Known as Selfie Diplomacy, the use of social media to manage national images is now routinely practiced by foreign ministries around the world. [...] Through an array of social media profiles, the Polish foreign ministry is attempting to narrate Poland's role in Nazi atrocities during World War II. 

Beyond the self-promoting social media antics of political leaders, digital diplomacy is important because it gives governments the opportunity to reach people they would struggle to reach otherwise, McClory said, whether to attract foreign students, tourists, or to rally people around a cause. "Australia falls down in that they have a smaller diplomatic network compared to the US or UK, Germany or France, they have to work harder to reach those people." 

For about three hours Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian flag was flying high over Russia’s capital city. Protesters fastened a blue-and-yellow banner to the Soviet star atop the spire of one of Moscow’s Stalin-era “Seven Sisters” skyscrapers on the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment about a mile from the Kremlin.