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ABSTRACT
Digital diplomacy has become a major topic of international interdisciplinary analysis. Aimed at making an African contribution to knowledge, this article charts the emergence of digital diplomacy and presents evidence of unfolding practices and discussions in the African digital diplomacy sphere. The empirical segment of the article draws on data from 21 virtual sessions on African digital diplomacy, convened between July and August 2020 and involving over 50 African diplomats. Based on open-source software as well as qualitative analysis, the study results show that the risks of digital diplomacy, particularly disinformation and misinformation, are main concerns for modern diplomats. The study offers suggestions for the enhancement of digital diplomacy practices and scholarship, particularly for African governments and civil society, including additional primary research on approaches and uses of digital tools, increased collaboration between academics and practitioners, and the embedding of digital diplomacy in the foreign policy strategies of African states.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Manor, I. The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
2 US Department of State. U.S. Diplomacy and the Telegraph (no date), https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/gp/17334.htm.
3 Marcus Holmes, 2019, Digital Diplomacy, Oxford Bibliographies, https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0258.xml.
4 Brian Hocking and Jan Melissen, Diplomacy in the Digital Age, Clingendael Report (The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, July 2015)
5 Firestone, Foreword, in David Bollier, The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy (Washington DC: The Aspen Institute, 2003).
6 Brian Hocking and Jan Melissen, ‘Diplomacy in the Digital Age, and Ilan Manor, 2019, Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age,’ The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 14 (2019): 83–101.
7 Ilan Manor, The Digitalization of Diplomacy, https://digdipblog.com/2017/03/28/the-digitalization-of-diplomacy/.
8 Jovan Kurbalija, 2015, ‘Different Prefixes, Same Meaning: Cyber, Digital, Net, Online, Virtual, e-, DiploFoundation,’ https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/different-prefixes-same-meaning-cyber-digital-net-online-virtual-e.
9 Bob Wekesa, 2020, ‘Pathways for Theorising African Digital Diplomacy,’ Africa Portal, https://www.africaportal.org/features/pathways-theorising-african-digital-diplomacy/
10 Christopher Walker, ‘What Is Sharp Power?’ Journal of Democracy 29, no 3, July 2018.
11 Zoran Sokić, 2016, Digital Diplomacy – Definition And Challenges, http://digidiplomatija.com/2016/12/04/the-digital-diplomacy-definitions-and-challenges/; Ilan Manor, ‘The Digitalization of Diplomacy: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Terminology,’ DigDiploROx Working Paper No 2 (Jan 2018).
12 Olubukola S. Adesina, ‘Foreign policy in an era of digital diplomacy,’ Cogent Social Sciences (2017), 3.
13 Bob Wekesa, 2020, ‘Pathways for Theorising African Digital Diplomacy,’ Africa Portal, https://www.africaportal.org/features/pathways-theorising-african-digital-diplomacy/
14 Bob Wekesa, 2020, ‘Pathways for Theorising African Digital Diplomacy.’
15 Beatriz Serrano, ‘History of Digital Diplomacy and Main Milestones’, Digital Data, http://diplomacydata.com/history-of-digital-diplomacy-and-main-milestones/.
16 See the section ‘20+ years of e-diplomacy published by the Diplo Foundation at: https://www.diplomacy.edu/e-diplomacy; see also a blog post by Ilan Manor a leading authority in the field at https://digdipblog.com/2019/10/27/increasing-roi-in-digital-diplomacy/.
17 Charles M. Firestone, Foreword, in David Bollier, The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy (Washington DC: The Aspen Institute, 2003).
18 Serrano, ‘History of Digital Diplomacy and Main Milestones.’
19 Internet Society, Undated, African Internet History: Highlights, https://www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/history_internet_africa.pdf.
20 Muriuki Mureithi, ‘The Internet Journey for Kenya: Th e Interplay of Disruptive Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Fuelling Rapid Growth,’ in Bitange Ndemo and Tim Weiss, eds. Digital Kenya: An Entrepreneurial Revolution in the Making (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017).
21 Vanguard, 2010, Internet: 13 years of growth from ground zero in Nigeria from 1960- 1996, https://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/10/internet-13-years-of-growth-from-ground-zero-in-nigeria-from-1960-1996, https://www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/history_internet_africa.pdf.
22 My Broadband, 2014, The History of Internet access in South Africa, https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/114645-the-history-of-internet-access-in-south-africa.html.
23 Michael L. Kent and Maureen Taylor, ‘Building Dialogic Relationships Through the World Wide Web,’ Public Relations Review 24, no. 3 (1998): 321–34.
24 Christopher McFadden, 2020, ‘A Chronological History of Social Media, Interesting Engineering,’ https://interestingengineering.com/a-chronological-history-of-social-media.
25 Manor, The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy.
26 Firestone, Foreword, in David Bollier, The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy (Washington DC: The Aspen Institute, 2003)
27 David Bollier, The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy (Washington DC: The Aspen Institute, 2003).
28 Bollier, The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy (Washington DC: The Aspen Institute, 2003).
29 Richard Grant, ‘The Democratisation of Diplomacy: Negotiating with the Internet,’ Oxford Internet Institute, Research Report No. 5, November 2004.
30 William Dutton, ‘Foreword: The Challenge of E-diplomacy, in Richard Grant, The Democratisation of Diplomacy: Negotiating with the Internet,’ Research Report No. 5, November 2004, Oxford Internet Institute.
31 Said Saddiki, ‘Diplomacy in a Changing World,’ Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations5, no 4, Winter 2006
32 Olesya M Grech, ‘Virtual Diplomacy: Diplomacy of the Digital Age’ (MA Dissertation, University of Malta, 2006).
33 Nicholas Westcott, ‘Digital Diplomacy: The Impact of the Internet on International Relations,’ Research Report 16, July 2008, Oxford Internet Institute
34 Yolanda Kemp Spies, Global South Perspectives on Diplomacy, page 167-168, (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
35 Daryl Copeland, 2009, Virtuality, Diplomacy, and the Foreign Ministry: Does Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Need a “V Tower”? Canadian Foreign Policy
36 Fergus Hanson, 2012, The History of eDiplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-history-of-ediplomacy-at-the-u-s-department-of-state/
37 Marin’e Jacobs, 2013, Ubuntu Radio's 'time is now', https://www.itweb.co.za/content/eDZQ58MVDjOvzXy2
38 Maja Šimunjak and Alessandro Caliandro, ‘Twiplomacy in the age of Donald Trump: Is the diplomatic code changing?’, The Information Society 35, no 1 (2019): 13–25.
39 See examples here https://www.diplomacy.edu/aboutus; https://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/content/oxford-digital-diplomacy-research-group.
40 Yarik Turianskyi, ‘COVID-19: Implications for the 'digital divide' in Africa’, 14 May 2020, Africa Portal: https://www.africaportal.org/features/covid-19-implications-of-the-pandemic-for-the-digital-divide-in-africa/.
41 Terence Corrigan, ‘Africa’s ICT Infrastructure: Its Present and Prospects’, 26 June 2020, SAIIA Policy Briefing No 197, https://saiia.org.za/research/africas-ict-infrastructure-its-present-and-prospects/.
42 Statista, Average duration of electricity outages per year in Africa as of 2018, by select country, https://www.statista.com/statistics/617570/average-monthly-electricity-outage-africa-by-select-country/
43 Presentation by Mr Steven William, US Consulate in Cape Town, on Approaches to developing a digital diplomacy training strategy, 15 July 2020.
44 Ilan Manor, Digital Diplomacy in Africa: A Research Agenda, https://www.uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/digital-diplomacy-africa-research-agenda; Ronit Kampf, Ilan Manor, and Elad Segev, Digital Diplomacy 2.0? A cross-national comparison of public engagement in Facebook and Twitter, Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Volume 10, Issue 4, 2015.
45 Manor, Digital Diplomacy in Africa.
46 Manor, Digital Diplomacy in Africa.
47 Patrick Maluki and Mwangangi Njagi, 2020, Integrating digital media as a diplomacy tool in advancing Kenya’s national interests, https://www.africaportal.org/features/integrating-digital-media-as-a-diplomacy-tool-in-advancing-kenyas-national-interests/.
48 Ellison Shumba, 2020, Twiplomacy in Africa: Possibilities and pitfalls for diplomats, Africa Portal, https://www.africaportal.org/features/twiplomacy-africa-possibilities-and-pitfalls-diplomats/.
49 Olubukola S. Adesina, 2020, The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM): An example of digital diplomacy in practice, https://www.africaportal.org/features/nigerians-diaspora-commission-nidcom-example-digital-diplomacy-practice/.
50 Gustavo De Carvalho, 2020, Africa must unmute its mic as e-diplomacy takes root, https://issafrica.org/iss-today/africa-must-unmute-its-mic-as-e-diplomacy-takes-root.
51 African Union, The Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030), https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/38507-doc-dts-english.pdf.
52 African Union, The Digital Trasformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030), https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/38507-doc-dts-english.pdf.
53 Gustavo De Carvalho, 2020, Africa must unmute its mic as e-diplomacy takes root, https://issafrica.org/iss-today/africa-must-unmute-its-mic-as-e-diplomacy-takes-root.
54 World Economic Forum, 2020, The children’s continent: keeping up with Africa's growth, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/the-children-s-continent/.
55 Sara J Czaja et al, Factors Predicting the Use of Technology: Findings From the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1524856/.
56 Facebook profile of Nana Akufo-Addo, https://www.facebook.com/nakufoaddo/.
57 It is important to note that after the completion of this paper, but before its publication, in June 2021 the government of Nigeria banned the use of Twitter in the country following the social media’s platform decision to delete a Tweet from the country’s president Muhammadu Buhari, which warned the people in south east of Nigeria about a potential repeat of the 1967 civil war.
58 https://twiplomacy.com/ranking/the-50-most-followed-world-leaders-on-twitter/ The number of followers of Twitter was verified by the authors by examining their accounts. Some discrepancies were found with the original source, most likely because the number of followers has increased since the study was originally published. *A special mention needs to be made of Pope Francis' account. According to Twiplomacy, his account has 52 million followers and ranks third globally. However, checking the number of followers on Twitter revelels a much smaller number of followers – 18 million. This would place @Pontifex at 8th position, rather than 3rd.
59 See, African Centre for the Study of the US, 2020, Virtual African Diaspora Conference: Theme: Old and New African Diaspora Networks: Before and After COVID-19, https://www.wits.ac.za/acsus/conference/.
60 Placeholder reference for link to dataset; alternately a note about those interested contacting the authors?
61 A small number of questions were omitted from the data set, as they did not directly relate to digital diplomacy and were not relevant for the focus main aim of this paper, which looks at themes in African digital diplomacy, the areas of interest and the issues that need digital diplomacy strategy and capacity building.
62 Claire Wardle, quoted in Denise-Marie Ordway, 2018, Information disorder: The essential glossary, https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/internet/information-disorder-glossary-fake-news/.
63 Ewan Sutherland, ‘Governance of cybersecurity - The case of South Africa’, in The African Journal of Information and Communication 20 (2017), http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2077-72132017000100005.
64 Nicholas Confessore, ‘Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far’, The New York Times, 4 April 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html.
65 Yarik Turianskyi, ‘Balancing Cyber Security and Internet Freedom In Africa’, South African Institute of International Affairs Occasional Paper No 275, January 2018, https://saiia.org.za/research/balancing-cyber-security-and-internet-freedom-in-africa/.
66 See Manor, Digital Diplomacy in Africa; Manor, The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Yarik Turianskyi
Yarik Turianskyi is the Deputy Programme Head for African Governance and Diplomacy at the South African Institute of International Affairs. He joined the Institute in 2008 after completing a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pretoria, which assessed the African Peer Review Mechanism as a standard for good governance on the continent. While completing his studies Yarik also lectured in Political Science and International Relations. During his time at SAIIA Yarik has authored over 12 research papers, focused on governance, technology and gender, and over 30 opinion articles on various governance themes. He has been to and conducted research in 10 African countries and is the co-editor of a book ‘African Accountability: What Works and What Doesn’t’. Yarik has also been involved at various South African radio stations as both a presenter and correspondent since 2002. You may follow him on twitter: @Yarik_T
Bob Wekesa
Bob Wekesa (PhD) is the ACSUS partnerships, research and communications manager. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nairobi and masters and doctoral degrees from the Communication University of China. His background is in journalism. His area of research is the intersection of media and communications on the one hand and geopolitics, diplomacy and foreign policy on the other. He is specifically focused on public diplomacy. His current research work includes: Africa–US public diplomacy (including diaspora relations); cities as actors in international relations; Africa–US digital diplomacy and the representation of Africa in American media and America in African media. He is also working on the trilateral Africa–US-China engagement.