Digital diplomacy and political influence strategies

Digital diplomacy and political influence strategies are constantly evolving to adapt to new technologies and changes in the political and economic environment. Traditional diplomacy is being replaced by a “network diplomacy” where state actors, but also actors outside the traditional diplomatic sphere, implement influence strategies to guide public opinion by engaging in direct dialogue with civil societies, in particular, via social networks; by fundamentally changing the format and media of communication; by mobilising technological advances to predict political trends, identify those most likely to be influenced, generate and disseminate information, or discredit political opponents. While some of these strategies are not innovative per se, their digital transformation, with the scale and speed of message dissemination and the viral nature of information, can magnify the risks and issues in terms of ethics, transparency and security.

The objective of this new Good In Tech webinar is to give an overview of the transformations of the digital diplomacy ecosystem and to discuss examples of political influence strategies from different countries. Three experts in digital diplomacy and new political influence strategies are invited to present their research and discuss the political and social controversies in the field.
This webinar will be moderated by Inna Lyubareva, Senior Lecturer, HDR in Economics and Social Sciences at ITM Atlantic

Speakers:

1) Julien Nocetti “The place of GAFAMs in digital diplomacy issues”.
Julien Nocetti is a research associate at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and a lecturer in international relations and strategic studies at the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan School.

2) Tristan Mattelart “Driving political change through digital technology from abroad: an analysis of USAID’s ZunZuneo project in Cuba
Tristan Mattelart is a professor at the French Press Institute, University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas, and a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Analysis and Research on the Media (Carism).

3) Zhao Alexandre Huang “Exploring Public Diplomacy the Chinese Way: From the Confucius Institute to the Digitization of Panda Diplomacy
Zhao Alexandre Huang is a lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Paris Nanterre in the laboratory Dispositifs d’Information et de Communication à l’Ère Numérique.

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