The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 Cyber Diplomacy Embassy Colombo recently in- augurated its first Virtual Presence Post for the Republic of Maldives. At a reception in Malé, Ambassador Rob- ert Blake introduced Maldivian digni- taries and press to the VPP Web site ( http://maldives.usvpp.gov/index.h tml ). There users can find informa- tion on how to apply for a U.S. visa, choose an American university, locate a business partner, and access other U.S. programs and activities of special interest. In the Maldives, where the U.S. has no onsite representative, the VPP serves as a minimal but significant level of diplomatic engagement, offer- ing many of the services available at traditional consulates and promoting interaction between Americans and Maldivians. This VPP is the latest in what is proving to be a very successful State Department e-initiative, according to State’s Fiscal Year 2007 report on implementation of The E-Govern- ment Act of 2002, released in late September ( www.state.gov/m/irm/ rls/92584.htm ). The E-Government Act mandates agency-specific e- government initiatives to increase efficiency and lower costs. The VPPs use information technology to extend the reach of diplomatic services and consular information to populations not served by physical embassies or consulates. The first five VPPs, set up in Russia as a demonstration program under the Office of e-Diplomacy, cost a total of $10,000 to establish. By comparison, according to the department’s Human Resources Bureau, to maintain a single Foreign Service officer overseas can average $400,000 per year. There are currently 41 VPPs. The VPPs are by no means State’s only forays into cyberspace. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplo- macy Karen Hughes has begun to use blogs, chat rooms and discussion for- ums to extend and deepen Ameri- ca’s dialogue with the world. On Sept. 27, the department’s first- ever blog, Dipnote , went live ( http:// blogs.state.gov ). Launched by Spokesman Sean McCormack, who came up with the idea, Dipnote will feature informal posts from key players in Washington and abroad in an effort to make the practice of diplo- macy more transparent. Each week a new question will be posed for open discussion, encouraging audience en- gagement in the issues. Earlier in the year, State’s multimedia coordina- tor, Heath Kern, set up a State De- partment YouTube channel, where special briefings and interviews with officials on key issues of the day are posted ( www.youtube.com/user/st atevideo ). In the Bureau of International In- formation Programs, where many of these initiatives are centered, the Digital Outreach Team— a small unit of analysts, FSOs and Arabic-language specialists — monitors and contri- butes to high-traffic chat rooms, blogs and discussion forums such as those hosted by the BBC and Arab sites like Al-Jazeera and Elaph.com. The Digi- tal Outreach Team members identify themselves as being from the State Department and offer a casual but credible personal voice in the foreign policy debate in a medium where the U.S. perspective is often unrepresent- ed. “The competition of ideas is fiercer and more crowded than ever before,” says Jeremy F. Curtin, coordinator for the IIP Bureau. “Information out- reach, increasingly through the chan- nels of high technology, is a primary instrument of public diplomacy” ( http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itp s/0207/ijpe/curtin.htm ). —Marc Nielsen, Editorial Intern Iraqi Refugee Crisis Spotlighted — Again On Sept. 18, liberal and con- servative lawmakers stepped up their campaign to address one of the great- est humanitarian crises of our time: the plight of more than four million refugees created by the war in Iraq and, in particular, the circumstances of many thousands of Iraqis marked for execution because of their coopera- tion with the U.S. there. In the Senate, a bipartisan group C YBERNOTES I n terms of what’s going on in Iraq or Afghanistan today, what the Department of Defense is doing is working. What isn’t working is the diplomatic side. — Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, inter- viewed in GQ magazine, Oct. 2007, http://men.style.com/ gq/features/full?id=con- tent_5896&pageNum=1