In the corridors of international diplomacy, Digital Diplomacy is definitely the talk of the town. Digital diplomacy has been defined by a few people as the increasing consumption of social media platforms and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to carry out Public diplomacy. People who accept this definition, are of the view that medium has been altered but the message hasn’t. Now communication with the foreign publics is carried out through a twitter channel instead of talking with them over the radio. On the other hand, others are of the view that Digital Diplomacy is more than just a new tool in an old tool box.
Now embassy can establish two ways communications with its followers via its twitter channels. Diplomats can now communicate with the foreign republics by replying to posts over Facebook profiles instead of speaking through the television in order to converse with the audience. In this way, such sophisticated yet user friendly technologies and tool assist to carry out the process of public diplomacy. The SOPs of public diplomacy continues to be the same (target audience, tactics and message), however the online networks have assisted in the process of engaging with the foreign republics.
Moreover, if we talk in terms of Pakistan, it does not have a centralised social media policy in order to engage with foreign republics, that is why it faces the need to have platforms for digital diplomacy. Since Pakistan announced the war against terrorism, it has faced various challenges in terms of foreign policy. Public diplomacy, particularly the digital diplomacy of Pakistan is not yet up to the standard of the rest of the world.
Moreover, considering the miserable conditions of e-diplomacy in Pakistan, the diplomatic missions abroad of Pakistan don't make use of social media efficiently in order to communicate and engage with the foreign republic, because of which Pakistan isn’t able to brand the image of the country abroad. Furthermore, most of the institutional social media accounts of Pakistan aren’t utilising these set of connections for state affairs and public awareness, neither its foreign ministry utilising these tools of digital media for the purpose of public diplomacy. According to Pakistan's foreign ministry officials, there exists no centralised arrangement which would supervise the digital diplomacy carried out by diplomats abroad.
Every diplomatic mission in a foreign state is acted by their public diplomacy in an individual capability. Neither of them have any established social media accounts, neither on Facebook nor on Twitter. There are almost 116 diplomatic missions of Pakistan in foreign countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan MOFA has no policy paper or any sort of a document which illustrates the e-diplomacy for the rationale of appealing the public residing in foreign countries, and thus it is leading to no important consequences to the public diplomacy aim of creating the soft image of Pakistan using e-diplomacy as easily available tool.
There is a real need to have solid and strong policies which show substantial measures to start the digital public diplomacy in Pakistan. MOFA needs to start and set the foundation for growth of educational discipline in several universities for the promotion of research and development in digital diplomacy arena.
Writer is a student of International Relations at NDU, Islamabad
