Diplomacy is evolving, rapidly adapting to a world in which real time communication is faster than ever and the “rules of engagement” are not limited only to foreign policy and military strategy, but also to social media and public diplomacy. It is a different kind of engagement, a veritable framework to provide the conditions necessary for ambassadors and diplomats to open and nurture a true dialogue with their publics, both at home and abroad.

Cape Town Tourism's Facebook campaign, Send Your Facebook Profile to Cape Town, has won a Cannes Lions Gold Award for Cape Town Tourism's advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather. The prize was awarded in the Branded Content Category (Best Use or Integration of Digital or Social Media) making them one of only two 2013 Gold Award winners from South Africa.

The State Department’s social media presence vastly dwarfs that of other countries using internet-based tools for public diplomacy efforts, according to a new report by a Canadian think tank.

The term “engagement” is a floating signifier; its meaning is typically embedded in the context of the articulation – who is saying it, in what venue, to serve a particular argument claim, etc. It’s a form of jargon that informs practice, and helps to rationalize acts of public diplomacy into the larger strategic language for U.S. diplomacy.

A Google representative from the company's global headquarters has discussed the decision to use "Palestine," not "Palestinian Territories," across the tech giant's products. At the Knesset committee meeting Wednesday, the Israelis didn't get very far in their attempts to change the American's mind.

Canada now faces this danger. When it comes to using social media for diplomacy, Canada is lagging far behind its closest allies. In a report for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, released Thursday, I compare Canada’s digital diplomacy to that of the U.S. and U.K. The results are striking.

Digital Diplomacy is a topic that, for most people, conjures up images of embassies conversing with foreign governments and broadcasting information, messages and well -- propaganda -- to impact foreign policy goals.

“Communications technology has dramatically democratized the process of gaining a public audience,” said journalist and former military analyst Joshua Foust at a Washington forum on digital diplomacy.