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  Written by:  Roger Croix Webb Public Diplomacy Practitioner, on Leave of Absence from the United States Department of State.* *The views and opinions expressed in this essay are exclusively those of its author and are not in any way meant to reflect the opinions or policies of the US Government. “No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”                                                                                                                        Michel de Montaigne There was a moment in history when the United States was desperate for a friend. The fledgling nation was a year into its war of independence and faced certain defeat [...]

  Written by: Miriam Možgan Former journalist, former Secretary-General of the Bled Strategic Forum, strategic communication advisor, digital diplomat, currently working at the Slovenian Diplomatic Academy.   The digitalisation of diplomacy has been constantly shaped by offline events. From remote working to diplomacy, banking, and online retail, the pandemic has compressed a year’s worth of transformation into months, bringing with it a dramatic shake-up in how people live, where they work, and how they socialise, and in how governments communicate to each other and with their public. We have witnessed diplomats adopting Zoom and Webex technologies, dropping their risk-averse costumes and adopting [...]

Written by: Marina Marković Head of the Public Diplomacy Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia   First of all, I hope that you are all well, that these strange, sometimes even scary times marked by COVID-19 have not been too harsh on you, that you and your close ones are all doing well, and that we shall soon have an opportunity to meet in person to do a proper EDDE (European Digital Diplomacy Exchange … I like all these words, but my favourite one has become exchange, in the sense of a proper, in-person chat—the EDDE has [...]

Written by: Ilija Zhupanoski Digital Communications Advisor to the Prime Minister of North Macedonia   The use of information and communication technologies can be very helpful when it comes to attaining traditional diplomacy goals. The information shared on social media rapidly spreads across the globe, carrying messages, images or videos from one country to attract sympathies of citizens in another country. In the modern world of today, digital communications have allowed governments to significantly increase transparency of their institutions by regularly providing information to citizens and enhanced their openness, maintaining the citizens’ high level of trust in the authorities. The same [...]

Written by: Alex Roitman Moldovan career diplomat, a founding member of the European Digital Diplomacy Board.   Audio-only social media app. My morning started unusually. I was listening to what seemed to be a phone conversation between Russian bloggers (Ilya Varlamov), civil activists, lawyers (Ilya Novikov), and participants all the way from Moscow and Saint Petersburg down to Rostov. They were sharing their thoughts on coronavirus restrictions and vaccination, politics in Russia and worldwide, or weather, as if they are gathered in a room, to which I was also invited, better said, to which I got by mistake. I kept my [...]

Written by: Mykolas Mazolevskis Chief Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Communication and Cultural Diplomacy Department Public Information Division, who is responsible for MFA’s digital communication on different social media platforms.   At the beginning of 2021, when we talk about the year 2020, when we even (dare to) remember the year that passed not so long ago we tend to think about it in a bad way. Well apparently most of us do. We watch video reviews about how the year was the worst in a century or spend an evening sitting on a [...]