Digital Celebrity Diplomacy in the UN Security Council Elections: Canada, Ireland and Kenya

Abstract

The 2020 UN Security Council (SC) elections concluded during a historical period defined by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As officials scrambled to organise a socially distanced election, the final stage of the campaigns was forced into the digital realm. To bolster candidate states’ chances of being elected to the SC, digital diplomacy became the primary mode of communication. Here we focus on the SC campaigns of Canada, Ireland and Kenya, which were defined by ‘digital celebrity diplomacy’. U2 and Celine Dion supported the national campaigns of Ireland and Canada, while Kenya drew on the recognition of a number of celebrity athletes to bolster its campaign’s national brand. Thus, we explore the convergence of celebrity and digital diplomacy in these SC campaigns, contributing to new understandings of the use of celebrity in transforming the projection and reception of strategic narratives when integrated with digital diplomacy during the global COVID-19 pandemic.