This blog post first appeared on blogs.fco.gov.uk on 17 June 2009  

If our digital diplomacy project is to really succeed, we need to demonstrate that diplomats and policy officials can use the tools of digital engagement to help deliver foreign policy objectives. 

We won’t have succeeded if all we achieve is the clever integration of the latest social media tools into nice looking web content.

That’s why I often cite John Duncan as our best example of digital diplomacy in action. John is the UK Ambassador for Multilateral Arms Control and Disarmament, and he uses digital engagement tools to help him do his job. He blogs (and microblogs) about his work, and he is an active social media consumer.

John has been in London this week, to take part in an Arms Trade Treaty event. I took the opportunity to ask him about his experiences as a digital diplomat. Here’s the video:

Transcript: 

Stephen Hale: I am here in King Charles Street with John Duncan. He has agreed to talk to me about being a digital diplomat. John is an an ambassador. He does a serious job. But he writes a blog. He updates his Twitter followers using his iPhone, and I want to find out why.

Caption: What do you do? 

John Duncan:  I’m the UK Ambassador for Multilateral Arms Control and Disarmament, based in Geneva. But it’s roving ambassador role so I work right across the world from Dublin to Wellington to New York. And so I’ve used digital diplomacy as an addition to what we do in a traditional sense and found it to be a real multiplier.

Caption: Does this replace traditional diplomacy?

JD: Well I think that there are things that we would do normally. I’ll give you an example. In multilateral diplomacy there’s a lot of coffee shop diplomacy, where people will go and ask: “what’s the UK position?” and they want it quietly, not in the public speeches that may last 10 or 20 minutes, they want a quick snapshot. And what I’ve used the blog for is to actually have that conversation virtually. So people have become used to going to the blog to find out what is a snapshot of the UK view in the way that we might have a coffee shop conversation. So it’s replacing something that we actually do, and I probably have less coffee shop conversations as a result, but I think that’s quite productive.

Caption: Do diplomats read blogs?

JD: I think now people are much more familiar with this sort of technology. It’s true that there are some traditionalists who would still prefer to have that coffee shop conversation. But I don’t think it replaces the working lunch longer conversation. It’s a very quick snapshot: what is the UK thinking on this particular issue?

Caption: Who reads your blog?

JD: Well it’s always difficult to get a feel for that. It’s interesting that it’s being used as a public information tool by people rather than for comments. There are the cognoscenti who come in and ask very detailed and complex questions. But most of the readers I’m aware of are colleagues, both in the Foreign Office but also in multilateral communities. I’m aware that many delegations from Iran to Ireland are reading it regularly. And if I get something wrong they will pick it up and say “you didn’t get that right” so they are using it as a public information tool.

Caption: Do you read other blogs?

JD: Well I certainly read the comments, although I said there aren’t that many – its much more a push factor rather than a pull factor. And yes I do read other blogs and I’ve used Twitter as a way of finding through into people who are saying interesting things on the issues that I’m following professionally.

Caption: Is Twitter appropriate for diplomacy?

JD: Well it’s a very new tool and I think it’s finding it’s own way. There are people who seem to spend their time explaining what they’re doing like “I’m stuck in a lift”. I’m not sure that’s a particularly useful use of the medium. What I’ve used it for is as a marketing tool for the blog and it’s been spectacularly effective in terms of going into the press. I’ve had press interviews as a direct result of that, I’ve had media comment which is quoting Twitter, worldwide. So as a media tool and a marketing tool for the blog, then yes I think it is effective.

Caption: How do you find the time?

JD: Well I think we all have moments of the day when we have down time. It can be when you’re in the car or on the train. Or even when I’m in my meetings or listening to speeches – of course many of these are written and I can read a speech in 5 minutes and it probably takes 20 to speak. And then what am I doing? Well I can use that time. I can go on to my laptop or the iPhone and find out what other people are saying and also comment on the issues that interest us. So I’m using the down time more productively than I could do otherwise.

Caption: How can we help others do this?

JD: Well I think we have presumed competence as ambassadors, but I think that we do need to get some training on this. I’m quite prepared to take risks and explore this with the digital diplomacy team. But I’m very conscious that it’s easy to make mistakes, particularly easy to make mistakes if one is using Twitter because it’s much shorter and snappier. And you have to preserve that authority of an ambassador, you can’t undermine it. So I think some training on mistakes and things to do and how to actually use this new medium in a productive way, I think that’s the best thing the Foreign Office can do.