to their use (adoption) as part of a comprehensive digital communication strategy aimed at promoting foreign policy goals. As many voices alert, the recourse to these technologies given their relatively easy accessibility and, in some cases, mode of use may run the risk of digital diplomacy being “decoupled” from foreign policy.
3. ADVANCING FROM EXCLUSIVELY IN-PERSON OR VIRTUAL FORMATS TO HYBRID MODELS
Also in diplomacy, the pandemic revealed the great advantages offered by virtuality as an alternative format enabling to do part of the job, that is, to perform certain functions online (or even a part of these, in their preliminary stages), once it was confirmed that certain activities can be not only less expensive but also more agile and inclusive in their digital version.
Indeed, cost reduction is usually considered one of the main advantages of virtual meetings as it allows participation from anywhere on the planet, without the need to travel; another benefit of virtuality is also linked to the larger democratization and openness that -with accessibility duly guaranteed- enable anyone who could not have traveled to join a meeting in person to do so on a screen, on an equal footing with the rest. Higher efficiency in time management and, depending on the subject, agility in decision-making are also often highlighted as benefits of the virtual world.
Contrarily, the costs of exclusively virtual formats have been repeatedly associated with the lack of the personal face-to-face contact necessary to build trust, essential in diplomatic work, as well as the impossibility to “read” a room or counterparts’ body language, costs which are exponentially exacerbated in the exercise of key diplomatic functions such as negotiation and representation. Also, lack of total guarantees in terms of confidentiality adds to legitimate cybersecurity concerns.
In the give and take, hybrid formats solve the disadvantages and make good use of the many advantages that virtuality offers for performing certain diplomatic functions. In the virtual/in-person interplay, to carry out an activity in a hybrid format should not merely amount to transferring as much as possible to a screen as what is rather required is to be selective when determining in which areas, topics, context and fair proportion such a format is not only technically feasible but, more importantly, convenient. Once again, that it is precisely the meaning of “hybrid”: to have the best of both worlds in harmony and in just proportion.
4. ADVANCING FROM TACTIC TO STRATEGY
The immediacy of communication made possible by social media, as well as its easy access and low cost has led the increasing digitalization of diplomacy to prioritize, in general, this resource and, with that, the short term over the medium/long term, without a necessary strategic vision conceived in terms of foreign policy. Hence, scholars also agree with the need to institutionalize a culture of innovation with goals, target audiences and predefined measurable assessment parameters.
A digital diplomatic strategy must be oriented to diplomatic objectives determined for foreign action, analyzing scenarios, deciding the tools, building the necessary narratives and evaluating the results in a globalized where concepts deriving from Marketing such as “country branding” or from International Relations theory such as “soft power” have become a high value also in the world of virtuality.
Moving from a tactic (essentially short-term and, at times, sporadic and even impulsive) towards a comprehensive digital strategy for diplomatic action to achieve foreign policy goals requires a more structured approach with clear objectives to firstly inform but, fundamentally, interact and be able to respond to the demands of previously identified audiences.
To this end, as scholars empirically warn, to take the leap into the strategic design of digital action in foreign policy, in addition to traditional training, diplomats must be also trained inter alia about notions and necessary skills in the field of data analysis, visual reasoning and adaptive thinking to understand online behavior patterns, effective message projection and successful reactions to online events in real time.
At the same time, this does not mean that digital diplomacy should be reduced to an exercise of effective metrics, but it should rather assess whether digital dissemination and interaction manages to reach target audiences and whether it is possible to deepen that engagement to shape their perceptions and attitudes regarding the values and principles of the country’s foreign policy.
5. ADVANCING FROM MONOLOGUE TO DIALOGUE
As anticipated, to be strategic, diplomatic communication cannot be limited to the “art of crafting messages” but must be able to interact with specifically identified audiences with very clear purposes and fulfill always foreign policy goals. Most notably, in the vast field of public diplomacy.
Very important in developing such a strategy is the need to always advance “from monologue to dialogue” since citizen participation and interaction must be encouraged so as to avoid becoming mere spokespersons who channel down official messages from national authorities. In addition to necessary openness and transparency, it is essential that those exercising digital diplomacy are always prepared to listen and shape communication accordingly so that it is truly strategic. Public opinion is considerably empowered when having a direct channel to express their opinions and, as argued by Luigi Di Martino, “being seen to listen is now itself an act of public engagement”. In that sense, modern foreign services must be prepared to listen and thus be able to serve fellow nationals in a world where distances and times are shortening.
In this vein, Twitter and other social media tools can prove useful for early detection of opportunities and focusing on the demands of local audiences that are permanently connected to the networks. This confronts modern diplomacy with a relatively new reality since strategic communication is today, to a large extent, digital and through social media. Understanding how they work, how messages are transmitted and what sociocultural practices are common in them is essential.
6. ADVANCING FROM SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DIPLOMACY TO TECHPLOMACY
Developing a digital strategy and a culture of innovation also requires partnerships between foreign ministries and other key players in our hyper-interconnected world also ready to listen, attend to, and dialogue with non-governmental and private organizations, including the private technology sector.
A comprehensive digital strategy will need to maintain not only continued collaborations but, in certain instances, partnerships with private actors in the technology sector for the development of capabilities and digital tools specifically and strategically tailored for diplomatic purposes with a view to achieving predetermined and measurable goals. I am referring to certain resources that, while guaranteeing security and safeguarding confidentiality, provide developments (mobile applications, specific programs, virtual platforms for videoconferencing and other online activities, bots and algorithms, among others) that contribute to virtual and intelligent international relationships.
“Tech ambassadors” and other diplomatic officials have begun to be accredited not only to governments but to specific tech regions or private industry sectors to carry out specific diplomatic duties in what is now called “techplomacy”, to foster collaboration and association among actors from the public and private sector on the specifically digital aspects of the more traditional scientific-technical cooperation.
In short, when we discuss digital diplomacy and its potentialities, there is no room for nostalgia for the good old days. The challenges unleashed by the digitalization of diplomacy are as growing as they are swift, but so are the opportunities. And, in this case, these outweigh the risks that could be associated with innovation within structures traditionally reluctant to change. Foreign Ministries, through their diplomats, have shown to be up to the task in situations of crisis and the pandemic undoubtedly led to the extreme the capacity for adaptation, resilience and creativity of those who had to carry out their work under conditions dramatically different from the usual environment in which face-to-face contact and personal relationships define much of the essence of their profession.
The digitalization of diplomacy is a reality and it does not make any sense to resist or oppose it. To learn how to combine its own methods and guidelines with the high virtues of the profession in its traditional version will allow future diplomatic action to be guided within the framework of a comprehensive digital strategy that will lead foreign services to take full advantage of technology not only in a safe and transparent way, but smart and meaningful.
(Original article published in Spanish in elDiarioAR on September 3, 2021)
The author is a diplomat. The opinions expressed in this article are personal and do not represent those of persons, institutions or organizations with which the writer may or may not be associated in a professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
