American Diplomacy Numbers

Digital Diplomacy is a new phenomenon and trend in diplomatic area today. As a new pattern and tool serving for nation’s interest, digital diplomacy can’t substitute traditional diplomacy. The United States is the first country that promoted digital diplomacy. This thesis takes the U.S. Department of State as a case study example to dig into digital diplomacy. In order to go well along with the new social media, several countries such as UK and Russia followed suit, having appointed digital diplomats and established new agencies to charge the digital diplomacy.This thesis focuses on the U.S. Department of State’s digital diplomacy. The first part analyzes the meaning of digital diplomacy and compares it with the other related concepts; the second part gives a brief historical overview and a practice review of American digital diplomacy; the third part tries to provide some insight into American digital diplomacy by case studies; the concluding part end with a summary of the U.S. lessons and what China can learn from U.S. experiences in developing digital diplomacy.Comparing to traditional diplomacy, digital diplomacy has changed in many aspects, but it’s not a mature diplomatic pattern and still has many controversies as far as the name and its meaning. Digital diplomacy here is defined as following:the foreign affairs agencies use digital tools to innovate and enhance the efficiency and quality of their work, those agencies use social media to communicate with the public abroad and shape the ideas and attitudes. Apparently, digital diplomacy can’t take the place of the traditional diplomacy, it still needs the leaders and diplomats to cooperate on significant diplomatic events by meeting and negotiating face to face. But digital technologies do play a role in diplomatic area. Although it has many problems and theoretical controversies, many countries began to pay attention to it. As a newcomer of digital diplomacy, China should catch up and learn from the lessons of other countries including the United States.