After being publicly sacked by al Qaeda leader Aymann al-Zawahiri and accidentally beheading a fighter from one of their main allies in Syria, it’s fair to say the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)’s PR campaign has suffered in recent weeks. So, like any half decent group of militant extremists, they obviously want to address this slip. Unfortunately, a traditional media outreach is very difficult for them, given ISIS’s policy of kidnapping journalists. So they've turned, like many before them, to social media.
The Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., opened its doors last week to the city’s digital diplomats for an event where they could brag about their use of social media and pick up some tips. A dozen embassies and international organizations, including the World Bank and European Union delegation, participated in the “Digital Diplomacy Open House” that was held in partnership with the Digital Diplomacy Coalition.
The potentially landmark agreement struck between Iran and world powers over Tehran's nuclear program, after five days of talks in Geneva, was first officially announced on Twitter. It was Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who broke news of the deal on Twitter while quoting his boss.
Back in June, Iran’s presidential elections had a surprise winner: reformer Hassan Rouhani. Western-educated, Rouhani took to Twitter to express his more favorable views of the U.S. He even suggested he was open to a new approach on the nuclear issue. Rouhani’s attitude (and his openness about it on public forums like Twitter) eased US-Iran relations.
When negotiations over the future of Iran’s nuclear program broke down last week, the question of why they did loomed in everyone’s mind. In response, Secretary of State Kerry offered some weak explanation that Iranian negotiators had to get approval from higher ups back at home. Kerry’s comments were a deflection from blaming the French for putting the kibosh on the agreement. Rather than deflecting from the French, Senator John McCain, in a rare move for a conservative Republican, complimented the French for their bravery in stopping the agreement, proclaiming, “Vive la France!”
During the "Public Diplomacy of the Americas" conference hosted by the USC Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars, former Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhán discussed U.S.- Mexico relations, highlighting the importance of increasing the digital component of Mexico's diplomacy to deal with issues such as trade relations, transnational crime, and immigration.
For the past six months, I've been reporting on a documentary, "Where Were You: The Day JFK Died," marking the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination. Simultaneously I've been keeping a close watch on the coverage of the political gridlock, food fight, meltdown—pick your phrase—in Washington between President Obama and his political adversaries.
In 2010, a French Ambassador posted in the Caucasus explained to me proudly that he was one of the first diplomats from the Quai d’Orsay to run a Facebook account. Two years later, the US Ambassador in Moscow, Michael McFaul, astonished the diplomatic community and Russia by engaging directly with the Russian population. With 55,000 followers on Twitter, he embodied the e-diplomacy revolution.