"Digital diplomacy, that is, the use of digital technologies to carry out diplomatic objectives, is no longer an inchoate field of expertise trying to find its balance in a world challenged and disrupted by the advance of social media technologies. For many Ministries of Foreign Affairs around the world, the policy priority has moved on from creating the necessary infrastructure for conducting digital diplomacy to the more ambitious objective of ‘getting it right'. This effort is necessary not only because MFAs find themselves under growing institutional pressure to demonstrate ‘value for money’, but also because digital competition pushes MFAs to design more effective ways to reach their target audiences. This implies that digital diplomacy cannot flourish in the bureaucratic framework of conventional foreign ministries. It thrives in a work environment that stimulates informal teamwork, creativity, innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. In short, it requires more the institutional atmosphere of an Apple team of software developers than the one of a group of well-polished and well-seasoned lawyers preparing for an international negotiation." 

 

2018 I Corneliu Bjola and Markus Kornprobst