Yung LinWhat ‘digital technology’ and ‘diplomacy’ have in common is that they both entail the nature of delivering information and message. Diplomacy is conceived as the service of processing information and communicating with foreign agents. Digital technology is the tool that makes diplomacy function. Now with the development of the internet, information and communication technology (ICT), the context of diplomacy is challenged in three domains: the environment of diplomacy, sovereignty, and interdependence. What has really changed?
In the environment of diplomacy, the control of information and knowledge has been shifting from diplomats and government officials to a variety of actors such as the individuals and international non-governmental organizations. The sovereignty of a country is in danger in the face of international or regional integration. With ICT bringing in more actors and new diplomatic methods, the extent of interdependence among diplomats, technology providers and technology users increases, which suggests that diplomats are now supposed to engage in all kinds of actors and audiences in the face of a globalised world. More actors involve in diplomacy? The impacts of ICT on diplomacy mainly suggest that it engages an increasing number and varieties of actors in diplomacy. The nature of diplomacy has not changed but simply broadened into varieties such as celebrity diplomacy, public diplomacy, E-diplomacy. It raises the importance of diplomacy and that it is no longer something only the diplomats, government officials and elites are concerned with but also a variety of actors from the individuals to international organisations should take into consideration. China in the era of digital technology With such big population in China and its participation in the worldly affair, China has started investing in the internet infrastructure. As China is sensitive to its image to foreign countries, it emphasizes on public diplomacy notably the institute of Confucius, the traditional acupuncture and Chinese cuisine in order to build up the China image. The instrument of conducting such diplomacy is particularly the media and the internet. As the media used to be delivering information from outside of the country to domestic society, nowadays China focuses more on international medial; for example, Chinese diplomats will refer to the foreign press. Many Chinese websites are rising dramatically to absorb international audiences as they serve the purpose of Chinese public diplomacy. The notable example of China conducting public diplomacy is probably the 2008 Olympic Game in Beijing. China built up its national identity and present it to the world through the media. It is considered a great display of its rising power. In this case, diplomacy as representation and communication shows its indispensable significance in the era of digital technology. Internet facilitates communication? Although the world is becoming more and more globalised by the invention and ubiquity of the internet, it only increases the speed, intensity and density of information and communication but diplomacy as communication has not faded. The internet only makes it visible an event but does not make happen an event. Namely, the internet is not a factor that makes communication happen but only makes communication faster and more intense. Digital technology attaches more importance? As seen in the case of China, diplomacy as communication did not disappear but enhances its importance because the development of digital technology enlarges the importance of communication to more and more people. As the impact of ICT on diplomacy is mainly bringing in more actors from individuals to the international organisations, diplomacy is arguably more and more important nowadays to everyone since ICT has engaged more and more actors in this international system.
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