Book Review: Cyber-Diplomacy

Cyber-Diplomacy: Managing Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century
The book Cyber-Diplomacy talks about the advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and its influences in diplomacy. Cyber-Diplomacy is a compilation of essays from professors, an editor of a foreign policy quarterly, a deputy minister of Canadian foreign affairs, and a staff member of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The book uses the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs to illustrate the changes that many governments have needed to make since the advent of the internet in order to remain efficient and effective. Specifically, these alterations include the modification of diplomacy in light of new developments in ICTs, the organization of evolving information and communications systems, and the ability of governments to use new technology in order to further its public image at home and abroad. These advancements in mass communication and information technology bring with them new challenges to the way that diplomacy was conducted in the past. The challenges that the book cites are the reduction of hierarchy in favor of horizontal networking, the reduction of secrecy, the increase of transparency, the increased ability for global movements and non-state actors to become mobilized, and the escalating significance of public diplomacy in foreign affairs. The book makes clear that the primary facilitators and accelerators of change are the improvements in ICTs. These advancements have allowed millions of individuals and non-state actors to become linked to a complex networks with no command center. In conclusion, the book acknowledges that the rapid nature of the evolution of ICTs makes it challenging to predict what effects it will have on culture and diplomacy.
The editor of this book, Evan H. Potter, is the founding editor of Canadian Foreign Policy and was a senior strategist for the Communications Bureau at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). Potter worked for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat while pursuing scholarly work before ending up at DFAIT. While researching at the University of Ottawa and working for the Treasury Board, Potter recognized the need to cultivate research relevant to policies that would link the worlds of politicians and scholars. The Canadian Centre for Foreign Policy Development and the University of Ottawa supported Potter in his assembly of this book in order to strengthen the participation of non-government actors in the formation and implementation of foreign policy.
The contributors to this book include Andrew F. Cooper, a professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Waterloo; Ronald J. Deibert, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and director of Citizen Lab; Eytan Gilboa, a professor of communications and government chair of the Department of Social Sciences at the Holon Institute of Technology in Israel; Steven Livingston, the director of the Political Communication Program of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University; Gordon Smith, deputy minister of foreign affairs (1993-1997) at DFAIT; Peter J. Smith, a professor at Athabasca University; Elizabeth Smythe, an associate professor at Concordia University College; and Allen Sutherland, a member of the Policy Planning Staff at DFAIT.
The book is useful in that it gathers several viewpoints on the influence of new ICTs on diplomacy from authorities with different backgrounds. By having so many contributors to this book we have the opportunity to see theories on the communications revolution, how new technologies are used to create networks of resistance, the possibilities of real-time diplomacy, the consequences of increasing transparency for diplomacy, and analyses of several cases in which new ICTs were used both effectively and ineffectively.
There are several recurring themes that the different contributors address in their essays. The first is the ability of information technology to bestow enabling power upon its users. This enabling power allows individuals and non-government actors to network and mobilize at unprecedented levels in an effort to level the playing field with governments. The contributors also address the issue of technological determinism by acknowledging that new ICTs are the driving force of change. The key distinction the contributors make is that advances in technology did not create changes, but rather the progression of ICTs created an environment in which these changes could occur.
Another the book deals with is secrecy and exclusivity in diplomacy. The contributors express how new ICTs increase the power of NGOs and how, as a result of increased transparency, governments are encouraged to multiply their connections with the general public. Although this would seem like an inherently positive result, the contributors also recognize the downside to a culture of openness in diplomacy by acknowledging the necessity for secrecy in exchanges of information between governments. The book also demonstrates how the same ICTs that increase the power of individuals can, when used properly, increase the power of governments as well.
The book also challenges the notion that in an age where information is abundant, the need for foreign ministries will disappear. On the contrary, the profusion of information will make the role of the diplomat even more important, as it will be increasingly difficult to ascertain which information is credible. The atmosphere of progressively more diverse information sources will force governments to strive for higher and higher standards of credibility.
In the end, Cyber-Diplomacy is useful in that it provides an analysis of the impact of information and communications technologies by people with a variety of different viewpoints and fields of expertise. It recognizes the inability to correctly predict the future influences of ICTs by entertaining scenarios from both ends of the spectrum, from the rise of unscrupulous individuals who hold governments and societies in the palm of their hand, to the Big-Brother setting in which the government has unchecked powers of control and surveillance. This book is of immediate value in its case studies and possible scenarios for the future, but its downfall is in its correct acknowledgment that the rapid evolution of ICTs makes it difficult to predict their exact influences and the changes they will bring. Because advancements in ICT will arrive faster and faster, it is possible that this book will become outdated sooner than the computer this review was written on. It will be useful in the analysis of its contemporaries, but there is little hope for it remaining relevant in the future.