Estonia has carved out a niche as a startup hub and a friendly environment for foreign businesses. Its biggest innovation, however, lies in e-government. Citizens of this tiny Baltic nation can conduct almost every encounter with the state online. [...] These achievements have made e-government a potent source of soft power for Estonia.

Technology will transform how we meet our needs for peace, dignity and community. This will shatter the global political equilibrium, and shift power away from governments towards individuals. States, ideas and industries will go out of business. Inequality could grow. [...] For the first time, technology gives the prospect of the world’s population having an instant, global and unfiltered means of communicating, of consuming information, of forming opinions, preferences and communities.

Two unprecedented events this week shook one of the wealthiest regions on earth to its core. It underscores the urgency for diplomacy and a global engagement suited to the 21st century. They also emphasize the need to end egotistic "140-word" foreign policy strategies and bullying of nations. [...]  In what’s becoming a new norm in diplomatic exchanges, however, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Bin Mohammad Gargash, “tweeted” that "Qatar’s seeking protection from two non-Arab states 'Turkey and Iran' is tragic and comical."

The day before President Trump met with Pope Francis, Cardinal Peter Turkson juxtaposed the president’s speech in Saudi Arabia with what the Pope said in Egypt. Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “Pope Francis & Pres Trump reach out to Islam-world to exorcise it of [religious violence]. One offers peace of dialogue, the other security of arms.” [...] Yet the Ghanaian cardinal, Francis’ chief “minister” for matters of peace, suggesting that the “peace of dialogue” is the path to be preferred over the “security of arms.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the top followed leader on Facebook globally. According to data shared exclusively by the social networking giant with ET, Modi's Facebook Page has more followers than Donald Trump and his official page -PMO India -ranks third followed by Modi page's personal page and President Trump. The data also shows that Digital India, Make in India and Swachh Bharat are the most engaged campaigns that have been run by the government.

The digital ambassador, who will lead the Danish foreign policy initiative dubbed ‘tech diplomacy’, was named on Friday as Casper Klynge, the current Danish ambassador to Indonesia.The digital ambassador will be based in Silicon Valley, California, but will have a global mandate to promote the tech agenda internationally and is therefore expected to frequently visit global technology hubs as well as engage actively with stakeholders in Denmark, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with experts from the Center for Digital Society Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), held a joint study on the future of digital diplomacy for Indonesia. More than 30 experts in diplomacy and information communication technology, as well as 100 observers, consultants, academics, and foreign diplomats, participated in the Experts Meeting on Diplomacy, which was held in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM, Wednesday.