Digital Diplomacy Analysis

In the beginning of this essay, we should mention diplomacy as concept which has role in the world development. Nowadays, one of the famous definitions is made by Hedley Bull. He argues that diplomacy can be defined as “the conduct of relations between states and other entities with standing in world politics by official agents and by peaceful means” [Bull. 1997:156]. On the other hand we have Watson’s concept of diplomacy as process of negotiation between political entities which acknowledge each of other’s independence [Watson. 1984:33]. However, through those two concepts we can understand that the main role of diplomacy is to maintain international order and to maintain the change of the society. With the widening of the studies, different

As Sabrina Sotiriu summarize, “the main debate around digital diplomacy has boiled down to issues of change versus continuity with respect to the traditional forms of conducting diplomatic relations, whether bilateral, trilateral, or multilateral” [Bjola,C. & Holmes, M. 2015:37]. On the one hand of the barricade is Alec Ross, who accepts that digital diplomacy should, and is meant to, complement, not replace, the traditional practices of diplomacy. His vision is that twenty-first century is an era for using the technologies, the networks and the demographics to advance foreign policy goals and that digital diplomacy is the main statecraft of this time . Another point of his view towards digital diplomacy is that the nature of how diplomacy can be performed with changed power structures and new technological tools. It won’t replace traditional diplomacy, but will give new set of tool. Furthermore, Ross argues that in future digital diplomacy will be considered just as diplomacy and nothing more and that the shift towards digital tools will prevail and the whole government communication and international relations will be based on them. On the other hand we have one of the loudest skeptics of digital diplomacy- Evgheni Morozov. He argues that technological developments cannot and would not be able to succeed in opening up the world where off line/traditional

After the 9/11 attack the first Taskforce on eDiplomacy was established in 2002 under Secretary Colin Powell. In 2003, the task force was reorganized into the Office of eDiplomacy. The main programs of the State Department are Dilopedia, Communities @ State, State's OpenNet network, The Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) program and other, which work for the digital development of the state institutions. Another important role into the implementation of this diplomacy into the government is UK. The country established Office of Digital Diplomacy in its Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Since then the office has developed different digital strategies which are used as an example. More and more countries start to use different digital tool to develop their international relations. One of the most developed policies towards this tendency is