German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

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Digital Transformation Lab (DigiTraL): Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft

  • The Digital Transformation Lab (DigiTraL) is funded by the Federal Foreign Office. Its first phase “Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft” focuses on how digitalisation offers new opportunities, challenges, and instruments for foreign policy. It will identify the options and (security) threats of digitalisation to develop timely responses of (digital) diplomacy.
    FFO, 2021-2024

    Cooperation Partners

    Guest Fellows

    Dr. Torsten Kathke

    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

    Working on “Social Media and Politics”

    Ravi Nayyar

    University of Sydney

    Working on “Software Security Standards: The Core of the Quad (Cybersecurity Partnership)”

    Ass. Prof. Dr. Cecilia Emma Sottilotta

    University for Foreigners of Perugia

    Working on "EU digital diplomacy and the Global South"

    Dr. Melisa Deciancio

    Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Argentina

    Working on "Peripheral Countries’ International Insertion in a Changing Global Order: Digital Diplomacy in Argentinian Foreign Policy”

    Working Papers and Policy Briefs

    Protocols and Platforms: Historicizing the Ideologies of Social Media

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Working Paper | 11/2023

    Protocols and Platforms: Historicizing the Ideologies of Social Media

    This paper explores precepts and ideologies of the internet generally, and social media companies in particular. It investigates suggestions to return to protocols rather than platforms and explicates that this is too simplistic as general policy. The paper historicizes the way we speak about the internet and seemingly neutral conceptions of freedom and free speech.

    Dr. Torsten Kathke

    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

    Utopian Roots and Hybrid Futures: The Ideology and Governance of Social Media Platforms

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Policy Brief | 11/2023

    Utopian Roots and Hybrid Futures: The Ideology and Governance of Social Media Platforms

    Any discourse regarding the use by government officials, governance, or regulation of the internet in general, and social media in particular, must take ideology into account. Policymakers and stakeholders should question in which ways it is compatible with core democratic principles, especially free speech and minority rights.

    Dr. Torsten Kathke

    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

    Digital Diplomacy and African Countries: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Prospects

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Policy Brief | 01/2024

    Digital Diplomacy and African Countries: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Prospects

    International relations have changed as a result of the intersection of diplomacy and digital tools. This paper examines the embrace of digital diplomacy by African countries. The integration of digital tools in diplomatic practices offers African countries an array of opportunities to enhance their international engagement.

    Prof. Dr. Olubukola S. Adesina

    University of Ibadan

    Logo of the research project "Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft"

    Head

    Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar

    Former President

    Prof. Dr. Christian von Soest

    Lead Research Fellow / Head of Research Programme "Peace and Security"

    Prof. Dr. Jann Lay

    Lead Research Fellow / Head of Research Programme "Globalisation and Development"

    Logo of the Federal Foreign Office

    Research Questions

    Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming societies worldwide. The Global South is a taker and important shaper in this change. The project analyses drivers and consequences of digitalization across the world regions and delivers useful impulses for German foreign policy.

    The project will serve as a resource for researchers to better understand the connections and implications of global digitalisation, and for diplomats and practitioners to handle and shape these transformations effectively. It will investigate both the challenges and opportunities that emerge from two trends.

    On the one hand, digital platforms are facilitating the emergence of a bigger set of actors with amplified voice. This “flattening” effect of digitalisation complicates the process of foreign policy making and diplomacy and its implementation for all states. On the other hand, interdependence gets weaponised and some states emerge as hubs of information networks, power imbalances between states increase.

    “Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft” will analyse the implications of fragmentation of the global digital space in an era of increasing decoupling and growing nationalism. It will study the possibilities of reforming and updating multilateralism to work in a digital age. In doing so, it will explore current debates on connectivity, data protection, digital interference, and governance.

    Contribution to International Research

    Digitalisation and new technologies bring the potential of major power shifts with them. German foreign policy has an interest in making partnership-based offers of cooperation on digitalisation to countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. A digitally sovereign Germany will be able to foster exchange and build global partnerships. Diplomacy with its world-spanning apparatus could become an access point to an overlooked and unused potential. This could help in the promotion of values that Germany and Europe stand for. Collaboration and impactfully steering the debate will no longer be possible without strongholds in and influence on the digital space.

    As digitalisation is a global phenomenon, it needs multilateral regulation, and it needs to take into account actors from around the world. However, the actions of countries, companies, and citizens from the Global South have hitherto been a blind spot for most analyses on the topic. The GIGA, with its long-standing expertise in these regions and on global issues, seeks to correct the existing imbalance. The project can contribute to advancing standard-setting debates and to developing ways for adequately regulating the informational space at the global level. It is one of our central aims to help raise awareness of various countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East as possible partners and shapers of digitalisation, and explore ideas for successful cooperation amidst intense global competition.

    Research Design and Methods

    The project maps existing academic and policy debates in this area, and also explores the approaches taken by different countries and stakeholders to harness digitalization. It seeks to build a network of scholars, policy-makers and non-state actors from the Global South in this area. The project is deliberately conceptualized as a multi-disciplinary and multi-method one.

    Project Publications

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Policy Brief | 01/2024

    Digital Diplomacy and African Countries: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Prospects

    International relations have changed as a result of the intersection of diplomacy and digital tools. This paper examines the embrace of digital diplomacy by African countries. The integration of digital tools in diplomatic practices offers African countries an array of opportunities to enhance their international engagement.

    Prof. Dr. Olubukola S. Adesina

    University of Ibadan

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Working Paper | 11/2023

    Protocols and Platforms: Historicizing the Ideologies of Social Media

    This paper explores precepts and ideologies of the internet generally, and social media companies in particular. It investigates suggestions to return to protocols rather than platforms and explicates that this is too simplistic as general policy. The paper historicizes the way we speak about the internet and seemingly neutral conceptions of freedom and free speech.

    Dr. Torsten Kathke

    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Policy Brief | 11/2023

    Utopian Roots and Hybrid Futures: The Ideology and Governance of Social Media Platforms

    Any discourse regarding the use by government officials, governance, or regulation of the internet in general, and social media in particular, must take ideology into account. Policymakers and stakeholders should question in which ways it is compatible with core democratic principles, especially free speech and minority rights.

    Dr. Torsten Kathke

    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Working Paper | 09/2023

    A “Battle for Hearts and Minds”?: EU Digital Diplomacy towards the Global South

    Based on the literature, official documents and collected via expert interviews with EU officials, this study delves into the state of EU digital diplomacy towards the Global South, problematizing key concepts and categories, exploring the role of actors, audiences and messages, and providing policy recommendations.

    Ass. Prof. Dr. Cecilia Emma Sottilotta

    University for Foreigners of Perugia

    Digital Diplomacy and Statecraft Policy Brief | 09/2023

    EU Digital Diplomacy and the Global South

    Digital diplomacy defined as an extension of traditional public diplomacy, i.e. the use of social media to achieve diplomatic goals has become a key channel for the EU to engage with foreign audiences and promote its soft power. The EU has intensified its digital diplomacy efforts directed at fighting disinformation and winning over countries in the Global South.

    Ass. Prof. Dr. Cecilia Emma Sottilotta

    University for Foreigners of Perugia

    Related Content

    Exploring Avenues for (Enhanced) Collaborations in the Digital Sphere in Africa

    In Brief | 03/10/2024

    Exploring Avenues for (Enhanced) Collaborations in the Digital Sphere in Africa

    Together with the German Federal Foreign Office and the German Institute for Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the GIGA organised a hybrid workshop on 19 September, which was attended by international cooperation partners and around 50 guests. The aim was to explore new avenues for digital cooperation in Africa.

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Age

    Conference | 21/06/2023

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Age

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Age Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar (Organiser, Chair), Ass. Prof. Dr. Nina Hall (Invited Guest)

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Age with Dr Nina Hall

    Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar

    Former President

    Ass. Prof. Dr. Nina Hall

    The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Europe

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Data Inequality

    Roundtable | 12/05/2022

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Data Inequality

    Closed-Door Digitalisation Roundtable on Data Inequality, Online Event Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar (Organiser, Chair), Prof. Dr. Thomas Streinz (Invited Guest)

    Digitalisation Roundtable on Data Inequality with Dr Thomas Streinz.

    Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar

    Former President

    Prof. Dr. Thomas Streinz

    New York University

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