Corneliu Bjola

University of Oxford | OX · Department of International Development

Few studies to date have investigated the impact of digitalization on Putnam’s two-level game theory. Such an investigation is warranted given that state and non-state actors can employ digital tools to influence decision-making processes at both national and international levels. This study advances a new theoretical concept, Domestic Digital Dipl...

The corona crisis is also a disinformation crisis for the global community in general, and for the European Union ( EU ) in particular. What is less clear is how adequate the EU ’s response to the ‘infodemic’ has been. This essay exposes the dangers of disinformation for the EU , which have intensified in the context of the COVID -19 pandemic, and...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced diplomats to embrace virtual platforms and to learn to combine virtual and physical meetings in their work. In this article, we investigate how this process has taken place and with implications for the conduct of diplomacy. Specifically, we ask how diplomats have adapted to the transition to the virtual medium, wha...

The COVID -19 pandemic has altered international diplomacy, with many negotiations now conducted in ‘virtual venues’ facilitated by videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Interprefy. Drawing on a survey of diplomats with experience in virtual venue negotiation, we analyze respondents’ perceptions of efficacy, tactics,...

This chapter analyzes the digital interventions of various ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) in five broad areas which MFAs have prioritized during the pandemic: crisis management, international collaboration, foreign policy continuity, countering disinformation, and digital innovation. The pandemic has posed new questions for diplomats in each...

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning is opening up new possibilities for diplomatic intelligence by refining and enhancing processes of gathering, analyzing, and leveraging information through digital means. AI tools can automate tasks, identify patterns more efficiently, and provide real-time insights, enhancing the effect...

In this article, we employ the prism of technological acceleration to consider how Generative AI may impact the spatial–temporal dimensions of diplomacy, and what ramifications this transformation may hold for its practice. To do so, we distinguish between Horizontal Acceleration, which relates to the number of diplomatic domains that are progressi...

In recent years, digital technologies have substantially impacted the world of diplomacy. From social media platforms and artificial intelligence to smartphone applications and virtual meetings, digital technologies have proven disruptive, impacting the norms, practices, and logics of diplomats, states, and international organisations. Although the...

In recent years, digital technologies have substantially impacted the world of diplomacy. From social media platforms and artificial intelligence to smartphone applications and virtual meetings, digital technologies have proven disruptive, impacting the norms, practices, and logics of diplomats, states, and international organisations. Although the...

Published on E-International Relations. This op-ed reflects and explores the risk of MFAs staying on X/Twitter amidst negative changes or leaving, losing digital assets. The piece suggests this dilemma may signal a digital cold war between states and big tech, challenging traditional diplomatic norms, and notes the uncertain impact of EU regulatio...

Digital technologies have played a significant role in the relationship between diasporas and Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs), leading to various configurations. This paper analyzes how different MFAs have adopted different approaches to digital diaspora outreach. The Indian MEA combines online and offline activities to embrace its diaspora, w...

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic took world diplomats by surprise, partly because of the novelty of the situation and partly because of the speed with which the pandemic travelled around the world. Drawing on the concept of world disclosure, the paper argues that MFAs’ digital responses to the pandemic offer an excellent analytical lens for und...

How does digital propaganda transform members of the online public into willing and active distributors of disinformation? Drawing on Bormann’s theory of symbolic convergence, the paper argues that the effectiveness of disinformation lies with is ability to craft a powerful rhetorical vision that is actively shared by the online public and that is...

The arrival of AI technology promises to add a fascinating new chapter to development theory and practice. Current studies have made good progress in examining the potential contributions of AI to achieving sustainable development goals and addressing challenges in specific development areas (poverty, global health, human rights, environment etc.)....

This chapter argues that Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) and embassies must contend with disinformation and propaganda if they are to practice public diplomacy online effectively. The reason for this is that digital disinformation campaigns target the same publics that MFAs and embassies seek to interact with in cyber-spaces. Moreover, the goa...

Social media are inherently visual platforms. Every day, billions of photographs, videos, cartoons, memes, gifs, and infographics are uploaded and shared for the world to see online. As a result, political actors such as diplomats, militaries, international organisations, terrorist groups, corporations, celebrities, diasporas and members of the gen...

This introduction chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the book "Digital Diploamcy of International Organizations". The book addresses the question of how international organisations accommodate and integrate digital technologies into their analogue patterns of public communication. It examines the efforts undertaken by the...

The relationship between international organisations (IOs) and member states is going through a process of organisational restructuring as digital integration leans towards the breaking down of institutional barriers and the disruption of traditional boundaries of power, authority, and hierarchy. The relationship between IOs and member states is al...

Drawing on the case of Finland and its model of ‘resilience’ to digital disinformation, the article provides an original framework for understanding the logic of digital propaganda and the conditions that may facilitate an effective response. Building on recent research connecting digital propaganda to the disruption of the public spheres in democr...

Is there a strategy behind the digital disinformation campaigns attributed to the Russian government, and if so, what conceptual tools can make better sense of the objectives of the strategy and how can one build resilience against it? Drawing on the literature on Russian information warfare, the chapter argues that the theory of reflexive control...

Modern diplomacy is extending its activities into many spheres and is itself being exposed to unprecedented influences: the factors that are shaking up our societies are having an impact on governance as well, be it digitisation, the emotionalised sensitivities of the public or non-diplomatic international actors. Such developments need to be absor...

Modern diplomacy is extending its activities into many spheres and is itself being exposed to unprecedented influences: the factors that are shaking up our societies are having an impact on governance as well, be it digitisation, the emotionalised sensitivities of the public or non-diplomatic international actors. Such developments need to be absor...

Resumen: La diplomacia digital, entendida como el uso de tecnologías para apoyar los objetivos diplo-máticos, ya no es más un campo de especialización en cierne en busca de equilibrio en un mundo trastornado y desafiado por el avance de las tecnologías de los medios de comunica-ción social. Es probable que la diplomacia digital penetre hasta el fon...

How can a state react to being a target of disinformation activities by another state without losing the moral ground that it seeks to protect? This essay argues that the concept of moral authority offers an original framework for addressing this dilemma. As a power resource, moral authority enables an actor to have its arguments treated with prior...

This entry seeks to understand the ethical prescriptions on the basis of which diplomats can address moral dilemmas in their work. To this end, the entry reviews the main arguments underlying theories of meta‐, normative, and applied ethics and teases out their implications for diplomatic practice. It will be thus argued that moral dilemmas cannot...

The issue of maximizing the impact and effectiveness of digital diplomacy has become high on the agenda of many ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). What impact means in the digital context, how to capture it and how best to make use of it are questions that nevertheless remain poorly understood. Drawing heuristically on quantum theory, the articl...

Since the Ukraine conflict began in 2014, there has been an increased awareness of the threat to EU interests posed by Russia. In early 2015, the EEAS created the East StratCom Team to respond by promoting the EU’s soft power, strengthen media resilience, and catalogue disinformation. This article categorizes several examples of Russian disinformat...

This article: Introduces the concept of world disclosure to diplomatic studies; Advances a new logic of diplomatic action that combines pre-reflective and reflective modes of reasoning; Explains why international crises are defined by fractal not linear patterns; Suggests a world disclosing method for making sense of and managing international crises....

Drawing on the literature of technical analysis in financial markets, this article introduces an original framework and methodology for explaining and forecasting the outcome of international negotiations based on two concepts: the relative strength negotiation index (rsni) and the negotiation contextual conduciveness index (ncci). By comparing the...

This book analyses digital diplomacy as a form of change management in international politics. The recent spread of digital initiatives in foreign ministries is often argued to be nothing less than a revolution in the practice of diplomacy. In some respects this revolution is long overdue. Digital technology has changed the ways firms conduct busin...

The objective of this forum is to provide a framework for intellectual exchange and debate about the role of diplomacy in negotiating global crises and the impact of such crises on the evolution of diplomatic leadership, identity and method. Drawing on theories of leadership, decision-making, power and crisis management, the five contributions to t...

The article addresses an important gap in the literature on climate negotiations, namely, the question of breakthroughs: what exactly counts as breakthroughs in climate negotiations, how do you measure them empirically, and what practical implications do they have for the negotiation process? To address these questions, the article draws on market...

At a time when the Arctic region faces significant climatic transformations, a triple governance gap threatens to fuel major diplomatic tensions among regional actors over natural resources, navigation rights and fishery management. This article argues that a plurilateral diplomatic approach could help close these gaps by establishing an effective...

This book provides a comprehensive new introduction to the study of international diplomacy, covering both theory and practice.

Under what conditions is secret diplomacy normatively appropriate? Drawing on pragmatic theories of political and ethical judgement, this paper argues that a three-dimensional contextual approach centred on actors' reasoning process offers an innovative and reliable analytical tool for bridging the ethical gap of secret diplomacy. Using the case of...

Summary This article invites diplomatic scholars to a debate about the identity of diplomacy as a field of study and the contributions that it can make to our understanding of world politics relative to international relations theory (IR) or foreign policy analysis (FPA). To this end, the article argues that the study of diplomacy as a method of bu...

This book deals with the questions of how global governance can and ought to effectively address serious global problems, such as financial instability, military conflicts, distributive injustice and increasing concerns of ecological disasters. Providing a unified theoretical framework, the contributors to this volume utilise argumentation research...

This book aims to examine the conditions under which the decision to use force can be reckoned as legitimate in international relations. Drawing on communicative action theory, it provides a provocative answer to the hotly contested question of how to understand the legitimacy of the use of force in international politics. The use of force is one o...

By remaining epistemologically committed to an outdated distinction between facts and values, traditional definitions of legitimacy either divest the concept of an important critical component or fail to properly anchor it in the social reality. As an alternative, the article proposes a constitutive theory of legitimacy that reconciles the epistemo...

Borrowing from Norbert Elias, we introduce the habitus of restraint to the study of security communities. This habitus constitutes a key dimension of the glue that holds security communities together. The perceived compatibility of practices emanating from the habitus that members hold fosters the collective identity upon which a security community...

The legal provisions of the United Nations Charter offer imprecise and insufficient criteria for discriminating properly between legitimate vs illegitimate uses of force. The conflation of the concept of the legitimacy of the use of force with what is lawful, as agreed upon by a small number of major international actors, overlooks those situations...

In both economic and political terms, Romania lags behind most of the CEE developing countries. This situation deteriorates on a constant basis and is largely accounted for by very poor governance practices. The solution proposed by this study consists of recommending the implementation of a reformist agenda of e-governance based on two pillars: ro...