As Australian digital diplomacy strives to catch up to rest of the world, these monthly links highlight the most creative and effective ways countries are leveraging the internet for foreign policy gain.
- A fantastic blog post by @Lorey explaining how the UK's UN mission used Twitter (and hashtag #NextSG) to bring the public into the room while Secretary-General candidates were questioned. Note the UK came no.1 in this digital diplomacy ranking. (h/t @mattpdmorris)
- Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Mankowski is the latest contributor to the Australian Army's blog debate about strategic deterrence.
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister answered questions on NATO cooperation, countering Russian aggression and EU relations in this reddit session.
- Israel has serious digital diplomacy clout but admits to struggling with engaging the Arab world online.
- Anne-Marie Slaughter argues it is connections and influence over digital flows that make a country powerful today, not armies.
- Plenty of lessons in this post on the genius of House of Cards' Frank Underwood's (#FU2016) campaign.
- Canadian Ambassador @BenRowswell outlines his department’s experiments with BuzzFeed, live video app Periscope, online advocacy campaigns and open-source analysis.
- Online engagement remains the Achilles heel of diplomatic institutions, so here's advice on how ministries can move beyond an obsession with social media and experiment with a broader range of tech and online tools.
- The US State Department hopes its new SoundCloud podcast Meet the Ambassadors will help it move past perceptions of diplomats portrayed in film and TV.
- Pope Francis has become a serious foreign policy player; he is now also on Instagram.
- This important statement by Ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely (context here) might be the most re-tweeted tweet (766) by an Australian public servant.
- Former Hillary Clinton advisor Alec Ross discusses messy online spaces, Russia’s propaganda arm and the pain of the departmental clearance process in this Khan Academy tutorial: