Diplomacy evolves for the Twitter Age

Fantastic news this morning — last night Ukraine and Russia articulated a diplomatic spat using a combination of Twitter and a Simpsons animated gif.

The first rule of peacemaking is to get both sides talking — it doesn’t matter where — a table, a campfire, a mountain or, in this case, Twitter. It’s great to see these two countries talking.

I think this is #moderndiplomacy at its best. In a democracy, playing to the gallery is a key skill, as public opinion shapes policy positions. Twitter provides a public platform to amplify the conversation.

Both countries are using Twitter properly — by fleshing out the skeletal 140 characters with emoji’s, images and animated gifs — provides emotional context to the conversation.

Without this emotional context, the rest of us might have actually believed they were having an argument that could lead to war.

Instead, it looks to me like an argument that is a step on the road to peace.

The conversation is fuelled by an historical feud over the role of Anne de Kiev in establishing diplomatic ties between Russia and France.

After a series of exchanges, Ukraine plays it’s final card, a Simpson’s gif likening Russia (which is independent of Ukraine now) to its old identity of the Soviet Union (which included Ukraine).

Nearly 30,000 retweets later and the argument has been shared widely.

While there is no “authoritative outcome”, this exchange has shown us something:

Twitter can be an effective platform for diplomacy.

Particularly when you want to influence the public opinion that drives policy, but to do so you must communicate in the local dialect. That means animated gifs, quickfire exchanges, spelling mistakes, images and cc’s. How fantabulous.

I’m looking forward to other countries taking the plunge and using Twitter in a new way.

Update: 1 June 2017

I had a chance to talk more about #moderndiplomacy on Twitter during an interview on Sky News yesterday: