Archetti. Media Impact on Diplomatic Practice
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1 The definiti ve ve rsion of this manuscript is published in the Hague Journal of Diplo macy 7(2) The I mpact o f New Me dia on Diplomatic Practice: An Ev ol ution ar y Mo del of Chan g e Cristina Archetti Ab st rac t Based on a range of interviews with foreign diplomats in London, the article explains the considerable variation in the way communication technologies both affect diplomatic practices and are appropriated by diplomats to pursue the respective countries’ information gathering and outreach objectives. The study shows that London, as an information environment, is experienced differen tly by each of the diplomats and embassy actors. The analysis elaborates a model of the “communication behaviour” of foreign diplomats in London based on an evolutionary analogy: foreign diplomats in the context of the British capital, within their respective embassy organizations, can each be compared to the members of a species attempting to survive in a natural environment. The nuances highlighted by the explanatory model challenge the largely homogeneous and generalized nature of current debates about media and diplomacy, as well as public diplomacy. Keywords: diplomacy, communication technology, media, public diplomacy, change, agency, structures, information environme nt Introduction Communication is essential to diplomacy. It always has been. As Harold Nicolson wrote: The origins of diplomacy lie buried in the darkness preceding what we call “the dawn of history.” There came a stage when the anthropoid apes inhabiting one group of caves realised that it might be profitable to reach some understanding with neighbouring groups regarding the limits of their r espective hunting territorie s. 1 Information gathering, reporting, and sharing have been across the centuries the staple diet of diplomats, to the point that, over history, virtually any advance in communication technology has affected the practice of diplomacy. David Paull Nickles in Under the Wire, for example, examines the impact of the telegraph on diplomatic activities. 2 He describes the ‘acceleration of international relations’ and ‘obliteration’ of distance resulting from the possib ility for messages to travel via cable faster than people could until then by ship, horse, or train. 3 The last significant study about the impact of the media in international diplomatic negotiation was conducted by Phillips Davison in the early 1970s. 4 By interviewing diplomats and journalists across the US and Western Europe he observed that the media played a crucial role: 1 Harold Nicolson, The Evolution of the Diplomatic Method (London: Constable, 1954), p.2 2 David Paull Nickels, Under the Wire: How the Telegraph Changed Diplomacy (Harvard University: Harvard University Press, 2003). 3 Ibid., p. 79 4 W. Phillips Davison, ‘News Media and International Negotiation,’ Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, 1974, pp. 174-191
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Archetti. Media Impact on Diplomatic Practice
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