Digital Diplomacy and Non-Governmental and Transnational Organizations

Abstract

Abstract This chapter considers how digital diplomacy is being reworked by three kinds of ‘new’ diplomatic actors: non-governmental organizations (NGOs), transnational advocacy networks (TANs), and diaspora organizations. In doing so, the chapter advances the following four arguments. First, the digitalization of diplomacy is inextricably tied to the pluralization of diplomacy, such that digital technologies have facilitated an expansion in the number of non-state actors operating at a global level and offer new opportunities for the forging of polylateral diplomatic relationships. Second, without the same codes of conduct to adhere to as state diplomats, these actors are often more flexible, creative, and innovative in their use of digital technologies and must therefore be taken seriously as pioneers in digital diplomacy. Third, the digital diplomatic sphere is also increasingly riven with hierarchies and inequalities. Non-governmental and transnational organizations face significant cybersecurity risks and reduced access to digital connectivity, technology, and support. Thus, the shift to online modes of diplomacy should not be celebrated uncritically. Fourth, focusing on non-state actors requires alternative conceptual lenses to those currently employed in scholarship on digital diplomacy. In particular, scholarship from digital geography which advocates for the use of a spatial lens, in addition to theoretical approaches which are attentive to everyday performances and encounters, are well-placed to analyse how non-governmental and transnational organizations navigate both the challenges and opportunities of digital diplomacy.