Overcoming the Limitations of Traditional Diplomacy

This chapter examines diplomats’ use of digital technologies to overcome the limitations of traditional diplomacy. As this chapter demonstrates, foreign ministries have sought to employ digital technologies to annihilate time and space, transcend national borders, overcome hostile media landscapes and interact with the populations of enemy nations. Employing Bauman and Lyon’s prism of a society at a distance, this chapter explores the use of virtual embassies by the governments of Sweden, the USA, Israel and Palestine. The chapter also examines how diplomats create global social media campaigns that seek to render space meaningless by interacting with a global constituency. The chapter concludes by arguing that diplomats often fail to realize the potential of virtual embassies as diplomacy has traditionally relied on proximity for gathering information and fostering relationships.