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Is digital diplomacy a proper area of study or a set of tools used to extend traditional diplomatic communication? How can Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) fully harness the potential of digital diplomacy? Does digital diplomacy empower civil society and social movements to the extent that they become diplomatic actors in their own right? How do social media and digital diplomacy solve the overlap of stakeholders’ interests? How do we engage with different realities promoted by social media?

Proposals from European countries to change the rules regarding the taxation of Internet companies, continuous developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), and increased governmental pressures on technology companies to remove extremist content were among the main digital policy developments in the month of September.

Diplo is pleased to announce a new partnership on diplomatic training with the National Foreign Service Institute (ISEN) of Argentina. This summer, the two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim to promote and develop mutual cooperation in the field of online diplomatic training. The memorandum of understanding was signed by the Director of ISEN, Ambassador Celeste Koch, who has attended two Diplo courses herself, experiencing the online learning methodology firsthand.

Developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) picking up pace globally, extremist content remaining a cause of concern, and countries banning Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) were among the main digital policy developments in the months of July and August. These and other developments, trends, and regional updates were the subject of August’s just-in-time briefing on Internet governance – our monthly appointment on the last Tuesday of every month – which took place on 29 August 2017.

Diplo’s July WebDebate explored the extent to which sports can be used as a tool for diplomacy and peace. We asked: what forms does sports diplomacy take? Who are the actors? Is it more than just propaganda by other means? And, to what extent can it contribute to peace?

The UN Group of Governmental Experts (UN GGE) being unable to reach consensus on its final report, new cyber-norms proposed by the private sector, and governments renewing calls for more regulation of the Internet were among the main digital policy developments in the month of June.

Dr Roxana Radu, Programme Manager at the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), has been awarded the Swiss Network for International Studies Award 2017 (SNIS) for her PhD thesis, Global Rules for Emerging Issue Domains: Negotiating the Governance of the Internet, defended at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in

Download the Press Release in PDF format

The WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack hitting thousand of systems around the world, the continuous debate in the USA over net neutrality, and the increasing number of bilateral tax settlements involving Internet companies were among the main digital policy developments in the month of May.

Published on 30 May 2017, Issue 21 of the Geneva Digital Watch newsletter provides the latest Internet governance and digital policy updates which took place in May. The main highlights include: