The Foreign Service Journal, June 2018

democracy and demagoguery, and it is too early to make a call about its impact. I suspect that international negotiations and representation will be more rather than less important in the future, as gover- nance of the Internet and the world economy becomes increas- ingly global. —From “Will States Be Overthrown in the Digital Revolution?,” by Stephen J. Kobrin, in the November 2001 Foreign Service Journal. Welcome to the FS Blogosphere! At the September 2007 launch of the State Department’s first Web log, Dipnote, Spokesman Sean McCormack welcomed readers to the site. Inviting them to be “active participants in a community focused on some of the great issues of our world today,” McCormack stated that the purpose of the blog was to “start a dialogue with the public” and to bring readers “closer to the personalities of the department.” But in launching Dipnote, the department was not so much breaking new ground in foreign affairs as playing catch-up. Blog- ging is already well established among members of the Foreign Service. There are currently more than 60 frequently updated, unofficial blogs written by active and retired FS personnel and their family members. The FS blogosphere reflects a profound generational shift in the way diplomats see themselves and their work. —From “Welcome to the FS Blogosphere,” by Marc Nielsen, in the March 2008 Foreign Service Journal. Cloud Computing and the Development Gap A new development in the information technology industry offers the possibility of accelerating social and economic devel- opment, even in this time of limited resources. Cloud comput- ing, as it’s called, involved tapping into computing power over the Internet. This creates enormous economies of scale, substan- tially lowering the cost and eliminating the technical complexi- ties and the long deployment cycles of planning, installing, maintaining and upgrading IT systems. Although ubiquitous, affordable Internet access—or even reliable electricity—is not yet a reality, there are many pockets of the developing world that are equipped to take advantage of this new approach to delivering and consuming information technology. —From “Using Cloud Computing to Close the Development Gap,” by Kenneth I. Juster, in the September 2009 Foreign Service Journal. Social Media and Public Diplomacy In recent years, Twitter and other social media have emerged as a lightning-fast, pointed alternative to traditional tactics of public diplomacy. Supplementing their usual portfolios, U.S. diplomats are being encouraged by the State Department to use both local and global social media tools. The “social diplomacy” approach has proven to be especially important in countries like Russia, where government control of most broadcast media often distorts the message fromWashing- ton and news coverage about U.S. events and policies. —From “Using ‘Social Diplomacy’ to Reach Russians,” by FSO Robert Koenig, in the January-February 2014 Foreign Service Journal. Diplomatic Reporting: Adapting to the Information Age Critics have asserted that while U.S. diplomatic reporting has a rich and noble tradition in our country, it has suffered from the advent of the Internet and easy access to valuable open-source information. Embassy political and economic officers, who generally rejected this line, could now be directed to reduce their substantive reporting activities and take on more of the embassy’s operational duties such as managing congressional delegations. Experienced FSOs and government analysts in Washington were quick to recognize, however, that while the Internet would narrow the diplomat’s reporting domain, it could not compete with the Foreign Service’s ability to provide policy-relevant insight and invaluable context with regard to local people, events and trends. In fact, bountiful online access to open-source information has the potential to make good diplomatic reporting even better. —From “Diplomatic Reporting: Adapting to the Information Age,” by John C. Gannon, in the July-August 2014 Foreign Service Journal. Social Media for Reporting Officers Think of these platforms [Twitter and Facebook] as the world’s largest cocktail parties, where everyone is invited and guests kindle conversations and relationships, just as in real life. This [is] why, as a reporting officer, I consider my Twitter account essential to doing my job. We’re paid to get to know people, to build relationships with the influencers and informa- tion gatherers who can help us become better informed. Almost universally, these people are out in force on social media. — From “Twitter Is a Cocktail Party, Not a Press Conference (or, Social Media for Reporting Officers),” a Speaking Out column by FSOWren Elhai, in the December 2014 Foreign Service Journal. n 36 JUNE 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL