United States cyber-diplomacy

Cyber-diplomacy is the evolution of public diplomacy to include and use the new platforms of communication in the 21st century. As explained by Jan Melissen in The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, cyber-diplomacy “links the impact of innovations in communication and information technology to diplomacy.” Cyber-diplomacy is also known as or is part of public diplomacy 2.0, EDiplomacy, and virtual diplomacy. Cyber-diplomacy has as its underpinnings that, “it recognizes that new communication technologies offer new opportunities to interact with a wider public by adopting a network approach and making the most of an increasingly multicentric global, interdependent system.”

U.S. cyber-diplomacy is led by the United States Department of State and is a new tool in fulfilling the U.S. public diplomacy mission. As stated by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, the mission of American public diplomacy “is to support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world.” Even though the United States had engaged in cyber-diplomacy under President George W. Bush in 2006, the United States officially launched its cyber-diplomacy campaign in 2009. The development of cyber-diplomacy by the United States is a response to the shifts in international relations by extending the reach of U.S diplomacy beyond government-to-government communications. The U.S. is adapting its statecraft by reshaping its diplomatic agendas to meet old challenges in new ways and by utilizing America’s innovation. Cyber-Diplomacy as identified by the United States Department of State, “encompasses a wide range of U.S. interests in cyberspace. These include not only cyber security and Internet freedom, but also Internet governance, military uses of the Internet, innovation and economic growth. Cyberspace has also become a foreign policy issue in multilateral fora, in our bilateral relationships, and in our relationships with industry and civil society.”

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Wikipedia