ID:
508817
Duration (hours):
40
CFU:
6
SSD:
STORIA DELLE RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 29/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
This course has been offered for the first time in the first semester of the academic year 2020-21 in co-teaching with Professor Corneliu Bjola (Oxford University). This innovative course in the scenario of higher education in Italy, allows students to understand the meaning of digital public diplomacy and the relationship between diplomatic communication and technological change; 2) to create significant links between pre-digital traditional forms of diplomacy and the present digitalization of diplomatic practices; 3) to assess whether digital diplomacy is introducing original and critical insights into the conditions that allow digitalization to inform communication in foreign policy. Case studies of relevant digital tools and the analysis of platforms that are being currently used by embassies, foreign ministries, and International Organisations in their daily work would allow students to observe and reflect - in their coursework - on concrete examples of the present transformation towards digital diplomacy. The final digital diplomacy project will challenge students to bring together their digital skills with newly acquired knowledge of communication in international relations.
Course Prerequisites
Interest and/or basic knowledge of how states interact in the international scenario in one or multiple historical phases '
Teaching Methods
This course offers 2 weekly teaching sessions over six weeks focusing on the contents previously listed. Guests lecturers and the main teacher will offer lectures based on strong interactive component and will provide students week by week with specific readings and support to carry on their course projects.
Assessment Methods
Attendance by students is paramount but non-frequentanti are very welcome. We ask non-attending students to contact the course teaching staff via mail since the beginning of the semester and to attend the pre-course online. At the end of the course, attending and non-attending students are expected to: 1) pass a multiple-choice test (based on the course contents and readings); 2) as teams (composed of either attending and not attending students) to create and submit a digital diplomacy project; 3) the last part of the examination process expects attending students to assess anonymously various projects created by other teams and non-attending students to discuss a theme or issue of digital public diplomacy previously identified in coordination with the teaching staff. Overall, the assessment aims at grading the level of learning achieved but also at challenging students to become 'digital diplomats' by creating their own original projects. These final projects will be evaluated on the basis of the goals achieved case by case and in a comparative framework.
Texts
Gilboa , E. (Eds.). (2023). A Research Agenda for Public Diplomacy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Sandre, Andreas. (2015). Digital diplomacy: conversations on innovation in foreign policy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Sandre, Andreas. (2015). Digital diplomacy: conversations on innovation in foreign policy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Contents
Public diplomacy is an integral part of state-to-state diplomacy: the conduct of official relations by diplomats representing sovereign states. The new trend towards public and digital diplomacy will not in the short term displace traditional state-to-state diplomacy as practiced by foreign ministries, but it will impact the way foreign ministries plan their activities. By calling attention to the changing landscape that new approaches and technological innovations create for diplomatic practice, this course seeks to explain what new dynamics, developments and trends have emerged at the intersection of diplomacy and digital communication, including social media, and to assess the implications of the digital transformation of diplomatic theory and practice. The main issues/questions presented and discussed by this course are the following:
1) To what extent digital diplomacy represents either an evolution or a revolution in the practice of diplomacy?
2) How effective is digital diplomacy in advancing the foreign policy agenda of a country?
3) How has crisis communication evolved as a result of the digital age? 4) What are the challenges and drawbacks of using digital tools during a crisis (both consular and diplomatic)?
5) How is social media used for disinformation and propaganda purposes?
6) Do we have tools at our disposal or can we device some to counteract digital disinformation campaigns?
1) To what extent digital diplomacy represents either an evolution or a revolution in the practice of diplomacy?
2) How effective is digital diplomacy in advancing the foreign policy agenda of a country?
3) How has crisis communication evolved as a result of the digital age? 4) What are the challenges and drawbacks of using digital tools during a crisis (both consular and diplomatic)?
5) How is social media used for disinformation and propaganda purposes?
6) Do we have tools at our disposal or can we device some to counteract digital disinformation campaigns?
Course Language
English
More information
A recorded pre-course aimed at introducing students to the main themes and issues discussed in this course is available each year before the beginning of classes. Given that the topic of this course may be unfamiliar to most students, we recommend virtually attending the pre-course before the beginning of classes.
Degrees
Degrees (3)
DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
Master’s Degree
2 years
WORLD POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Master’s Degree
2 years
WORLD POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Master’s Degree
2 years
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