Applied informatics have given a plethora of tools that enable mass diplomacy to reach its intended targets. The digital realm allows the insertion of information into internal and external audiences in real-time, promoting a nation's brand. This chapter examines how electronic social networks and other forms of online participation allow for the application of 'soft power' that nevertheless has hard policy goals. The challenges, shortcomings, and enabling effects of applied informatics on mass diplomacy approaches are discussed along with the mention of Chinese and Russian approaches. The utility and the true impact of electronic social networking are discussed, along with the dichotomy of mass diplomacy both enabling access to a nation's internal audience and to its intended external audience targets. The interactivity and level of engagement of the user of applied informatics communication vessels enable the effects of mass diplomacy.
TopMass Diplomacy And Technological Innovation
The political animal has formed social groups, city-states, and states, in a variety of forms and political formations that favor its evolution and interests. The introduction of new technologies brought about social, economic, and political developments in various nations by favoring them and introducing comparative advantages over other nations.
The introduction of new technology with the advent of the locomotive, and new ideas for the division of labor, the organization of factories, and especially the possibility of mass production of goods, were some of the critical results of the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century (Floud, Humphries, & Johnson, 2014; Mokyr, 1999; Wrigley, 1990).
Economic theories shaped by this ability of nations to produce mass goods, shaped political and social conditions in such a way, that the First World War was between the great industrial powers of Europe and the transatlantic recipient of a galloping introduction of technology to transportation. (Joll & Martel, 2013; Miller, Lynn-Jones, & Van Evera, 1991; Steiner & Neilson, 1977; Marwick, 1991).
The First World War was partly the result of the struggle of the rapidly industrialized countries of Europe to spread their political and economic power around the world.
The telegraph as a means of transmitting news helped to spread the news rapidly and to create a voracious thirst for news, while the railway, the machine gun, and the modern coal-fired steam-powered warships, helped the rapid exercise of their power beyond their geographical boundaries, with this force being of the military, political or economic nature (Henig, 2002).
The press of that era was reinforced by all the technological advances of the industrial revolution, advances that enabled the rapid transmission of news and that would change the way public opinion is shaped forever.
As Henig eloquently states “the popular press had developed during the war into a major influence on the formation of public opinion” (Henig, 1995, p. 3).
The press would now play a major role in explaining the news to a populace eager to consume it, which would in turn demand accountability over its leaders.
The end of World War I, when US President Woodrow Wilson proposed a utopian model of open diplomacy to replace the secret diplomacy of the European Great Powers (Heckscher, 1991; Knock, 1992) gave way to a more realistic model that seeks to influence foreign governments through their populations.
The information revolution that took place from the late 1990s onwards, based on the vast broadband media, allows the internal audience to influence events in their own country, citing the international, external audience. As early as 1990, Robertson eloquently states that “never before has information been produced at such a staggering rate, and the rate is decreasing rapidly... The implications of this information revolution are staggering to contemplate” (Robertson, 1990, p. 235).
This technological capability, which can be used by friendly and hostile elements to a state, influences the formation of foreign policy and can have a direct impact on the branding of a nation on the international stage.