Digital Diplomacy in a Turbulent World

The research team consists of an interdisciplinary group of scholars with specialisation in strategic communication, political science, peace studies, visual politics, and international relations theory. The overarching aim of this project is to explain the power of digital media in contemporary diplomatic statecraft and practice. With the arrival of digital media, it both enables and transforms diplomatic practices by introducing new tools and commmunication channels. Yet, there is limited scholarship that specifically examines the impact and effects of digital diplomacy on international negotiation and peacemaking. In this projecct, these transformative processes are examined in three distinct, but overlapping empirical areas:

• Diplomatic communication and peace diplomacy
• Celebrity diplomacy
• Public diplomacy

Publications

• Elsa Hedling, 2023, Emotional labour in digital diplomacy: perceptions and challenges for European diplomats. Emotions and Society
• Annika Bergman Rosamond & Elsa Hedling, 2022, The digital storytelling of feminist foreign policy: Sweden’s state feminism in digital diplomacy European Journal of Politics and Gender
• August Danielson & Elsa Hedling (2021) Visual diplomacy in virtual summitry: Status signalling during the coronavirus crisis, Review of International Studies
• Fjällhed, A., Pamment, J., Bay, S. (2021) A Swedish Perspective on Foreign Election Interference. In Hollis, D & Ohlin, J.D. (eds) Combatting Election Interference: When Foreign Powers Target Democracies. Oxford University Press
• Örden, H & Pamment, J. (2021) What is so Foreign about Foreign Influence Operations? Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Pamment, J. (2021) Does Public Diplomacy Need a Theory of Disruption? The Role of Nonstate Actors in Counter-Branding the Swedish COVID-19 Response. Journal of Public Diplomacy Vol. 1 No.1 pp.80-110
• Manor, I. & Pamment, J. (eds, 2021 forthcoming) At a crossroads: Examining Covid-19’s impact on Public and Digital Diplomacy (Special issue). Place Branding and Public Diplomacy
• Manor, I. & Pamment, J. (2021 forthcoming) From Gagarin to Sputnik: The Role of Nostalgia in Russian Public Diplomacy. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy
• Annika Bergman Rosamond & Katharine Wright (2021) Nato’s Strategic Narratives – Angelina Jolie and the Alliance’s Celebrity and Visual Turn, Review of International Studies.
• Karin Aggestam, Annika Bergman Rosamond & Elsa Hedling (2021) Feminist digital diplomacy and foreign policy change in Sweden, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. 
• Elsa Hedling & Niklas Bremberg (2021) Practice Approaches to the Digital Transformations of Diplomacy: Toward a New Research Agenda, International Studies Review, viab027.
• Elsa Hedling (2021) Transforming practices of diplomacy: the European External Action Service and digital disinformation, International Affairs, 97: 3, pp.841-859.
• Constance Duncombe (2020) Social Media and the Visibility of Horrific Violence, International Affairs 96, pp. 609-629.
• Lisbeth Aggestam & Elsa Hedling (2020) Leaderisation in foreign policy: performing the role of EU High Representative, European Security, 29: 3, pp. 301-319.
• Constance Duncombe (2019) Digital Diplomacy: Emotion and Identity in the Public Realm, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 14, pp. 102-116.
• Constance Duncombe (2019) The Politics of Twitter: Emotions and the Power of Social Media, International Political Sociology 13, pp. 409-429.