Pub Date : 2023-08-21DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10174
F. Bicchi, Marianna Lovato
The article analyses how and to what effect diplomats navigate a landscape in which the physical and the digital have become inextricably intertwined, with emphasis on written communications in the European Union (EU) foreign policy system from the 1970s to the present. Putting International Relations literature into dialogue with Management Studies (particularly media richness theory and sense-making), it looks at how diplomats work their way through different forms of digital written communications. It addresses the effects of diplomacy’s digitalisation in terms of time, space and confidentiality. Digital tools have hastened diplomacy’s tempo and affected security considerations, while they have had mixed effects in terms of centre–periphery relations in diplomatic conversations, particularly for gender and wealth. The EU foreign policy system exemplifies these dynamics, from the spectacular rise of the COREU system to its decline in favour of faster, easier-to-use technologies such as e-mail and texting.
{"title":"Diplomats as Skilful Bricoleurs of the Digital Age: EU Foreign Policy Communications from the COREU to WhatsApp","authors":"F. Bicchi, Marianna Lovato","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10174","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The article analyses how and to what effect diplomats navigate a landscape in which the physical and the digital have become inextricably intertwined, with emphasis on written communications in the European Union (EU) foreign policy system from the 1970s to the present. Putting International Relations literature into dialogue with Management Studies (particularly media richness theory and sense-making), it looks at how diplomats work their way through different forms of digital written communications. It addresses the effects of diplomacy’s digitalisation in terms of time, space and confidentiality. Digital tools have hastened diplomacy’s tempo and affected security considerations, while they have had mixed effects in terms of centre–periphery relations in diplomatic conversations, particularly for gender and wealth. The EU foreign policy system exemplifies these dynamics, from the spectacular rise of the COREU system to its decline in favour of faster, easier-to-use technologies such as e-mail and texting.","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44548353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-03DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10173
I. Manor
Studies examining the digital disruption of diplomacy focus on the micro level of diplomats’ working routines. This article investigates the new practice of ‘domestic digital diplomacy’ to explore interactions between micro- and macro-level disruptions. The practice of domestic digital diplomacy stems from the digital disruption of government ministries that embrace an outward-looking stance. Domestic digital diplomacy also impacts society as diplomats create a prism through which citizens can make sense of their world. Few studies have investigated how ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) create such a domestic prism. This study addresses this gap by analysing the images shared on Twitter by the British Foreign Office following Brexit. Using Barthes’s semiotic approach to image analysis, this study demonstrates that MFAs can use images to shape their citizens’ worldviews, values and beliefs. The study concludes that investigating digital disruption in diplomacy requires that scholars focus on interactions between micro- and macro-level disruptions.
{"title":"Domestic Digital Diplomacy: Digital Disruption at the Macro and Micro Levels","authors":"I. Manor","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10173","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Studies examining the digital disruption of diplomacy focus on the micro level of diplomats’ working routines. This article investigates the new practice of ‘domestic digital diplomacy’ to explore interactions between micro- and macro-level disruptions. The practice of domestic digital diplomacy stems from the digital disruption of government ministries that embrace an outward-looking stance. Domestic digital diplomacy also impacts society as diplomats create a prism through which citizens can make sense of their world. Few studies have investigated how ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) create such a domestic prism. This study addresses this gap by analysing the images shared on Twitter by the British Foreign Office following Brexit. Using Barthes’s semiotic approach to image analysis, this study demonstrates that MFAs can use images to shape their citizens’ worldviews, values and beliefs. The study concludes that investigating digital disruption in diplomacy requires that scholars focus on interactions between micro- and macro-level disruptions.","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45108732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-05DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10171
Ausra Park
Since 1991 women have broken many political ‘glass ceilings’ in Lithuania by getting elected to the presidency, the prime ministership and several ‘power’ ministries. The number of women diplomats has also steadily increased, reaching solid representation in the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (LMFA). However, women are still markedly underrepresented at the ambassadorial level and the LMFA’s upper ranks. Using historical and feminist institutionalisms this article first examines the LMFA’s gendered origins. Then, drawing on a newly collected ambassadorial dataset and empirical analysis, it presents the most comprehensive socio-demographic profiling of Lithuanian ambassadors to reveal the extent of diversity and women’s representation in Lithuania’s foreign service. Through empirical mapping and application of a gender in diplomacy theoretical approach, it identifies where women (and men) are located in the country’s diplomacy and compare — for confirmation or refutation — observed patterns in Lithuania’s ambassadorial appointments against those discerned globally.
{"title":"Diversity and Women’s Representation in Small States’ Diplomacy: A Case Study of Lithuania","authors":"Ausra Park","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10171","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Since 1991 women have broken many political ‘glass ceilings’ in Lithuania by getting elected to the presidency, the prime ministership and several ‘power’ ministries. The number of women diplomats has also steadily increased, reaching solid representation in the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (LMFA). However, women are still markedly underrepresented at the ambassadorial level and the LMFA’s upper ranks. Using historical and feminist institutionalisms this article first examines the LMFA’s gendered origins. Then, drawing on a newly collected ambassadorial dataset and empirical analysis, it presents the most comprehensive socio-demographic profiling of Lithuanian ambassadors to reveal the extent of diversity and women’s representation in Lithuania’s foreign service. Through empirical mapping and application of a gender in diplomacy theoretical approach, it identifies where women (and men) are located in the country’s diplomacy and compare — for confirmation or refutation — observed patterns in Lithuania’s ambassadorial appointments against those discerned globally.","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47714443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-05DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10172
Nguyen Ngoc Thao Le
{"title":"Public Diplomacy in Vietnam: National Interests and Identities in the Public Sphere, written by Vu Lam","authors":"Nguyen Ngoc Thao Le","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10172","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46678787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-31DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10169
Ibrahim Murat Kara
{"title":"Chinese Soft Power, written by Maria Repnikova","authors":"Ibrahim Murat Kara","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10169","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46074452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-31DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10170
Tamás Peragovics
{"title":"Representation, Recognition and Respect in World Politics. The Case of US-Iran Relations, written by Constance Duncombe","authors":"Tamás Peragovics","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10170","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46871675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-23DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10168
Annika Bergman Rosamond, K. Wright
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.
{"title":"Digital Celebrity Diplomacy in the UN Security Council Elections: Canada, Ireland and Kenya","authors":"Annika Bergman Rosamond, K. Wright","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10168","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The 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.","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41805160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10158
Karin Aggestam, Elsa Hedling
This article focuses on the quest for digitalisation in peace mediation and to the extent to which digital disruption is reshaping its practices. While digitalisation in the wider field of diplomacy has seen dramatic changes in its practices, peace mediation is a ‘latecomer’. The article explores the constitutive effects on specific norms and practices of peace mediation and identifies opportunities as well as the restraining and even counterproductive effects of digitalisation. Digital technologies, tools and social media platforms are mapped to assess their roles and impact on key practices and to critically analyse the digitalisation of peace mediation. Moreover, a content analysis of international strategic policy documents and central frameworks relevant for international peacebuilding operations is conducted, which shows that digitalisation has taken place gradually and cautiously. Since there are few theoretical and empirical studies on the digitalisation of peace mediation, the article concludes by suggesting three directions to be taken in future research.
{"title":"Digital Disruption and Rethinking the ‘Script’ of Peace Mediation","authors":"Karin Aggestam, Elsa Hedling","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10158","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article focuses on the quest for digitalisation in peace mediation and to the extent to which digital disruption is reshaping its practices. While digitalisation in the wider field of diplomacy has seen dramatic changes in its practices, peace mediation is a ‘latecomer’. The article explores the constitutive effects on specific norms and practices of peace mediation and identifies opportunities as well as the restraining and even counterproductive effects of digitalisation. Digital technologies, tools and social media platforms are mapped to assess their roles and impact on key practices and to critically analyse the digitalisation of peace mediation. Moreover, a content analysis of international strategic policy documents and central frameworks relevant for international peacebuilding operations is conducted, which shows that digitalisation has taken place gradually and cautiously. Since there are few theoretical and empirical studies on the digitalisation of peace mediation, the article concludes by suggesting three directions to be taken in future research.","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45991439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-18040001
Danielle Wolff
{"title":"Russia’s Cultural Statecraft, edited by Tuomas Forsberg and Sirke Mäkinen","authors":"Danielle Wolff","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-18040001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-18040001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43283922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-10DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10166
Cheng Yeung Yang
{"title":"China’s Cultural Diplomacy: A Great Leap Outward?, written by Xin Liu","authors":"Cheng Yeung Yang","doi":"10.1163/1871191x-bja10166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-bja10166","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44787,"journal":{"name":"Hague Journal of Diplomacy","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46238419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}