Digital Diplomacy in Contemporary US Foreign Policy Activity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2524-2652.2026.11Keywords:
digital diplomacy, US foreign policy, social media, international communicationsAbstract
The article deals with the peculiarities of the formation and approaches to the promotion of digital diplomacy as the instrument of contemporary US foreign policy. It is stressed that US foreign policy considerably based on the international information technologies, and the diplomacy extends beyond the frame of traditional negotiations to become an integrative element of the digital political space. The innovative theoretical and methodological approaches for understanding the concept of digital diplomacy within international political science are revealed; it has been found that digital diplomacy is a continuation of traditional diplomacy, but with the application of new technological approaches. The author stresses that contemporary digital diplomacy includes various types of communication, such as social networks, official government websites, blogs, online conferences, video platforms, and digital messengers. Due to the digital diplomacy tools states are able to convey their messages to the international community effectively, build communication strategies with target audiences, exert informational influence in real time, and counter propaganda and other destructive information-communication influences.
The United States, as a global actor, uses digital diplomacy as a powerful tool to promote its foreign policy goals in the contemporary non-stationary, hostile, and interdependent world order. The stages of the development of US digital diplomacy – from the administration of George W. Bush to the Twitter diplomacy of Donald Trump are scrutinized. It’s emphasized that the digital diplomacy had been fully integrated into US foreign policy process during the administration of Barack Obama, when the concept of Public Diplomacy 2.0 was developed, involving the widespread use of social media in foreign policy communications. The contemporary institutional mechanism for implementing digital technologies in the US foreign policy process is profoundly analysed, and the peculiarities of US digital diplomacy in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war are highlighted.
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