The Road to Diplomacy 3.0

Technology is changing the way world leaders, governments, and diplomats engage with their citizens and the world. Noted author and diplomat, Andreas Sandre discussed his work and latest book Digital Diplomacy: Conversations on Innovation in Foreign Policy.

About Andreas Sandre

Andreas Sandre is a Press and Public Affairs Officer at the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC, where he focuses on public and digital diplomacy. He was previously at the Italian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, as a Public Affairs Officer for the Italian Delegation to the UN Security Council (2005-2008). Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy, Andreas was a journalist and public relations specialist.

He is the author of two books on digital diplomacy: Twitter for Diplomats, published in February 2013 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DiploFoundation; and Digital Diplomacy: Conversations on Innovation in Foreign Policy released in January 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield. His second book is the first to analyze the role of technology and innovation in diplomacy, with a focus on the challenges ahead. It is a collection of interviews with experts and leaders, including Hillary Clinton’s former Advisor Alec Ross, Joi Ito of the MIT Media Lab, Anne-Marie Slaughter of the New America Foundation, BBC author and journalist Kim Ghattas, Mexico’s former Ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, and many others. 

Andreas has contributed articles on foreign policy and digital diplomacy to numerous publications, including the Huffington Post, the London School of Economics’ Global Policy Journal, DiploFoundation, and BigThink. He's often part of panels and conferences on digital communications, most recently TEDxStockholm 2014, the Washington Diplomats’s 2014 Country Promotion Strategies Conference, Berlin’s 2014 International Conference on Political Communications, and the Diplomatic Courier +SocialGood conference on the Future of Diplomacy. 

Andreas is the recipient of the 2012 Innovation Prize by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a finalist at the 2013 eGov awards.