DIPLOMACY GOES DIGITAL

By Abdul Halim Saad, BA Malaya, Dip Politics LSE, MA Peace Studies Bradford.

Diplomacy has apparently transformed itself in line with the development in multimedia technology worldwide.

Now enters the eDiplomacy or digital diplomacy where the internet and multimedia are used to achieve diplomatic objectives in line with the digital revolution.

What is digital diplomacy?

Digital diplomacy is defined as the use of internet devices to transmit diplomatic information, communication, representation, negotiation or to conduct conferences.

Since the year 2000, digital diplomacy has been widely used by states, governments and multilateral organizations in enhancing diplomatic communications and public diplomacy.

Diplomats are now conveniently engaged with diplomats of other countries by using Zoom, Whatsapp, Skype, Email, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

And the internet has become an integral part of diplomatic communications between states too and many diplomatic decisions are made through digital negotiations, conferences or mediations.

What are the benefits of digital diplomacy?

First, diplomatic communications can be made faster, at all hours and may result in quick policy reactions compared to the conventional consular methods.

Second, using internet involves a low cost and it benefits the less developed countries (LDCs) as it is costly to maintain diplomatic representations with many countries.

Third, face-to-face diplomacy can be reduced and diplomacy can more open, no more discreet or secretive or made behind closed doors.

Fourth, diplomatic communications can cover an extremely wide area in particular for big countries such as Australia, Argentina, Brazil. Canada, China, India, Russia or USA.

Fifth, political leaders like presidents and prime ministers who use internet communications are seen by their citizens and counterparts as digital trendy or computer friendly.

Sixth, cyber diplomacy can transmit online lots of data and reports including photographs, diagrams, videos almost instantly and repeatedly to solicit fast responses.

Seventh, many international leaders find that using Twitters or Instagram, for example, create a more friendly atmosphere or easily connected to the their counterparts and citizens.

Eight, using multimedia is helpful in managing delicate inter-state crisis situations faster than the traditional way avoiding possible diplomatic incidents.

Ninth, states can also use the internet technology to manage their citizens caught up in delicate political situations, natural disasters or armed crises situations abroad.

Who has the highest Twitter followers?

In multilateral diplomacy, digital devices are use by a majority of the political leaders of the 195 UN member states and in fact it has become a diplomatic trend.

Twitter is the most popular digital communication as 125 or 65% of the world presidents and prime ministers of 195 UN member states have Twitter accounts.

Interestingly, political leaders could not resist the digital temptations and many of them have huge twitter followers and spend a long midnight hours tweeting.

Leaders with high twitter followers are: Donald Trump 80m, Narendra Modi 60m, Pope Francis 50m, Joe Biden 30m, Tayyib Erdogan 18m, Joko Widodo 14m, Imran Khan 12m, Queen Rania of Jordan 11m, Sheikh Rashid Al Makhtoum 10m and even the Dalai Lama has 19m Twitter followers.

Facebook is the second-most popular network as 179 government leaders have Facebook accounts representing 92% of the 195 UN member states.

And Instagram too has become the third most popular social network for government leaders as 175 UN member states or 92% of the state leaders have Instagram accounts.

About 131 foreign ministries (MOFAs) or 68% have Twitter accounts while 107 foreign ministers (FMs) or 55% maintain Twitter accounts to connect with their counterparts and citizens overseas.

Which country maintains the highest diplomatic twitter transmissions?

Data by Digital Diplomacy Index among G20 countries shows, by volume of Twitter transmissions, USA is leading followed by France, India, UK, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Italy, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Argentina, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, China, South Korea and South Africa.

The world’s greatest multilateral convention, the 75th UN General Assembly in New York in September 2020 was a virtual session for the first time in history.

Global leaders were absent due to the coronavirus pandemic and all statements by the heads of state and prime ministers were aired in the UN hall and many thanks to the internet revolution.

The 2020 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), a group of 21 economies in the Pacific area, was also held in a first ever virtual session without the respective leaders present.

What are the risks of digital diplomacy?

First, internet transactions may have security risks as it can be used as a channel for promoting propaganda and for the use information warfare.

Second, in line with the virtual age, the internet may be used to collect secretive intelligence information or in spying for delicate and important information of other states.

Third, nations use to accuse each other of stealing, hacking or for the loss of sensitive intelligence data due to cyber interferences as exposed by the Wikileaks organization.

Fourth, the internet is being used to conduct electronic surveillance on political leaders or on diplomats of other nations that may create diplomatic embarrassments.

Fifth, it has become a widespread allegation that states use cyberspace to conduct political interferences such as in interfering the national elections of other states.

Sixth, states need to spend big financial allocations and human resource to train skilled ICT staff and to purchase and install multimedia equipments.

Seventh, on many occasions, states may blame the micro-blogging sites for inciting domestic uprisings.

What is the future of digital diplomacy?

In general, digital diplomacy is useful in managing external relations, managing crises and disasters and managing citizens overseas.

Online disinformation and cyber exposure, however, remain the biggest problem to many nations in the conduct of their foreign relations.

In just a year, for example, in 2015, the WikiLeaks published millions of classified information and documents online that shocked many governments of the world.

Analysts have also predicted that the Third World War (WWlll) will be online or fought on the internet, not by weapons.

In future, big diplomatic missions and staffing may be less important as states only need to improve their multimedia capabilities to manage external relations.

What can international actors do to minimize risks?

The European Union (EU), in fact, has come up with rigid regulations and procedures to overcome the problems created by cyber manipulations.

It is reported that Switzerland is the first country to introduced the Digital Foreign Policy Strategy in its efforts to shape the governance of international digital and cyber technology.

Since 2015 the UN has also been discussing on inter-states behavior in cyberspace and on the need for an international legal framework and procedures on cyberspace.

ASEAN too has a developed a plan to handle cyber-hacking and data breaches and taken steps to cooperate with other countries.

It is also reported that many states are working on procedures, regulations, guidelines, on increasing their national budgets to regulate cyber security and to prevent cyber crimes.

Should digital diplomacy be regulated by law?

International relations have always been greatly affected by multimedia technology and many nations find multimedia technology give them the edge in diplomatic communications.

It is, at this point, still difficult to predict the new forms multimedia communications and its impacts on social life as the technology moves toward the end of the 21^th Century or by the year 2100.

It is strongly believed that digital diplomacy should be subjected to some form of rules and regulations in order to maintain cordial relations among nations of the world.

It is also not yet known whether digital or cyber diplomacy requires amendments to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations – the United Nations law that regulate international diplomacy.

“Digital Diplomacy has its bright and dark aspects.” – The Korea Herald newspaper.

The writer is head of Asia Pacific Risk Consultancy and a former lecturer in international politics at Sultan Idris Education University, Proton City, Malaysia. (Article No: 115). ****