Digital Diplomacy at the Foreign Office leadership conference

Every year UK Ambassadors return to London to look at how the Foreign Office can most effectively deliver UK priorities overseas. A key focus of those meetings is “diplomatic excellence”, working to ensure the UK has the most effective diplomatic service in the world.

This year the use of digital tools to enhance UK diplomacy featured prominently in several conference sessions.

First, in his speech to the meeting, Foreign Secretary William Hague encouraged Ambassadors to make more use of social media as one part of their diplomatic toolkit.

Second, Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher led a plenary session on the importance of digital diplomacy. It was a lively and impassioned discussion in which Ambassador Fletcher stressed the importance of Ambassadors being on social media and the need for diplomacy to evolve to incorporate digital. Alec Ross, former Senior Innovation Adviser to Hilary Clinton, contributed via Twitter stressing the need not to “freak out” about risk and the importance of using social media for listening as well as broadcasting. Stuart Hughes, BBC World Affairs Producer, described the online discussion as enjoyable though a bit like watching “grandparents dancing at a rave”. HM Consul General to Milan Vic Annells responded aptly – “I prefer my Grannies dancing”.

And third, hosted an Ambassadorial event on how digital tools can contribute to core foreign policy, in line with the FCO Digital Strategy. The event, organised by our Policy Unit and Digital Team, focussed on three scenarios which were fictional but nonetheless grounded in the real world – the case of an emerging popular movement that was not widely known; a developing political crisis with consular implications for British nationals; and an opportunity to build UK prosperity in new markets. We also had a small “digital clinic” at the event so Ambassadors could ask technical and practical questions.

What was striking at the conference was the increasing enthusiasm for using digital tools to advance UK foreign policy. The digital in foreign policy event was heavily subscribed while there was also a great appetite to learn more. The number of Ambassadors on twitter has increased from 3 in 2010 to over 50 today.

We will be looking at how we meet that demand for more training and guidance as we take forward implementation of the FCO Digital Strategy. In the meantime, you can read more of the (online) discussion at the leadership conference in the Storify below.