Digital diplomacy – the state of the art (original) (raw)

When Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani held the first direct talks between American and Iranian leaders since the 1979 Islamic revolution, news about the conversation reached the public not through a press report or a TV channel, but through social media, the new information medium of the 21st century. Minutes after the phone call, President Hassan Rouhani sent a series of tweets that signalled a remarkably swift rapprochement between the two countries: 'In phone convo, President #Rouhani and President @BarackObama expressed their mutual political #will to rapidly solve the #nuclear issue' (Pfeiffer 2013). The digital engagement initiated by President Rohani is a fascinating example of the influence that social media increasingly has in managing diplomatic relations. Gone, is the image of the diplomat as a person of secrecy, luxury, exclusivity, and privilege-an image perfectly captured in the rich symbolism of the famous painting "The Ambassadors", created by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1533, at the dawn of modern diplomacy. This picture has now been refreshed, with digital communication technology altering not only the methods of diplomacy, but also its very meaning. By going "digital," the once secretive and exclusive domain of the elite has also gone public, requiring diplomats to regularly look outside their once closed doors, and perhaps more importantly, for the first time, allowing citizens to look in (Bjola and Cassidy 2015, 10).