President Obama’s newly installed defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, toured Silicon Valley last week to announce a new military strategy for computer conflict, starting the latest Pentagon effort to invest in promising start-ups and to meet with engineers whose talent he declared the Pentagon desperately needed in fending off the nation’s adversaries.

Australia's approach to digital diplomacy is second-rate and entirely inadequate for a nation that sees itself as 'a top 20 country'. Despite an expanded social media presence, Australia continues to lag far behind other countries – large and small – that are investing serious resources into building up their digital diplomacy capabilities.

Taylor Owen says he sees the theme of this year’s conference, “Media and Foreign Policy in the Digital Age” as a unique opportunity to prove his theory that many states try to misuse digital freedom for their own purposes. “Digital diplomacy presents a challenge for the nation state,” he says. He adds that the same governments that are seeking to enable free speech in other countries are at the same time rapidly expanding the surveillance state.

After a decade of swimming against the tide, the Australian Government is slowly engaging in the world of digital diplomacy. (...) Today, digital diplomacy is a foreign policy essential. We live in a world where state and non-state entities all compete for influence and power in the same online space. 

The #BringBackOurGirls movement picked up momentum before ultimately fading from the international spotlight amidst criticism it was nothing more than "hashtag diplomacy." Indeed, most of the captured girls remain in the Islamic terror group's clutches.