Virtual diplomacy : diplomacy of the digital age

Abstract

A century and u half ago, wind powered sailing vessels served as the means for diplomatic communication, to be later followed by steamships. Communication evolved into the use of telegraph, telephone, and air mail for the transmission of diplomatic messages. Nowadays the great nwoh1tion of the computer and the World Wide Web has signified that modern diplomats have electronic mail and the Internet as substitutes at their disposal. Advanced communications are bringing over big changes in the world of diplomacy. Diplomacy is gradually being reinvented for the information age (Martin, Todd, 2001). Through available technology many things which once required a physical presence are now becoming possible to exist in a virtual fashion. Diplomacy is not an exception. The goal of my research and hence this report is to investigate the impact of information and communication technologies on the conduct of modern diplomacy. Traditional methods of diplomacy are being substituted by new ones, greatly influenced by the Internet. I will discuss such methods, thus defining virtual diplomacy and the world of around it.