Introduction:
“We seek to maximize the Internet’s tremendous
capacity to accelerate human progress, while
sharpening our response and our tools to deal
with the threats…that are part of cyberspace.”
–
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton(2011)
It was an estimate that 655 million people have
joined the internet, using it as a mode of communication receiving and
transmitting the messages. The population estimated as the one-tenth of the
world population (BBC, 2009). The cyber diplomacy is evolving field of public
diplomacy that includes the enhancement of communication in the 21st
century. Cyber diplomacy has a strong impact on the improvement of
communication and information technology diplomacy worldwide to form an
interactive world economy (Melissen, 2007). Cyber
diplomacy has evolved the world into a new field of public diplomacy,
e-diplomacy and the virtual diplomacy, this has made the governments to
identify that the relationships among the nations can be enhanced through the
internet by providing the citizen of the country to adopt new opportunities by
expanding the network to form the multicentre global interdependent economies (Graffy, 2009).
When talking about the diplomacy in the cyber
world, every country has its strict policies in order to protect their selves
and they want to secure their selves with any kind of attack from the economies
they have a threat. Cyber diplomacy has played a vital role in maintaining the
same grounds for the countries to shake hand and build a trustworthy relation
with each other in order to protect each other while maintaining the global
harmony. Russia and USA were failed to come to a unanimous ground to agree upon
the bilateral diplomacy on most of the issues arisen in the field of cyber
security. But in 2009 the joint leadership gave a global response to the and
acted as allies to support each on the field of cyber diplomacy and cyber
security in order to protect the common grounds in the global, digital and
social network economy of the world (Obama, 2009).
The countries like USA and China have also
thought to improve the relationship through cyber diplomacy, they also have
thought to protect the cyber space which will help people to trust on the
importance of social networks and the platforms the governments are using to
transmit the information about the enhanced relationships among both the
countries (U.S.-China Joint Statement, 2011)
The
Revolution in Cyber Diplomacy
The world is changing into the global village,
which has made the governments, the nations, the citizens interdependent of
each other. The cyber diplomacy has undergone a massive revolution. The public
and private organizations are using the internet as an activist to transmit
their motives and role to the public directly through the internet and other
social networks. That is why the social
workers and the foreign ministers have a strong pressure to use the Twitter and
Facebook and update their status and work constantly so that the citizen of
every nation can see how they are working for the international relations. The
developing countries like United Kingdom and the United States have made a
special focus, the internet as a part of diplomat’s job that are working for
the relationship building. Updating their Tweets and manage their Facebook
status has become an important part of their job (Clark, 2011).
The revolution the international diplomacy has
due to the usage of social media by the foreign ministers and it was practiced
by Alec Rose, a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton (2009-2013) for the very
first time to remove the informational gap among the government policies and
the citizen understanding (Ross, 2011). The internet and its advent has removed
the barriers even the individuals. The day to day advancement in the internet
and telecommunication industry is evolving making the boundaries disappear
among the communities, religion and even the government officials.
The revolution in the international diplomacy has
imposed its own importance to every person that is related to it. The regular
use of internet is making the change in the mindset of the government people
and hence these changes have made the governments to think to expand the
information technology at its best. That is why the governments of developed
and developing countries are focused in the expansion of information technology
and its security.
The
International diplomacy has eased the information transmission:
The information technology has eased in building
the relationship among the countries and the religions. Whenever there is any
controversy among any ethnic group the effective use of social media has always
proven to pacify the issue. Every country is dynamic now consist of every community,
some have gone for the work purpose, business purpose or to settle down. But
any insurgency affects everyone very badly. The issues like spreading of anti
Islamic video in the year 2012 has created a big controversy among the states
relationship, here the information technology has played a very important part
to adhere the issue by the apology by the private US embassy that has condemned
the “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims”. The US embassy messaged that this
message was not by the White House and with this message there were severe
rights in Cairo and protests against the US has sprouted throughout the world.
After some time the Whitehouse declared a new message that the US condemns
every action that hurts any religion and any ethnic group (Sept, 2011,
Every citizen of every country has a reach to the
social media, and is playing a role to join the communities and the citizen
around the globe in a very effective way.
Discussion:
The international relations are very important
for every nation because the cyber world has expanded in every field of life,
it may be buying things to discovering new job opportunities, every where the
internet has been expanding. The international players it may be governmental
and nongovernmental they all rely on the information technology. The advisor to
Hillary Clinton has observes that “Our basic control over the information
technology and its expansion is almost lost and there was no option for us
rather than adapt it (Scott, 2012). This showed that the changes in the
information technology have made the government officials to adapt the changes
that are occurring in the international market. There are few countries which
are lagging behind, such as Canada, because the Canada officials are lagging
behind in the adaption of internet as the transmitter of information.
Canada
is a rich country it must use the information technology as a transmitter of
its information throughout the world. Whereas the other countries must use the
power of information technology in order to get their selves in the market to
make their own identity among the world citizens. There is no time to lose or
waist, every community and the country has to fasten their belts and start
being in the pace of governments of developed countries is having, this will
improve the relations among the countries remove the critics and controversies
the groups that arise to establish the controversies among the countries
without any reason (Blanchfield and Bronskill, 2010). The social media eventually will help
to rectify these kind of controversies within no time, but if there is some
time taken, the dialogues will be there rather than fights with army of bombing
that can again pull out a disaster in the world.
Conclusion:
The Department Foreign
Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) in Canada is lagging behind the US and
Britain officials, but in 2013 the DFAIT has started operated few social media
channels which is trying the Canada government to manage the pace as the other
developed countries are doing. In 2013 the DFAIT in Canada has launches a
Global Dialogue forum in May 2013 which was a hit by grabbing the followers
almost 360,000 users. The forum was designed to protecting identities and
expressions and allowing everyone to discuss in Iran. It was told by the John
Baired the Canada’s foreign Minister in Ottawa.
The
foreign Minister Baird suggested that Canada should work more hard to get the
footings in the cyber diplomacy in order to enhance the public relations and
build on the stronger basis of share of expression and then there is no limit
to promote the international relations. The views were Canada has the narrow
range of diplomacy butt if it promotes the freedom and provide people the
capacity to share their knowledge, it will enhance the democratic space and
that is what the cyber diplomacy is used for and made for.
There are governments that are trying to squelch the public
rights but if we use the information technology for the benefit of people and
ask them about their needs and demands. The world would be a more peaceful and a
healthy prosperous place to live in. The information technology is a fact and
we cannot deny of it. As the US officials have explained that they were not
having any option regarding the information technology rather than accepting
it. The countries and their thinking is changing but it has to change globally.
The international relations can be easily enhanced and make stronger by respecting
the citizens of every country and region. This is the basic motive of information
technology, to remove the barriers, in the form of education, business, money,
trade and enhance the new opportunities that can be created by promoting cyber
business, e learning, virtual universities, virtual jobs and much more.
The information technology is resulting in the education of people. the virtual
universities has changes the new learning experiences.
Reference:
Ross, A. (2011).
“Digital Diplomacy and US Foreign Policy.” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 6, p.
452
BBC, “Online Use
Booming, Says UN.” (November 18, 2002). Reporting the United Nations conference
on Trade and Development’s E-Commerce and Development Report.
Scott. B. (2012),
quoted in Fergus Hanson, “Baked In and Wired: eDiplomacy@State,” Brookings Institution
Foreign Policy Papers Series, no. 30, October 25, 2012, p. 5
Clark. C. (2011).
“Ottawa Backs Using Social Media to Boost Iran's Dissidents.” Globe and Mail.
Melissen, J.
(2007). The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations.
Palgrave Macmillan. p. 30. ISBN 1403945160
Blanchfield,
M and Bronskill, J. (2010). “Documents Expose Harper's Obsession with Control,”
Canadian Press, June 6.
Graffy,
C.(2009). "The Rise of Public Diplomacy 2.0". The Journal of
International Security Affairs 17.
Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton. (2011). International Cyber Diplomacy. Promoting
Openness, Security and Prosperity in a Networked World
Senior US
administration official, quoted in “White House repudiates US Embassy Apology
to Rioting Muslims in Cairo. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/09/11/white-house-repudiates-u-s-embassy-apology-to-rioting-islamists-in-cairo/
Retrieved and accessed (2013)
“President Obama’s Remarks on
Securing U .S. (2009). Cyber Infrastructure,” May 29, 2009, http://www .america
.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/May/2009 0529161700eaifas0 .1335871 .html
U.S.-China Joint Statement, Addressing
Regional and Global Challenges, White House, Office of the Press Secretary, (19
January 2011). Addressing Regional and Global Challenges Article 16. This
statement is provided in Appendix A.
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/19/us-china-joint-statement
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