During a recent digital panel discussion among diplomats in Washington, D.C., the word “emojis” came up and perplexed the audience. Emojis are combinations of keyboard characters that form various pictorial representations of mood. Popularly used today by young Technorati, they are indicative of digital culture or “digiculture” around the globe. But whether one speaks of the ubiquitous emoji or the rise of mobile messaging apps or emerging wearable technology, we are only at the beginning of a rapidly changing communication dynamic that says as much about technology as it does about the attitudes and behavior with which it interacts. A very real challenge for most diplomats in 2014 will be to keep abreast of digital behavior and to forecast trends in order to use them more effectively.
Digital behavior, trends, and opportunities can raise awareness of particular issues in a country. This extends well beyond, for example, simply posting a few tweets as a form of diplomacy. According to Ambassador Rudolf Bekink of the Embassy of the Netherlands, “the digital arena opens new possibilities, from one-on-one conversations to dialogues with communities.” Traditional diplomacy is still relevant, he says, “but digital diplomacy adds enormously to the capabilities of every diplomat.” Bekink points out that “one challenge in this field is choosing the appropriate technological platform that allows you to reach your target audience. We should not be engaging in a one-size-fits-all strategy, but customizing digital diplomacy to our specific needs.”
For some diplomats, digital outreach is made problematic by technology regulations themselves. Technological change and ideological shifts alter the need for certain types of regulations and create demand for others. For example, the wearable technology industry is projected to grow by 1,200 percent to US$19 billion by 2018, according to PC World, and is sure to engender new regulations.
Diplomacy must better anticipate these regulations and play a role in shaping them in accordance with the norms and sensibilities that young users value. Technology moves at a rapid pace, and those who try to regulate it in hindsight, out of fear or in an attempt to preserve old economic structures, often clash with innovation and social change. A prime example of this phenomenon is the globalization of peer-to-peer connectivity, which rallied voices from various quarters to sideline the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) as well as related legislation in Europe.
Diplomats are increasingly turning to consultants to help them navigate digital culture and forecast its trends. Ann Brown, one such consultant, says that “it is absolutely key to understand micro- and macro-linkages that shape decision-making.”
“Today’s busy diplomat or policy-maker,” she says, needs “up-to-the-second or forecast information from experts directly involved in this new area in order to excel.”
Ambassador Kurt Volker, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, says that “in every other aspect of our lives, we are using technology to gain access to more information, speed up our activities, and extend our reach and effectiveness.” Diplomacy, he says, should take note. “Ambassadors and diplomats need to think of technology not merely as tweeting feel-good photos, but as an essential tool for accomplishing their core mission in a technology-driven era.” The challenge will be to deepen and enrich such work, making full use of emerging tools to support those in the global diplomatic arena.
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