Digital diplomacy

Digital diplomacy, also referred to as Digiplomacy and eDiplomacy has

been defined as the use of the Internet and new information communication
technologies to help achieve diplomatic objectives. However, other definitions
have also been proposed. The definition focuses on the interplay between internet
and diplomacy, ranging from Internet driven-changes in the environment in which
diplomacy is conducted to the emergence of new topics on diplomatic agendas
such as cybersecurity, privacy and more, along with the use of internet tools to
practice diplomacy.

Overview
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office defines digital diplomacy as 'solving
foreign policy problems using the internet a narrower definition that excludes
internal electronic collaboration tools and mobile phone and tablet-based
diplomacy. The US State Department uses the term 21st Century StatecraftThe
Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development calls it Open
Policy.
Digital diplomacy can be practiced by state agencies such as Foreign Ministries,
embassies and consulates, individual diplomats such as ambassadors or
ambassadors-at-large, and non-state actors such as civil society and human rights
groups.

History
The first foreign ministry to establish a dedicated ediplomacy unit was the US
State Department, which created the Taskforce on eDiplomacy in 2002. This
Taskforce has since been renamed the Office of eDiplomacy and has
approximately 80 staff members, about half of which are dedicated to ediplomacy-
related work.
Other foreign ministries have also begun to embrace ediplomacy. The UK Foreign
and Commonwealth Office has an Office of Digital Diplomacy that is involved in a
range of ediplomacy activities. Sweden has also been active in promotion of digital
diplomacy, especially through the online communication strategy of its foreign
minister Carl Bildt who soon became 'best connected Twitter leader'.
In July 2012, global public relations and communications firm Burson-
Marsteller studied the use of Twitter by heads of state and government, referred to
as Twitter diplomacy. The study on Twiplomacy  found that there were 264
Twitter accounts of heads of state and government and their institutions in 125
countries worldwide and that only 30 leader's tweet personally. Since then, the
attention on digital diplomacy as a tool of public diplomacy has only increased. In
2013, USC Center on Public Diplomacy has named 'Facebook recognizing Kosovo
as a country' as one of the top moments in public diplomacy for 2013

Cultural diplomacy
Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the
"exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among
nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding". The purpose of
cultural diplomacy is for the people of a foreign nation to develop an
understanding of the nation's ideals and institutions in an effort to build broad
support for economic and political goals. In essence "cultural diplomacy reveals
the soul of a nation", which in turn creates influence. Though often overlooked,
cultural diplomacy can and does play an important role in achieving national
security efforts.

Definition
Culture is a set of values and practices that create meaning for society. This
includes both high culture (literature, art, and education, which appeals to elites)
and popular culture (appeals to the masses). This is what governments seek to
show foreign audiences when engaging in cultural diplomacy. It is a type of soft
power, which is the "ability to get what you want through attraction rather than
coercion or payments. It arises from a country's culture, political ideals and
policies." This indicates that the value of culture is its ability to attract foreigners to
a nation. Cultural diplomacy is also a component of public diplomacy. Public
diplomacy is enhanced by a larger society and culture, but simultaneously public
diplomacy helps to "amplify and advertise that society and culture to the world at
large". It could be argued that the information component of public diplomacy can
only be fully effective where there is already a relationship that gives credibility to
the information being relayed. This comes from knowledge of the other's
culture." Cultural diplomacy has been called the "linchpin of public diplomacy"
because cultural activities have the possibility to demonstrate the best of a
nation. In this way, cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy are intimately linked.
Richard T. Arndt, a former State Department cultural diplomacy practitioner, said
"Cultural relations grow naturally and organically, without government
intervention – the transactions of trade and tourism, student flows,
communications, book circulation, migration, media access, inter-marriage –
millions of daily cross-cultural encounters. If that is correct, cultural diplomacy can
only be said to take place when formal diplomats, serving national governments,
try to shape and channel this natural flow to advance national interests." It is
important to note that, while cultural diplomacy is, as indicated above, a
government activity, the private sector has a very real role to play because the
government does not create culture, therefore, it can only attempt to make a culture
known and define the impact this organic growth will have on national policies.
Cultural diplomacy attempts to manage the international environment by utilizing
these sources and achievements and making them known abroad. An important
aspect of this is listening- cultural diplomacy is meant to be a two-way
exchange. This exchange is then intended to foster a mutual understanding and
thereby win influence within the target nation. Cultural diplomacy derives its
credibility not from being close to government institutions, but from its proximity
to cultural authorities. It is seen as a silent weapon in gaining control over another
nation with the use of non-violent methods to perpetrate a relationship of mutual
understanding and support among the countries involved.

Purpose
Ultimately, the goal of cultural diplomacy is to influence a foreign audience and
use that influence, which is built up over the long term, as a sort of good will
reserve to win support for policies. It seeks to harness the elements of culture to
induce foreigners to:

 have a positive view of the country's people, culture and policies,

 induce greater cooperation between the two nations,
 aid in changing the policies or political environment of the target nation,
 prevent, manage and mitigate conflict with the target nation.
In turn, cultural diplomacy can help a nation better understand the foreign nation it
is engaged with and it fosters mutual understanding. Cultural diplomacy is a way
of conducting international relations without expecting anything in return in the
way that traditional diplomacy typically expects. Cultural exchange programs work
as a medium to relay a favourable impression of the foreign country in order to
gain outsiders' understanding and approval in their cultural practices and naturalize
their social norms among other cultures.
Generally, cultural diplomacy is more focused on the longer term and less on
specific policy matters. The intent is to build up influence over the long term for
when it is needed by engaging people directly. This influence has implications
ranging from national security to increasing tourism and commercial
opportunities. It allows the government to create a "foundation of trust" and a
mutual understanding that is neutral and built on people-to-people contact. Another
unique and important element of cultural diplomacy is its ability to reach youth,
non-elites and other audiences outside of the traditional embassy circuit. In short,
cultural diplomacy plants the seeds of ideals, ideas, political arguments, spiritual
perceptions and a general view point of the world that may or may not flourish in a
foreign nation. Therefore, ideologies spread by cultural diplomacy about the values
that American people believe in enables those that seek a better life to look
towards the Western world where happiness and freedom are portrayed as
desirable and achievable goals.

Tools and examples

Cultural diplomacy can and does utilize every aspect of a nation's culture. This
includes:

 The arts including films, dance, music, painting, sculpture, etc.

 Exhibitions which offer the potential to showcase numerous objects of culture
 Educational programs such as universities and language programs abroad
 Exchanges- scientific, artistic, educational etc.
 Literature- the establishment of libraries abroad and translation of popular and
national works
 Broadcasting of news and cultural programs
 Gifts to a nation, which demonstrates thoughtfulness and respect
 Religious diplomacy, including inter-religious dialogue
 Promotion and explanation of ideas and social policies
All of these tools seek to bring understanding of a nation's culture to foreign
audiences. They work best when they are proven to be relevant to the target
audience, which requires an understanding of the audience. The tools can be
utilized by working through NGOs, diasporas and political parties abroad, which
may help with the challenge of relevance and understanding. These tools are
generally not created by a government, but produced by the culture and then the
government facilitates their expression abroad to a foreign audience, with the
purpose of gaining influence.
The arts
In the 1950s the Soviet Union had a reputation that was associated with peace,
international class solidarity and progress due to its sponsorship of local
revolutionary movements for liberation. The United States was known for its
involvement in the Korean War and for preserving the status quo. In an effort to
change this perception, the United States Information Agency (USIA) sponsored a
photographic exhibition titled The Family of Man. The display originally showed
in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, but then USIA helped the display
to be seen in 91 locations in 39 countries. The 503 photographs by 237
professional and amateur photographers were curated and put together by Edward
Steichen. The images showed glimpses of everyday human life in its various
stages; courtship, birth, parenting, work, self-expression, etc., including images
from the Great Depression. The images were multi-cultured and only a few were
overtly political serving to show the eclecticism and diversity of American culture,
which is America's soft power foundation. The display was extremely popular and
attracted large numbers of crowds, in short America "showed the world, the world
and got credit for it".
A similar effort was carried out by the United States Department of State in
February 2002 entitled Images from Ground Zero. The display included 27 images,
detailing the September 11 attacks by Joel Meyerowitz that circulated, with the
backing of embassies and consulates, to 60 nations. The display was intended to
shape and maintain the public memory of the attack and its aftermath. The display
sought to show the human side of the tragedy, and not just the destruction of
buildings. The display was also intended to show a story of recovery and resolution
through documenting not only the grief and pain, but also the recovery efforts. In
many countries where the display was run, it was personalized for the population.
For example, relatives of those who died in the Towers were often invited to the
event openings. In this way, the US was able to put their own spin on the tragedy
and keep the world from forgetting.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions were often used during the Cold War to demonstrate culture and
progress by both the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1959, the American
National Exhibition was held on Sokolniki Park in Moscow. The exhibition was
opened by Vice President Richard Nixon and attended by Walt
Disney, Buckminster Fuller, William Randolph Hearst, and senior executives from
Pepsi, Kodak and Macy's. It featured American consumer goods, cars, boats, RCA
color TVs, food, clothing, etc., and samples of American products such as Pepsi.
There was a typical American kitchen set up inside in which spectators could
watch a Bird's Eye frozen meal be prepared. An IBM RAMAC computer was
programmed to answer 3,500 questions about America in Russian. The most
popular question was "what is the meaning of the American Dream?" The Soviets
tried to limit the audience by only giving tickets to party members and setting up
their own rival exhibition. But ultimately people came, and the souvenir pins that
were given out turned up in every corner of the country. The Soviets banned
printed material, but the Americans gave it out anyway. The most popular items
were the Bible and a Sears catalogue. The guides for the exhibition were American
graduate students, including African Americans and women, who spoke Russian.
This gave Russians the ability to speak to real Americans and ask difficult
questions. The ambassador to Moscow, Llewellyn Thompson, commented that "the
exhibition would be 'worth more to us than five new battleships." Exhibitions like
this were used to display the best a culture had to offer and basically show off in a
way that appeared non threatening and even friendly.
TV, music, film
Popular entertainment is a statement about the society which it is portraying.
These cultural displays can carry important messages regarding individualism,
consumer choices and other values. For example, Soviet audiences watching
American films learned that Americans owned their own cars, did not have to
stand in long lines to purchase food, and did not live in communal
apartments. These observations were not intended to be political messages when
Hollywood created the films, but they none-the-less carried a message.
Cultural programming featuring Latin Jazz music and the Bolero was already
recognized by the United States Department of State as an important diplomatic
tool during the World War II period. In the early 1940s, Nelson Rockefeller at
the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs collaborated with Edmund
A. Chester of the CBS radio broadcasting network in order to showcase leading
musicians from both North and South America for audiences on both continents.
Musical artists such as Alfredo Antonini, Terig Tucci, John Serry Sr., Miguel
Sandoval, Juan Arvizu, Elsa Miranda, Eva Garza and Nestor Mesta
Chayres participated in this truly international effort to foster peace throughout the
Americas through shared musical performances (See Viva América).
In the post World War II era, the United States Army also acknowledged the
importance of cultural programming as a valuable diplomatic tool amidst the ruins
in Europe. In 1952 the U.S. Seventh Army enlisted the expertise of the young
conductor Samuel Adler to establish the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in
Stuttgart, Germany in order to demonstrate the shared cultural heritage of America
and Europe. Performances of classical music by the orchestra continued throughout
Europe until 1962. They showcased the talents of several noted conductors and
musicians including: James Dixon, John Ferritto, Henry Lewis and Kenneth
Schermerhorn.
As the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union escalated in the
1950s, the Department of State also supported the performance of classical music
as an indispensable diplomatic tool.[48] With this in mind, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower established an Emergency Fund for International Affairs in 1954 to
stimulate the presentation of America's cultural achievements to international
audiences in the realms of dance, theatre and music.  In 1954, the State
Department's Cultural Presentations program established a cooperative relationship
with the Music Advisory Panel of the American National Theatre and
Academy (ANTA) to evaluate potential musical performers who could best
represent America at performance venues throughout the world. [52] Members of the
advisory panel included such noted American composers and academics as: Virgil
Thomson, Howard Hanson at the Eastman School of Music, William Schuman at
the Juilliard School, Milton Katims, and the music critic Alfred Frankenstein. In
addition, the State Department selected Hanson's Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra
to perform during a sweeping international cultural exchange tour in 1961. Concert
performances by this elite group of students from the Eastman School of Music
were received to critical acclaim by enthusiastic audiences in thirty four cities in
sixteen countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
Jazz played a critical role during the Cold War in establishing political ties.
Producer Willis Conover explained jazz as an embodiment of an anti-ideology or
an alternative way of living by introducing a new style of music with a loose
structure and improvisation. In November 1955, the New York Times declared
Louis Armstrong as America's most effective ambassador. What American
diplomats could not do, Armstrong and his jazz music did. This article claimed that
musicians, such as Armstrong, created a universal language to communicate.
Jazz originally surfaced in the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s, but
quickly faded. After World War II, jazz began to reemerge, but was condemned
by Andrei Zhdanov. He considered jazz as corrupt and capitalistic due to the fact
that it grew out of the United States during a time of political unrest. During the
1950s to 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement, the decolonization of Africa and Asia,
and the cultural and political rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union
created the need for cultural exchange. As a result, the United States government
sent a jazz band composed of African American musicians abroad to tour places,
including the Middle East and Africa, with the goal of the black musicians
establishing connections with their African heritage.
Duke Ellington, B.B. King, and Dizzy Gillespie all made trips to Africa that
fostered connections with the African diaspora. In 1956, Dizzy Gillespie took on
the role as a musical ambassador during his trip to the Middle East. He reported to
President Eisenhower that he and his jazz band were effective against Red
propaganda. With their interracial group, the jazz band was able to communicate
across social and language barriers. During the band's trip to Athens, Greece, a
performance transformed an audience of Anti-American students angered by the
U.S. stance on Greece's right-wing dictatorship. By the end of the performance,
Gillespie said the audience loved the music and threw him up on their shoulders
after the performance. Diplomats emphasized the positive effects of musical
diplomacy on the public.
From 1955 to 1996, jazz producer Willis Conover hosted a music program called
"Music USA," for the Voice of America to assist in the emergence of jazz
musicians as U.S. ambassadors.  Conover explained: "Jazz is a cross between total
discipline and anarchy," for the way the musicians agree on tempo, key, and chord,
but is distinguishable by its freedom of expression. As many as thirty million
listeners worldwide, including millions in the Soviet Union, listened to the forty-
five minutes of pop music and forty-five minutes of jazz with a newscast preceding
each. Many critics have stated that Conover's program played a major role in the
resurgence of jazz within the Soviet Union after the WWII. Many historians
believe that this freedom aspect of jazz was representative of the American culture
during this time.

The Fabs
The effect The Beatles had in Russia during the Cold War is an example of how
music artists and their songs can become political. During this time, rock music
channelled liberal "Western" ideas as a progressive and modernized art form. The
Beatles symbolized the Western culture in a way that introduced new ideas that
many believe assisted in the collapse of communism. As a result, the Beatles
served as cultural diplomats through their popularity in the Soviet Union. Their
music fostered youth communication and united people with a common spirit of
popular culture.
Kolya Vasin, the founder of The Beatles museum and the Temple of Love, Peace
and Music in St. Petersburg, commented that The Beatles "were like an integrity
test. When anyone said anything against them, we knew just what that person was
worth. The authorities, our teachers, even our parents, became idiots to
us." Despite the attempts of the Soviet Union's government to prevent the spread of
the Beatles' popularity amongst their citizens, the band proved to be as popular in
the USSR as it was in Britain. The government went as far as censoring the
expression of all Western ideals, including the Beatles' bourgeois eccentricity,
limiting the Soviet citizens' access to their music. [61] Leslie Woodland, a
documentary film maker, commented regarding what the Russian people were told
about the West – "Once people heard the Beatles' wonderful music, it just didn't fit.
The authorities' prognosis didn't correspond to what they were listening to. The
system was built on fear and lies, and in this way, the Beatles put an end to the
fear, and exposed the lies." Pavel Palazchenko, Mikhail Gorbachev's conference
interpreter, stated that the Beatles' music was a "source of musical relief. They
helped us create a world of our own, a world different from the dull and senseless
ideological liturgy that increasingly reminded me of Stalinism...". Like Gorbachev,
many Russian youth agreed that the Beatles were a way to overcome the cultural
isolation imposed by the Cold War and reinforced by their current political system.
In this way the music of The Beatles struck a political chord in the Soviet Union,
even when the songs were not meant to be political. This contact went both ways.
In 1968, when the song "Back in the USSR" was released, the album included a
quote on the cover from Paul McCartney that read "In releasing this record, made
especially and exclusively for the USSR, I am extending a hand of peace and
friendship to the Soviet people." During Paul McCartney's first trip to Russia in
May 2003, nearly half a million fans greeted him. One Russian critic reported,
"The only person in Red Square who wasn't moved was Lenin". This is an example
of how products of culture can have an influence on the people they reach outside
of their own country. It also shows how a private citizen can unintentionally
become a cultural ambassador of sorts.

Institutions

  Alliance Française, France

  Institut Français, France
  Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Italy
  Dante Alighieri Society, Italy
  EMMA for Peace, Italy
  Balassi Institute, Hungary (1927– )
  British Council, United Kingdom (1934– )
  Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States
  United States Information Agency, United States (1953–99)
  Confucius Institute, People's Republic of China (2004– )
  Danish Cultural Institute, Denmark (1940– )
  Goethe-Institut, Germany
  Instituto Cervantes, Spain
  Institut Ramon Llull, Catalonia
  Japan Foundation, Japan
  Yunus Emre Institute, Turkey
  Korean Friendship Association, North Korea
  Korean Cultural Center, South Korea
  Instituto Camões, Portugal
  Sentro Rizal, Philippines
  Swedish Institute, Sweden
  Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel

Public diplomacy
In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly
speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at
communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to
inform and influence with the aim that this foreign public supports or tolerates a
government’s strategic objectives. As the international order has changed over the
20th century, so has the practice of public diplomacy. Its practitioners use a variety
of instruments and methods ranging from personal contact and media interviews to
the Internet and educational exchanges.

Background and definitions

In his essay "'Public Diplomacy' Before Gullion: The Evolution of a
Phrase," Nicholas J. Cull of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy writes, "The
earliest use of the phrase 'public diplomacy' to surface is actually not American at
all but in a leader piece from the London Times in January 1856. It is used merely
as a synonym for civility in a piece criticizing the posturing of President Franklin
Pierce." Cull writes that Edmund Gullion, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University and a distinguished retired foreign service officer,
"was the first to use the phrase in its modern meaning." In 1965, Gullion founded
the Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy, and Cull writes "An early
Murrow Center brochure provided a convenient summary of Gullion's concept":
Public diplomacy... deals with the influence of public attitudes on the formation
and execution of foreign policies. It encompasses dimensions of international
relations beyond traditional diplomacy; the cultivation by governments of public
opinion in other countries; the interaction of private groups and interests in one
country with another; the reporting of foreign affairs and its impact on policy;
communication between those whose job is communication, as diplomats and
foreign correspondents; and the process of intercultural communications.
Over time, the concept and definition has evolved by various practitioners
The most important roles public diplomacy will have to play for the United States
in the current international environment will be less grand-strategic and more
operational than during the Cold War. Support of national policy in military
contingencies is one such role, and probably the most important.
— Carnes Lord (former Deputy Director USIA), Professor of Statecraft and
Civilization, October 1998
Public diplomacy – effectively communicating with publics around the globe – to
understand, value and even emulate America's vision and ideas; historically one of
America's most effective weapons of outreach, persuasion and policy.
— Jill A. Schuker (former Senior Director for Public Affairs at the National
Security Council) July 2004
Public diplomacy's 21st century trend is dominated by fractal globalization,
preemptive military invasion, information and communication technologies that
shrink time and distance, and the rise of global non-state actors (terror networks,
bloggers) that challenge state-driven policy and discourse on the subject.
— (Nancy Snow, Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, 2009)
Public diplomacy may be defined, simply, as the conduct of international relations
by governments through public communications media and through dealings with
a wide range of nongovernmental entities (political parties, corporations, trade
associations, labor unions, educational institutions, religious organizations, ethnic
groups, and so on including influential individuals) for the purpose of influencing
the politics and actions of other governments.
— Alan K. Henrikson, Professor of Diplomatic History, April 2005.
Public diplomacy that traditionally represents actions of governments to influence
overseas publics within the foreign policy process has expanded today – by
accident and design – beyond the realm of governments to include the media,
multinational corporations, NGO's and faith-based organizations as active
participants in the field.
— Crocker Snow Jr., Acting Director Edward R. Murrow Center, May 2005.
"PUBLIC DIPLOMACY refers to government-sponsored programs intended to
inform or influence public opinion in other countries; its chief instruments are
publications, motion pictures, cultural exchanges, radio and television." (U.S.
Department of State, Dictionary of International Relations Terms, 1987, p. 85)
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which was the main government
agency in charge of Public Diplomacy until it merged with the Department of State
in 1999, described it as: Public diplomacy seeks to promote the national interest
and the national security of the United States through understanding, informing,
and influencing foreign publics and broadening dialogue between American
citizens and institutions and their counterparts abroad.
For The Planning Group for Integration of USIA into the Dept. of State (June 20,
1997), public diplomacy is defined as follows: "Public Diplomacy seeks to
promote the national interest of the United States through understanding, informing
and influencing foreign audiences."
According to Hans N. Tuch, author of Communicating With the World (St.
Martin's Press, NY, 1990), public diplomacy is defined as: "Official government
efforts to shape the communications environment overseas in which American
foreign policy is played out, in order to reduce the degree to which misperceptions
and misunderstandings complicate relations between the U.S. and other nations."
Standard diplomacy might be described as the ways in which government leaders
communicate with each other at the highest levels, the elite diplomacy we are all
familiar with. Public diplomacy, by contrast focuses on the ways in which a
country (or multi-lateral organization such as the United Nations) communicates
with citizens in other societies. A country may be acting deliberately or
inadvertently, and through both official and private individuals and institutions.
Effective public diplomacy starts from the premise that dialogue, rather than a
sales pitch, is often central to achieving the goals of foreign policy: public
diplomacy must be seen as a two-way street. Furthermore, public diplomacy
activities often present many differing views as represented by private American
individuals and organizations in addition to official U.S. Government views.
Traditional diplomacy actively engages one government with another government.
In traditional diplomacy, U.S. Embassy officials represent the U.S. Government in
a host country primarily by maintaining relations and conducting official USG
business with the officials of the host government whereas public diplomacy
primarily engages many diverse non-government elements of a society.
Film, television, music, sports, video games and other social/cultural activities are
seen by public diplomacy advocates as enormously important avenues for
otherwise diverse citizens to understand each other and integral to the international
cultural understanding, which they state is a key goal of modern public diplomacy
strategy. It involves not only shaping the message(s) that a country wishes to
present abroad, but also analyzing and understanding the ways that the message is
interpreted by diverse societies and developing the tools of listening and
conversation as well as the tools of persuasion.
One of the most successful initiatives which embodies the principles of effective
public diplomacy is the creation by international treaty in the 1950s of
the European Coal and Steel Community which later became the European Union.
Its original purpose after World War II was to tie the economies of Europe together
so much that war would be impossible. Supporters of European integration see it as
having achieved both this goal and the extra benefit of catalysing greater
international understanding as European countries did more business together and
the ties among member states' citizens increased. Opponents of European
integration are leery of a loss of national sovereignty and greater centralization of
power.
Public diplomacy has been an essential element of American foreign policy for
decades. It was an important tool in influencing public opinion during the Cold
War with the former Soviet Union. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the
term has come back into vogue as the United States government works to improve
their reputation abroad, particularly in the Middle East and among those in the
Islamic world. Numerous panels, including those sponsored by the Council on
Foreign Relations, have evaluated American efforts in public diplomacy
since 9/11 and have written reports recommending that the United States take
various actions to improve the effectiveness of their public diplomacy.
The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy was established in
the late 1940s to evaluate American public diplomacy effort. The Commission is a
seven-member bipartisan board whose members are nominated by the President
and confirmed by the United States Senate. William Hybl is the current chair, and
other members include former Ambassadors Lyndon Olson and Penne Percy Korth
Peacock, as well as Jay Snyder, John E. Osborn and Lezlee Westine.
This traditional concept is expanded on with the idea of adopting what is called
"population-centric foreign affairs" within which foreign populations assume a
central component of foreign policy. Since people, not just states, are of global
importance in a world where technology and migration increasingly face everyone,
an entire new door of policy is opened.
Facebook diplomacy
The term Facebook diplomacy was coined sometime in October 2008 in casual
notes exchanged on Twitter, in connection to U.S. President Barack Obama's
electoral political campaign's keen use of Facebook and other social network
websites. The term Facebook diplomacy was further introduced and elaborated to
describe the potential 'soft power' that can be created with Internet social
networking tools like Facebook to counter terrorism, and interfere with repressive
governments and militant groups in a discussion at a social networking and
technology conference in December 2008 in New York.
During the December conference in New York, the United States Undersecretary
of Public Diplomacy, James Glassman said, "New technology gives the United
States and other free nations a significant advantage over terrorists." In his
presentation at New York's Columbia University Law School, he went on to
illustrate how Facebook diplomacy and on-line activism created success through
the use of Facebook groups and the use of the platform to create activism and
cause global awareness relative to issues in Colombia against the infamous FARC
rebels.

Social networking diplomacy

In general, Facebook diplomacy is a user created hybrid of public
diplomacy and citizen diplomacy as applied in the Facebook social networking
platform. Other terms that have also evolved in this diplomacy category
include Twitter diplomacy, Google diplomacy and digital diplomacy.
In March 2009 some Facebook users started a Facebook users group called
MUNSNE, (Model United Nations, Social Network Embassy) which changed their
name to Globcal International in May. Their founding principles engaged the
further development and refinement of public and citizen diplomacy as it applies
for use within the Facebook Platform with the developed introduction of protocol,
principles, and a best practice guide based on several ISO-like standards relative to
writing, and public presentation. Globcal's public diplomacy concept differs from
that of the US State Department because it offers a broad global democratic world-
view instead of the United States propagandized perception as described in some
public diplomacy descriptions.

Facebook and Twitter ambassador

Facebook ambassador is a generic term representation as an idiom or neologism
that can be attributed to individual users on Facebook who have developed a
Facebook page presence and professional representation on Facebook as an
'ambassador' of 'networking' that promote their agendas in a general socially
beneficial manner and ideally a cooperative way in their representative appearance
to other Facebook users by following Facebook best practices, strictly adhering to
Facebook's policies, and by following selective hybridized protocols conducive to
the generation of compounded social networking activity as a virtual
communitarian, and peacemaker to promote multiple social causes and other
socially beneficial activities.
The 'Facebook Ambassadors' of public and citizen diplomacy include over 200
ambassadors from 87 countries that each maintain a public profile or fan page and
together maintain many popular Facebook pages (on-line electronic publications)
like Goodwill Ambassadors, Ambassadors of the World, Peace and Goodwill, and
Age of Aquarius which collectively have nearly 250,000 subscribers.
Alternatively, Facebook ambassador may also refer to Facebook Garage
Ambassadors who are dedicated to the technical aspect of Facebook development.
Research 'Facebook Developer Garage' and 'Garage-In-A-Box'.
Twitter diplomacy
Twitter diplomacy, also "Twiplomacy" or "hashtag diplomacy", is the use of
social media website, Twitter, by heads of state, leaders of intergovernmental
organizations (IGOs), and their diplomats to conduct diplomatic outreach
and public diplomacy.
Twitter has taken on diverse and occasional roles in diplomatic communications,
from cordial announcements of bi-lateral cooperation to terse exchanges and
diplomatic jabs, as well as more casual posts.

Origins
The term twitplomacy was proposed in 2011, in one of the first works focused on
the study of diplomacy within the social networks. This report purports to show
how presidents use Twitter to keep diplomatic relationships with other presidents
and political actors. However, the use of Twitter by world leaders and diplomats
was on the rise as of April 2014 but Twitter diplomacy was only one aspect of the
growing trend toward digital diplomacy, also known as eDiplomacy or Facebook
diplomacy, by many world governments.
Twitter and diplomacy
As of April 2014, an estimated 241 million active users had joined Twitter. Twitter
also offers policymakers the possibility to interact with a worldwide audience.
World leaders and their diplomats have taken note of Twitter's rapid expansion and
have begun using it to engage with foreign publics and their own citizens.  US
Ambassador to Russia, Michael A. McFaul was one of the first diplomats to use
Twitter as a tool for diplomacy. He used Twitter after becoming ambassador in
2011, posting in English and Russian. A 2013 study by website Twiplomacy found
that 153 of the 193 countries represented at the United Nations had established
government Twitter accounts. The same study also found that those accounts
amounted to 505 Twitter handles used by world leaders and their foreign ministers,
with their tweets able to reach a combined audience of over 106 million followers.
Commenting in a 2013 publication on the subject for the Geneva-based, non-profit
Diplo, former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said of social media, "Social
media exposes foreign policymakers to global audiences while at the same time
allowing governments to reach them instantly [...] Twitter has two big positive
effects on foreign policy: it fosters a beneficial exchange of ideas between
policymakers and civil society and enhances diplomats' ability to gather
information and to anticipate, analyze, manage, and react to events."

Use by governments and intergovernmental organizations

Twiplomacy's 2013 study provided new insight into the use of Twitter by
governments. Twitter registration by region includes:

 Africa: 71% of governments

 Asia: 75% of governments
 Europe: 100% of governments
 North America: 18 governments
 Oceania: 38% of governments
 South America: 92% of governments
By heads of state and government
Former US President Barack Obama is credited as being the first head of state to
establish a Twitter account, originally affiliated with his 2008 presidential
campaign, on March 5, 2007 as user number 813,286. He was also the most
followed head of state on Twitter.
Other heads of state and government to pioneer the conduct of Twitter diplomacy
include Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di
Rupo,] and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, all of whom joined Twitter in
2007.
US president Donald Trump (who's frequent and often controversial use of Twitter
during the 2016 US presidential election campaign and since has become well
known around the world) has actively engaged in Twitter diplomacy during his
years in office.
By leaders of intergovernmental organizations
As of April 2014, the United Nations (UN) is the most followed intergovernmental
organization, with its website showing over 2.56 million viewers in April 2014.
Many of the UN's subordinate funds and agencies also attract large numbers of
followers. The United Nations Children's Fund achieved greater popularity than its
parent organization, the UN, and is followed by over 2.69 million as of April 2014.
By diplomats and diplomatic missions
Former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, echoed the
sentiment of many diplomats when responding to a May 2012 question about why
he joined Twitter: "Today there are few alternatives as far-reaching and effective,
with very wide audiences and young audiences, as Twitter. Twitter is another tool
that enables me to communicate with other diplomats and journalists, while also
allowing me to add a personal touch."
Foreign ministries have caught on, and some are making efforts to advertise their
presence on Twitter. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for example,
published a consolidated list of all UK missions on social media.
The United States State Department, one of the leaders in digital diplomacy,
maintains an active presence on Twitter. Although former United States Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton encouraged American diplomats to tweet, she did not
establish her personal handle until 2013, after she had already left office. Current
Secretary John Kerry re-activated his personal Twitter handle after one year on the
job. Former US ambassador to the Russian Federation, Michael McFaul, pioneered
the use of Twitter for American ambassadors with a steady stream of
English/Russian tweets during his 2011–2014 tenure. An academic by trade and
not a career diplomat, Ambassador McFaul's tweets were generally blunt and un-
polished—uncommon characteristics in the diplomatic world—earning both
frequent criticism from the Russian government and praise from his supporters.
Office of eDiplomacy
The Office of eDiplomacy is an applied technology think tank for the United
States Department of State. The Office of eDiplomacy is staffed
by Foreign and Civil Service Officers, as well as contract professionals. There are
three branches, the Diplomatic Innovation Division, the Knowledge Leadership
Division and the Customer Liaison Division.
The unit was formed in response to recommendations from the 1999 Overseas
Presence Advisory Panel that the State Department improve its ability to
communicate and share knowledge.
eDiplomacy's Customer Liaison Division facilitates and enhances communications
between the Bureau of Information Resource Management and its global users.
With a mandated goal of providing customer (global staff) satisfaction with
products, platforms and services developed by the IRM Bureau. In addition, the
CLD collaborates with other U.S. Government agencies and multiple other entities
to provide information services that advance U.S. security, emergency
preparedness, and communications objectives.

History
In 2002, Ambassador James Holmes started the eDiplomacy Task Force. In 2003,
the task force was reorganized into the Office of eDiplomacy. Currently,
eDiplomacy falls under the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Business,
Management, and Planning.
Rahima Kandahari is the current Director, David L McCormick is the Chief of
eDiplomacy's Knowledge Leadership Division, Daniel Sheerin is Chief of the
eDiplomacy Diplomatic Innovation Division and Veronica Branch is Chief of the
Customer Liaison Division.
Other previous eDiplomacy Directors at the U.S. Department of State include:

 Joe Johnson
 Gerry Gallucci
 Gary Galloway (acting)
 Thomas Niblock
 Stephen Smith
 Daniel P. Sheerin (acting)
 Richard Boly
 Eric Nelson
 Kathryn Cabral
 M. Andre Goodfriend
 Rahima Kandahari

Major Programs
The Office of eDiplomacy runs several knowledge management and new media
technology programs for the U.S. Department of State.
Among the most active are:

 Diplopedia, the State Department's internal collaborative online wiki.

 Communities @ State, an initiative enables State Department personnel with
shared professional interests to form internal online communities to publish
information, connect with others, and create discussion.
 Corridor, the State Department's professional networking platform for all
personnel with access to State's OpenNet network.
 The Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) program, part of a continuing
effort by the State Department to harness technology, encourage a commitment
to global service among young people, and to facilitate new forms of
diplomatic engagement.
After developing and launching the State Department Sounding Board in 2009,
Office of eDiplomacy staff supported this internal idea sharing forum, now
managed by the Management Bureau and the Secretary of State's cadre.
Virtual Work Environments were initiated by the Office of eDiplomacy
with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), and used in many units at State. The
State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset (SMART) program leads the WSS
deployment effort.
Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia
The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (in Catalan language Consell de
Diplomàcia Pública de Catalunya; acronym: DIPLOCAT) – previously known
as the Patronat Catalunya Món – is a public-private consortium set up by the
Catalan government, the Generalitat. It is devoted to promoting international
awareness of Catalonia within the international community through public
diplomacy tools. Albert Royo i Mariné was the secretary general of the Diplomacy
Council from 14 February 2013 to October 27, 2017 when the government of
Spain decided to close the consortium in application of article 155 of the Spanish
Constitution. Its creation has been controversial, since the constitution reserves
external action to the government of Spain exclusively. With the arrival of the new
government of the Generalitat, the President Quim Torra convened the first
meeting of its board of trustees since the beginning of the process of liquidation.
With this announcement, the liquidation of the consortium was terminated and the
process of reactivation started. In December 2018 its board of trustees appointed
Ms. Laura Foraster as the new secretary general of Diplocat.

Activities
From 2013 to 2017 DIPLOCAT organized academic events to discuss both
internationally relevant topics within Catalonia with international guests and the
Catalan independence process in universities around the world. Examples of these
events include debates in Lisbon, Utrecht, Oslo, Cambridge, Princeton, Sciences
Po Paris, Stockholm and Tokyo.
Diplocat also organized public events in Catalonia itself. In that sense, Diplocat
invited Jeremy Rifkin to talk about the possibilities for Catalonia to implement the
third industrial revolution, and also organized an international forum in Barcelona
about reception and integration of refugees in the European Union.
It also published articles in international press to explain the political situation in
Catalonia; awards grants; organized an executive master's degree
in diplomacy and foreign affairs; organized meetings with foreign members of
parliaments to promote debate on the question of the "right to decide"; invited
well-known figures from different fields of work or studies to visit
Catalonia; participated in electoral observation missions, aided civil society
organizations carrying out activities abroad; prepares informative documents
explaining key aspects of everything related to Catalonia; and carried out digital
diplomacy with activity on social networks - especially Twitter.
They also carried out activities in the field of cultural diplomacy, such as the
#BooksAndRoses campaign, which promotes giving roses and books in and around
April 23, when Sant Jordi is celebrated in Catalonia, or supporting documentaries
such as the one about the 40 years of Dutch soccer player Johann Cruyff in
Catalonia.
DIPLOCAT also gave the annual Catalan Business Diplomacy Award, aimed at
recognizing those companies which identify themselves or their products and
services as Catalan. The award was first created in 2013 by DIPLOCAT working
together with PIMEC. It has been won by Aranow
(2013), Scytl (2014), Moritz (2015), Ultramàgic (2016) and Beabloo (2017). With
Diplocat reactivated the award was restored and the company Munich was awarded
in 2019.
One of the first activities held by Diplocat once reactivated was a seminar on
public diplomacy in Barcelona in which professor Nicholas Cull gave the key
speech. In that conference the new secretary general Ms. Laura Foraster said that
Diplocat's goals are to export "the image, assets and values of Catalonia abroad".
Impact in international journalism
The presence of DIPLOCAT has been acknowledged to improve the positive
perceptions on Catalonia of the international journalists who had previously
established contact with the consortium. Moreover, there is a correlation between
the professional needs of correspondents (information sources and materials) and
the Public Diplomacy activities being provided by DIPLOCAT.
Open government
Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the
right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for
effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of
state and other considerations, which have tended to legitimize extensive
state secrecy. The origins of open-government arguments can be dated to the time
of the European Age of Enlightenment, during which philosophers debated the
proper construction of a then nascent democratic society. It is also increasingly
being associated with the concept of democratic reform.

Components
The concept of open government is broad in scope but is most often connected to
ideas of government transparency and accountability. One definition, published by
The Quality of Government Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden,
limits government openness to information released by the government, or the
extent to which citizens can request and receive information that is not already
published. Harlan Yu and David G. Robinson specify the distinction between open
data and open government in their paper "The New Ambiguity of "Open
Government". They define open government in terms of service delivery and
public accountability. They argue that technology can be used to facilitate
disclosure of information, but that the use of open data technologies does not
necessarily equate accountability.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
approaches open government through the following categories: whole of
government coordination, civic engagement and access to information, budget
transparency, integrity and the fight against corruption, use of technology, and
local development.

History
The term 'open government' originated in the United States after World War II.
Wallace Parks, who served on a subcommittee on Government Information created
by the U.S. Congress, introduce the term in his 1957 article "The Open
Government Principle: Applying the Right to Know under the Constitution". After
this and after the passing of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966,
federal courts began using the term as a synonym for government transparency.
Although this was the first time that 'open government' was introduced the concept
of transparency and accountability in government can be traced back to Ancient
Greece in fifth century B.C.E. Athens where different legal institutions regulated
the behavior of officials and offered a path for citizens to express their grievances
towards them. One such institution, the euthyna, held officials to a standard of
"straightness" and enforced that they give an account in front of an Assembly of
citizens about everything that they did that year.
In more recent history, the idea that government should be open to public scrutiny
and susceptible to public opinion dates back to the time of the Enlightenment,
when many philosophes made an attack on absolutist doctrines of state
secrecy. The passage of formal legislature can also be traced to this time
with Sweden, (which then included Finland as a Swedish-governed territory)
where free press legislation was enacted as part of its constitution (Freedom of the
Press Act, 1766).
Influenced by Enlightenment thought, the revolutions in United States (1776) and
France (1789), enshrined provisions and requirements for public budgetary
accounting and freedom of the press in constitutional articles. In the nineteenth
century, attempts by Metternichean statesmen to row back on these measures were
vigorously opposed by a number of eminent liberal politicians and writers,
including Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron
Acton.
Open government is widely seen to be a key hallmark of
contemporary democratic practice and is often linked to the passing of freedom of
information legislation. Scandinavian countries claim to have adopted the first
freedom of information legislation, dating the origins of its modern provisions to
the eighteenth century and Finland continuing the presumption of openness after
gaining independence in 1917, passing its Act on Publicity of Official Documents
in 1951 (superseded by new legislation in 1999).
An emergent development also involves the increasing integration of software and
mechanisms that allow citizens to become more directly involved in governance,
particularly in the area of legislation. Some refer to this phenomenon as e-
participation, which has been described as "the use of information and
communication technologies to broaden and deepen political participation by
enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their elected
representatives".

Current policies
Africa
Morocco's new constitution of 2011, outlined several goals the government wishes
to achieve in order to guarantee the citizens right to information. The world has
been offering support to the government in order to enact these reforms through the
Transparency and Accountability Development Policy Loan (DPL). This loan is
part of a joint larger program between the European Union and the African
Development Bank to offer financial and technical support to governments
attempting to implement reforms.
As of 2010, section 35 of Kenya's constitution ensures citizens' rights to
government information. The article states "35.(1) Every citizen has the right of
access to — (a) information held by the State; and (b) information held by another
person and required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental
freedom ... (3) The State shall publish and publicize any important information
affecting the nation." Important government data is now freely available through
the Kenya Open Data Initiative.
Asia
Taiwan started its e-government program in 1998 and since then has had a series of
laws and executive orders to enforce open government policies. The Freedom of
Government Information Law of 2005, stated that all government information must
be made public. Such information includes budgets, administrative plans,
communication of government agencies, subsidies. Since then it released its open
data platform, data.gov.tw. The Sunflower Movement of 2014, emphasized the
value that Taiwanese citizens place on openness and transparency. A white paper
published by the National Development Council with policy goals for 2020
explores ways to increase citizen participation and use open data for further
government transparency.
The Philippines passed the Freedom of Information Order in 2016, outlining
guidelines to practice government transparency and full public disclosure. In
accordance to its General Appropriations Act of 2012, the Philippine government
requires government agencies to display a "transparency seal" on their websites,
which contains information about the agency's functions, annual reports, officials,
budgets, and projects.
The Right to Information (RTI) movement in India, created the RTI law in 2005
after environmental movements demanded the release of information regarding
environmental deterioration due to industrialization. Another catalyst for the RTI
law and other similar laws in southeast Asia, may have been due to multilateral
agencies offering aid and loans in exchange for more transparency or "democratic"
policies.
Europe
In the Netherlands, large social unrest and the growing influence of televisions in
the 1960s led to a push for more government openness. Access to information
legislation was passed in 1980 and since then further emphasis has been placed on
measuring the performance of government agencies. Particularly, the government
of the Netherlands adopted the Open Government in Action (Open overheid in
actie) Plan for 2016–2017, which outlines nine concrete commitments to the open
government standards set by the OECD.
North America
In 2009, President Obama released a memorandum on transparency and open
government and started the Open Government Initiative. In his memorandum put
forward his administration's goal to strengthen democracy through a transparent,
participatory and collaborative government. The initiative has goals of a
transparent and collaborative government, in which to end secrecy in Washington,
while improving effectiveness through increased communication between citizens
and government officials. Movements for government transparency in recent
United States history started in the 1950s after World War II because federal
departments and agencies had started limiting information availability as a reaction
to global hostilities during the war and due to fear of Cold War spies. Agencies
were given the right to deny access to information "for good cause found" or "in
the public interest". These policies made it difficult for congressional committees
to get access to records and documents, which then led to explorations of possible
legislative solutions.
South America
Since the early 2000s, transparency has been an important part of Chile's Anti-
Corruption and Probity Agenda and State Modernization Agenda. In 2008, Chile
passed the Transparency Law has led to further open government reforms. Chile
published its open government action plan for 2016-18 as part of its membership of
the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

E-government
E-government (short for electronic government) is the use of technological
communications devices, such as computers and the Internet to provide public
services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers
new opportunities for more direct and convenient citizen access to government,
and for government provision of services directly to citizens.
The term consists of the digital interactions between a citizen and their government
(C2G), between governments and other government agencies (G2G), between
government and citizens (G2C), between government and employees (G2E), and
between government and businesses/commerces (G2B). E-government delivery
models can be broken down into the following categories: This interaction consists
of citizens communicating with all levels of government (city, state/province,
national, and international), facilitating citizen involvement
in governance using information and communication technology (ICT) (such as
computers and websites) and business process re-engineering (BPR). Brabham and
Guth (2017) interviewed the third party designers of e-government tools in North
America about the ideals of user interaction that they build into their technologies,
which include progressive values, ubiquitous participation, geolocation, and
education of the public.
Other definitions stray from the idea that technology is an object and defines e-
government simply as facilitators or instruments and focus on specific changes in
Public Administration issues. The internal transformation of a Government is the
definition that established the specialist technologist Mauro D. Ríos. In his paper
"In search of a definition of Electronic Government", he says: "Digital
Government is a new way of organization and management of public affairs,
introducing positive transformational processes in management and the structure
itself of the organization chart, adding value to the procedures and services
provided, all through the introduction and continued appropriation of information
and communication technologies as a facilitator of these transformations."

Terminology
E-government is also known as e-gov, electronic government, Internet governance,
digital government, online government, connected government. As of 2014
the OECD still uses the term digital government, and distinguishes it from e-
government in the recommendation produced there for the Network on E-
Government of the Public Governance Committee. Several governments have
started to use the term digital government to a wide range of services involving
contemporary technology, such as big data, automation or predictive analytics.

Definition
E-gov strategies (or digital government) is defined as "The employment of the
Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and
services to the citizens." (United Nations, 2006; AOEMA, 2005).  Electronic
government (or e-government) essentially refers to "utilization of Information
Technology (IT), Information and Communication Technologies (ICT s), and other
web-based telecommunication technologies to improve and/or enhance on the
efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector.". E-
government promotes and improves broad stakeholders contribution to national
and community development, as well as deepen the governance process.
In electronic government systems, government operations are supported by web-
based services. It involves the use of information technology, specifically the
Internet, to facilitate the communication between the government and its citizens.

UN e-Government Development Index

The Division of a Public Administration and Development Management (DPAPM)
of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA)
conducts a bi-annual e-government survey which includes a section titled e-
Government Development Index (EGDI). It is a comparative ranking of 193
countries of the world according to three primary indicators: i) the OSI - Online
Service Index that measures the online presence of the government in terms of
service delivery; ii) the TII - Telecommunication Infrastructure Index iii) HCI -
Human Capital Index. Constructing a model for the measurement of digitized
services, the Survey assesses the 193 member states of the UN according to a
quantitative composite index of e-government readiness based on website
assessment; telecommunication infrastructure and human resource endowment.
A diverse group of 100 researchers online volunteers from across the globe
engaged with the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs (UN DESA) to
process 386 research surveys carried out across 193 UN Member States for the
2016 UN E-Government Survey.  The diversity of nationalities and languages of
the online volunteers—more than 65 languages, 15 nationalities, of which half are
from developing countries—mirrors perfectly the mission of the survey.
The survey has been criticized not including an index of digital inclusion levels.

Non-internet e-government
While e-government is often thought of as "online government" or "Internet-based
government," many non-Internet "electronic government" technologies can be used
in this context. Some non-Internet forms include telephone, fax, PDA, SMS text
messaging, MMS, wireless networks and services, Bluetooth, CCTV, tracking
systems, RFID, biometric identification, road traffic management and regulatory
enforcement, identity cards, smart cards and other near field
communication applications; polling station technology (where non-online e-
voting is being considered), TV and radio-based delivery of government services
(e.g., CSMW), email, online community facilities, newsgroups and electronic
mailing lists, online chat, and instant messaging technologies

British Council
The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural
and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider
knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh
language in Argentina, encouraging cultural, scientific, technological and
educational co-operation with the United Kingdom.
The British Council is governed by a Royal Charter. It is also a public
corporation and an executive nondepartmental public body (NDPB), sponsored by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Its headquarters are near Trafalgar Square.
Its Chairman is Stevie Spring, its CEO is Sir Ciarán Devane and its Chief
Operating Officer is Andy Williams.

History

 1934: British Foreign Office officials created the "British Committee for
Relations with Other Countries" to support English education abroad, promote
British culture and fight the rise of fascism.[4] The name quickly became British
Council for Relations with Other Countries.
 1936: The organisation's name was officially shortened to the British Council.
 1938: The British Council opens its first four offices
in Bucharest (Romania), Cairo (Egypt), Lisbon (Portugal)
and Warsaw (Poland). the offices in Portugal are currently the oldest in
continuous operation in the world.
 1940: King George VI granted the British Council a Royal Charter for
promoting "a wider knowledge of [the United Kingdom] and the English
language abroad and developing closer cultural relations between [the UK] and
other countries".
 1942: The British Council undertook a promotion of British culture overseas.
The music section of the project was a recording of significant recent
compositions by British composers: E.J. Moeran's Symphony in G minor was
the first work to be recorded under this initiative, followed by recordings of
Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Bliss's Piano Concerto, Bax's Third Symphony,

 1944: In August, after the liberation of Paris, Austin Gill was sent by the
council to reestablish the Paris office, which soon had tours by the Old
Vic company, Julian Huxley and T. S. Eliot.[13]
 1946: The British Council collected handicraft products from crafts that were
being practised in the British Countryside for an ‘Exhibition of Rural
Handicrafts from Great Britain’ that travelled to Australia and New Zealand.
 The majority of the collection was sold to the Museum of English Rural Life in
1960 and 1961.
 2007: The Russian Foreign Ministry ordered the British Council to close its
offices outside Moscow. The Ministry alleged that it had violated Russian tax
regulations, a move that British officials claimed was a retaliation over the
British expulsion of Russian diplomats allegedly involved with the poisoning of
Alexander Litvinenko. This caused the British Council to cease carrying out all
English-language examinations in Russia from January 2008. In early 2009, a
Russian arbitration court ruled that the majority of the tax claims, valued at
$6.6 million, were unjustified.
 2011: On 19 August, a group of armed men attacked the British Council office
in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, killing at least 12 people – none of them
British – and temporarily took over the compound. All the attackers were killed
in counter-attacks by forces guarding the compound. The British Council office
was relocated to the British Embassy compound, as the British Council
compound was destroyed in the suicide attack.
 2013: The British Council in Tripoli, Libya, was targeted by a car bomb on the
morning of 23 April. Diplomatic sources were reported as saying that "the
bombers were foiled as they were preparing to park a rigged vehicle in front of
the compound gate".The attempted attack was simultaneous with the attack on
the French Embassy in Tripoli on the same day that injured two French security
guards, one severely, and wounded several residents in neighbouring houses. A
jihadist group calling itself the Mujahedeen Brigade was suspected possibly
linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Organisation
The British Council is a charity governed by Royal Charter. It is also a public
corporation and an executive nondepartmental public body (NDPB), sponsored by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Its headquarters are off Trafalgar Square,
London. Its chair is Stevie Spring,  its CEO Sir Ciarán Devane and chief operating
officer Adrian Greer.
The British Council's total income in 2014–15 was £973 million principally made
up of £154.9 million grant-in-aid received from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office; £637 million income from fees and teaching and examinations services;
and £164 million from contracts.
The British Council works in more than 100 countries: promoting a wider
knowledge of the UK and the English language; encouraging cultural, scientific,
technological and educational understanding and co-operation; changing people's
lives through access to UK education, skills, qualifications, culture and society;
and attracting people who matter to the future of the UK and engaging them with
the UK's culture, educational opportunities and its diverse, modern, open society.
In 2014–15 the British Council spent: £489 million developing a wider knowledge
of the English language; £238 million encouraging educational co-operation and
promoting the advancement of education; £155 million building capacity for social
change; £80 million encouraging cultural, scientific and technological co-
operation; and £10 million on governance, tax and trading expenses.

Notable activity
English and examinations
The British Council offers face-to-face teaching in more than 80 teaching centres
in more than 50 countries.
Three million candidates took UK examinations with the British Council in more
than 850 towns and cities in 2014–15.

The British Council helps to run the global IELTS English test

The British Council jointly runs the global IELTS English-language standardised
test with University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and IDP
Education Australia. Over 2.5 million IELTS tests were delivered in 2014–15.
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
In 2014, the British Council launched its first MOOC Exploring English: Language
and Culture on the UK social learning platform FutureLearn. This was accessed by
over 230,000 people.
English for peace
"Peacekeeping English" is a collaboration between the British Council, the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence to improve the English-
language skills of military personnel through the Peacekeeping English Project
(PEP). PEP is helping train approximately 50,000 military and police service
personnel in 28 countries, amongst them Libya,  Ethiopia and Georgia.
Mobility programmes
Education UK
In 2013, the British Council relaunched the global website Education UK for
international students interested in a UK education. The site receives 2.2 million
visitors per year and includes a search tool for UK courses and scholarships, advice
and articles about living and studying in the UK.
Erasmus+
From 2014 to 2020, the British Council and Ecorys UK will jointly administer
almost €1 billion of the €14.7 billion Erasmus+ programme offering education,
training, youth and sport opportunity for young people in the UK. It is expected
that nearly 250,000 will undertake activities abroad with the programme.
Schools
Connecting Classrooms
Over 16,000 schools have taken part in an international school partnership or
benefited from teacher training through the British Council Connecting Classrooms
programmes.
Arts and culture
UK-India Year of Culture

UK-India Year of Culture official launch image on the façade of Buckingham

Palace
Queen Elizabeth hosted the official launch of the UK-India Year of Culture on 27
February 2017 at Buckingham Palace, with Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The British Council worked with the
Palace and British-Indian start-up Studio Carrom to project a peacock, India's
national bird, onto the facade of Buckingham Palace.
fiveFilms4freedom
In 2015, the British Council launched fiveFilms4freedom a free, online, 10-day
LGBT film festival with the British Film Institute supported by the UN Free &
Equal campaign. It was the first global online LGBT film festival. The festival runs
a 24-hour campaign to ask people to watch a movie and show that love is a human
right. In 2016, films were viewed by over 1.5m people in 179 countries.
Shakespeare Lives
In October 2015 the British Council announced a global programme with
the BBC, British Film Institute, the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare
Company, the Shakespeare 400 consortium, the Shakespeare Birthplace
Trust and Shakespeare's Globe to celebrate Shakespeare's life and work on the
400th anniversary of this death.

Alliance française
Alliance française or AF (French: Alliance française, French pronunciation: [aljɑ̃s
fʁɑ̃sɛz]; The French Alliance), is an international organization that aims to promote
the French language and francophone culture around the world. Created in Paris on
21 July 1883 under the name Alliance française pour la propagation de la langue
nationale dans les colonies et à l'étranger (French alliance for the propagation of
the national language in the colonies and abroad) — now known simply
as L'Alliance française — its primary concern is teaching French as a second
language and is headquartered in Paris. In 2014, the Alliance has 850 centers in
137 countries, on each inhabited continent.

History
The Alliance was created in Paris on 21 July 1883 by a group including the
scientist Louis Pasteur, the diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, the writers Jules
Verne and Ernest Renan, and the publisher Armand Colin.
It finances most of its activities from the fees it receives from its courses and from
rental of its installations. The French government also provides a subsidy covering
approximately five percent of its budget (nearly 665,000 € in 2003)
More than 440,000 students learn French at one of the centres run by the Alliance,
whose network of schools includes:

 a centre in Paris, Alliance française Paris Île-de-France

 locations throughout France for foreign students and
 1,016 locations in 135 countries.
The organizations outside Paris are local, independently run franchises. Each has a
committee and a president. The Alliance française brand is owned by the Paris
centre. In many countries, the Alliance française of Paris is represented by
a Délégué général. The French Government also runs 150 separate French Cultural
Institutes that exist to promote French language and culture.

By country
France

 Fondation Alliance française

Paris]

Alliance française Paris Île-de-France, boulevard Raspail (allée Claude-Cahun-

Marcel-Moore)
Alliance française de Manille, the oldest branch in the Far East, in Makati City,
Philippines, extant since the 1920s.

 Alliance française Paris Île-de-France

The Alliance française Paris Ile-de-France is a Higher Private Education Institute.
It is an association from the law 1901. Located in the heart of the capital, the
Alliance française Paris Île-de-France is a genuine international meeting point
where more than 11,000 students from 160 different countries come every year to
learn French. It is also the oldest one since the school offers courses in Paris since
1894.
Until 2007, the year of creation of the Alliance française Foundation, the Alliance
française Paris Île-de-France was called "the Paris Alliance française".
It was divided into three branches: the International Relations (DRI), the School of
Paris, and the Department of Human and Financial Resources (DRHF). In 2007,
the DRI has become the Alliance française Foundation, while the School and the
DRHF became the Alliance française Paris Île-de-France.
Three conventions are now governing the relations between the Foundation and the
Alliance française Paris Île-de-France:

 a financial agreement: the Alliance française Paris Ile-de-France supports the

Foundation financially.
 an agreement for the premises: the Paris Alliance française donated its building
in Boulevard Raspail to the Foundation at the time of the division in 2007
 a teaching agreement: the Alliance française Paris Ile-de-France supports the
Alliances françaises worldwide in their projects to professionalize their
teaching and administrative staff. More than 40 missions per year are made
abroad.
The Alliance française Paris Ile-de-France works with Alliances françaises from
around the world, ministries, public bodies, and also large companies, supporting
them in their desire to improve their command of the language in a professional
environment.
Montpellier
Alliance française Montpellier is a French language school in the south of France,
a private higher education institution providing French courses for foreigners
(FLE) and a non-profit association, established in accordance with the statutes and
objectives of the Alliance française Foundation. This study centre is part of the
network of Alliances françaises de France.
Africa

Alliance française in Mindelo, São Vicente Island, Cape Verde.

 Botswana 1
 Comoros 3
 Eritrea 1
 Ethiopia 2 (Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa)
 Ghana 4
 Kenya 4 (Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, and Kisumu)
 Lesotho 1
 Madagascar 29
 Mauritius 6
 Mozambique 1
 Namibia 1
 Nigeria 10 (Alliance française de Port Harcourt)
 Southern Africa 13 (Alliance française of Port Elizabeth)
 Swaziland 1
 Tanzania
 Uganda 1
 Zambia
 Zimbabwe 1
Americas

French filmmaker Stéphane Brizé (second from the right) in Buenos Aires in 2019,

at an event supported by Alliance française de Buenos Aires.
New building of the Alliance française in La Paz, Bolivia

Alliance française in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

 Argentina there are 72 partnerships with 16,000 students forming a network is

considered one of the largest and oldest in the world. In Rosario, Buenos Aires,
Córdoba, Campana, Santa Fe, Mendoza.
 Bermuda has one Alliance française.
 Bolivia has five Alliances françaises in all the main centers of population:
Cochabamba, La Paz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Sucre, Tarija.
 Brazil There are 39 Alliance française schools in Brazil, and six partner
learning centres. Out of the federation's 26 states, only seven have no schools or
learning centres. Alliance française has been in the Brazilian educational
scenario for more than 130 years, since 1885.
 Canada has 13 Alliances françaises in nine cities from coast to
coast: Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto (five
campuses, located in Spadina, North York, Markham, Mississauga,
and Oakville), Ottawa, Moncton, and Halifax.
 Chile has six Alliances françaises in six cities in Santiago, Viña del
Mar, Concepción, Curicó, Antofagasta and Osorno.
 Colombia has more than 20 Alliances françaises in 16 cities.
 Costa Rica has three Alliances françaises, the first in Barrio Amón, in the East
side of the capital San José and another two, one in La Sabana (West side of the
capital) and also in Heredia, another province of Costa Rica.
 Cuba has three Alliances françaises, one located in Santiago de Cuba and the
other two in Havana City.
 Dominica has one Alliance française, in the capital city, Roseau.
 Dominican Republic has 4 Alliance françaises, one in the capital city, Santo
Domingo, and others in Santiago, Mao and Monte Cristi.
 Ecuador has five Alliances françaises, located in the capital city of Quito and in
the cities of: Cuenca, Guayaquil, Loja and Portoviejo.
o Alliance française in Quito was founded in 1953 and is the oldest of the five
Alliances in Ecuador.
 El Salvador has one Alliance française Centre in the capital city, San Salvador.
 Grenada has one Alliance française in Saint George's
 Guatemala has one Alliance française, located in zone 13 of the
capital, Guatemala City. Haiti has five Alliances françaises organizations.
 Honduras has two Alliances françaises, one located in Tegucigalpa and the
other in San Pedro Sula.
 Jamaica has one Alliance française Centre in Kingston
 Mexico has 38 Alliances françaises organizations throughout the country and
twelve affiliated centers.
 Nicaragua has three Alliances françaises Centre, in the capital city, Managua
and others in León and Granada.
 Panama has one Alliance française organization.
 Paraguay has one Alliance française organization in Asunción.
 Peru has twelve Alliances françaises organizations, six in the capital
city, Lima and others
in Trujillo, Arequipa, Cusco, Piura, Huancayo and Iquitos.
 Puerto Rico has one Alliance française, located in the capital city of San Juan.
 Saint Lucia has one Alliance française, located in the capital city of Castries.
 Trinidad and Tobago has one main centre located in the capital city, Port of
Spain, with additional classes on offer in San Fernando and Tobago.
 The United States has 110 chapters in 45 states, including Alliance française de
Washington, Alliance française de Chicago, Alliance française de San
Francisco, Alliance française de Miami Metro, and The French Cultural
Center in Boston.
 Uruguay has one Alliance française, located in the capital city, Montevideo
 Venezuela has twelve Alliances françaises, five in the capital city Caracas, and
in several others states.
Asia and Oceania

Alliance française de Wuhan in China

An Alliance Française office in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

The Médiathèque of the Alliance Française de Manille

Alliance française de Taiwan

 Australia has 31 Alliances françaises organizations.

 Bangladesh has two Alliances françaises organizations, in Dhaka (Alliance
française de Dhaka, three branches located in Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Uttara)
and in Chittagong.
 Brunei Darussalam
 Cambodia has one Alliance française, located in Siem Reap.
 China has fifteen Alliances françaises organizations: Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou, Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Jinan, Chengdu, Wuhan, Chongqing,
Hangzhou, Xian, and Nanjing.
 Hong Kong has three Alliances françaises centres, one in Wanchai, one
in Jordan and another one in Shatin. Alliance française de Hong Kong was
created in 1953.
 India has 24 Alliances françaises located
in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai (Alliance française de
Madras), Coimbatore, Goa, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Karikal, Kolk
ata, Madurai, Mahé, Mumbai, New
Delhi, Nashik, Pondicherry, Pune, Mysore, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, Vadod
ara.
 Indonesia has four Alliancess françaises located
in Medan, Balikpapan, Semarang and Denpasar.
 Kazakhstan has two Alliances françaises located in Nur-Sultan and Almaty.
 Kyrgyzstan has one Alliance française, located in Bishkek.
 Macau
 Malaysia has three Alliances françaises centres, with two of them in Kuala
Lumpur and another in George Town, Penang.
 Maldives has one center in capital city Malé.
 Mongolia
 Nepal
 New Zealand has three Alliances françaises organizations. The Alliance
française d'Auckland has 900 members.
 Pakistan has four Alliance françaises located in Karachi (Alliance française de
Karachi), Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad.
 The Philippines has Alliance française de Cebu located in Cebu City, and
Alliance française de Manille located in Makati City.
 Singapore has an Alliance française located in Newton.
 South Korea has seven Alliances françaises
organizations: Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Jeonju, Gwangju, Daegu, and Busan.
 Sri Lanka has Alliance française de Kotte located in Colombo, and Alliance
française de Kandy in Kandy.
 Taiwan has two Alliances françaises centres in Taipei and Kaohsiung.
 Thailand has its main centre in Bangkok and branches in Chiang Mai, Chiang
Rai, and in the city of Phuket.
 Uzbekistan has an Alliance française located in capital, Tashkent.
 Vietnam has an Alliance française located near the Sword Lake, the focal point
of central Hanoi.
Europe

Alliance française de Moldavie

 Albania has four Alliance française organization located in Elbasan, Korça,

Shkodra and Tirana.
 Armenia has one Alliance française organization located in Yerevan, the capital
of Armenia.
 Belgium has one Alliance française organization located in the capital Brussels.
 Croatia has five Alliances françaises organizations located in Dubrovnik,
Osijek, Rijeka, Split, and Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
 Hungary has five Alliances françaises organizations located in Debrecen, Győr,
Miskolc, Pécs and Szeged.
 Iceland has one Alliance française organization located in Reykjavik.
 Ireland has six Alliances françaises organizations. Dublin, the capital of
Ireland, is home to the third largest Alliance in Europe. There is also a location
in Cork, Ireland's second city. Other locations in Ireland include Galway,
Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford, which also has a branch in Wexford.
Alliance française de Cork also organises the Cork French Film Festival.
 Italy has thirty-seven Alliances françaises organizations located throughout the
country.
 Malta has one Alliance francaise organization located in
Floriana."Welcome". Alliance Française de Malte ~ Méditerranée.
Retrieved 2015-08-11.</ref>
 Moldova has one Alliance française organization located in Chişinău, the
capital of Moldova.
 Monaco has one Alliance française organization located in the Principality, at
the Embassy of France in Monaco.
 Romania has four Alliances françaises organizations located in Braşov,
Constanţa, Piteşti and Ploieşti.
 Spain has twenty Alliances françaises organizations located all over the
country, promoted by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Spain.
 Sweden has 17 Alliances françaises organizations throughout the country. The
oldest Swedish organization was established in 1889 in Stockholm.
 Turkey has one Alliance française organization located in Adana.
 The United Kingdom has eleven Alliances françaises organizations. The first
Alliance française organization in the UK was located in London, which traces
its roots back to 1884. Other locations in the British Isles include Bristol-Bath,
Cambridge, Exeter, Glasgow, Jersey, Manchester, Milton-Keynes, Newcastle-
upon-tyne, Oxford and York. During WWII, the London location served as the
international headquarters of Alliance française when the Paris location was
closed.