Business as Usual: Perceptions of Power and the Practice of Foreign Affairs in the Digital Age

While information communications technologies (ICT) have always found a natural home in the world of foreign policy and diplomacy, scholars and practitioners have been particularly enthusiastic about the role of ICT in the digital age of ubiquitous connectivity, social media, and citizen journalism. Arguing that foreign offices no longer have a monopoly on quality, timely information, these individuals claim that the relative influence of governments is waning in the domestic and international networks in which they operate. In turn, some suggest that the digital age calls for foreign offices that are more decentralized, inclusive, and ultimately, less elite, in order that governments can benefit from the rich informational resources found outside their own institutional boundaries. Drawing on research into “digital diplomacy” and “open policy making” initiatives in the foreign offices of Canada and the United Kingdom, this paper argues that while governments have heard this call, they are not necessarily heeding it. Interviews with information technology staff, diplomats, press relations officers, and policy analysts, as well as analysis of documents discussing the policy origins of digital foreign policy initiatives, reveal that the centralized, exclusive, and elite world of foreign affairs is alive and well in the digital age. That is, even though civil servants working in these contexts frequently note that the Internet changes the traditional foreign policy “game” of information gathering, persuasion, and influence, they retain the sense that governments can and should coordinate players within this game. Engagement with non-traditional information sources is selective and instrumental, there remains a sense that the foreign office “knows best”, and tools like social media and open data are adopted and promoted only insofar as they further the needs and goals of the department. Simply put, the paper argues that while the Internet may be changing the tools of diplomacy and foreign policy making, it has not transformed the foundational values and institutional identities that shape how these tools are used. In doing so, the paper contributes to the growing body of research that brings empirical data to bear on the highly enthusiastic, normative theories that currently dominate the study of digital governments more generally, and digital foreign policy more specifically. In addition to testing these theories and adding more nuance to their propositions, the paper offers practitioners of foreign policy practical insight into a potentially powerful barrier to their digital diplomacy strategies: their own enduring attitudes about the actual and proper place of government in digital era social and informational networks. Put differently, this paper suggests that even if the digital age has redistributed the power and influence traditionally assigned to governments acting in the international sphere, bureaucrats steeped in the elite culture of foreign offices appear unprepared to accept and adapt to this new reality. Given that industries in the private sector die and thrive depending on their ability to adapt to changing business models enabled by the web, this inflexibility may spell disaster for governments hoping to stay relevant in digital era foreign affairs.