In the Digital Training Camp: Taking traditional diplomacy into the digital age

Abstract

Social media have permanently changed the area of foreign policy: transparency in political activity, interaction rather than mere information, and communication on an equal footing are but a few of the implications for a reconfiguration of international relations. Governmental actors are responding to these changes in the digital world. Thus, states such as the USA, Great Britain and Sweden have already defined communication via social networks as one of the core tasks of their foreign policy. They use cyberspace as a medium for conducting virtual diplomacy - and in this way, they try to bring their foreign policy into line with the changes in media.