TY - CHAP

T1 - Diplomatic Negotiations in the Digital Context

T2 - Key Issues, Emerging Trends, and Procedural Changes

AU - Eggeling, Kristin Anabel

AU - Adler-Nissen, Rebecca

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - This chapter considers how diplomatic negotiations unfold in the digital context. It asks how digital devices, such as mobile phones, screens, or social media apps, challenge core diplomatic norms and procedures; and, more radically, considers what happens to diplomatic negotiations when the interaction itself is conducted virtually or in hybrid formats. Moving beyond an overview of how diplomatic negotiations can be theorized and studied empirically in digital contexts, we suggest that different approaches build on different understandings of ‘the digital’: as an advantage, a challenge, or as a negotiation in itself. We develop these strands in conversation with the IR literature on ‘digital diplomacy’ and illustrate our points with examples of digitalization and diplomatic practice in the European Union. We discuss critical issues, emerging trends, and procedural changes in diplomatic negotiations by relating them to broader societal digitalization trends. Diplomats’ (work) phones, individual digital competencies, and shared institutional norms co-constitute diplomatic negotiations in the digital context. Beyond a much-needed exploration of how diplomats handle digital devices in everyday negotiations, we suggest that emerging debates on the regulation, management, and limits of digital technology will be crucial for our understanding of diplomatic negotiations in the coming years.

AB - This chapter considers how diplomatic negotiations unfold in the digital context. It asks how digital devices, such as mobile phones, screens, or social media apps, challenge core diplomatic norms and procedures; and, more radically, considers what happens to diplomatic negotiations when the interaction itself is conducted virtually or in hybrid formats. Moving beyond an overview of how diplomatic negotiations can be theorized and studied empirically in digital contexts, we suggest that different approaches build on different understandings of ‘the digital’: as an advantage, a challenge, or as a negotiation in itself. We develop these strands in conversation with the IR literature on ‘digital diplomacy’ and illustrate our points with examples of digitalization and diplomatic practice in the European Union. We discuss critical issues, emerging trends, and procedural changes in diplomatic negotiations by relating them to broader societal digitalization trends. Diplomats’ (work) phones, individual digital competencies, and shared institutional norms co-constitute diplomatic negotiations in the digital context. Beyond a much-needed exploration of how diplomats handle digital devices in everyday negotiations, we suggest that emerging debates on the regulation, management, and limits of digital technology will be crucial for our understanding of diplomatic negotiations in the coming years.

U2 - 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192859198.013.6

DO - 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192859198.013.6

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9780192859198

T3 - Oxford Handbooks

SP - 103

EP - 120

BT - The Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy

A2 - Bjola, Corneliu

A2 - Manor, Ilan

PB - Oxford University Press

ER -