The Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group is an academic collaborative project that aims to further the study and practice of digital diplomacy.

The group is led by Professor Corneliu Bjola (University of Oxford) working together with Jennifer Cassidy (formerly DPhil candidate, University of Oxford) and Ilan Manor (formerly DPhil candidate, University of Oxford).

The group holds regular talks, workshops and public events with members of the diplomatic community in London and Europe. 

Recent and forthcoming events

For any inquiries, please email digdiplorox@qeh.ox.ac.uk

• Workshop  with the German Federal Foreign Office dedicated to presenting the findings and discussing the final report of the DigDiploRox commissioned study about the “Role and Functionality of Strategic Communication and Digital Diplomacy in Selected Foreign Services” (Berlin 2019)
• 4th London Ambassadors' Forum – “Strategic Communication and Digital Diplomacy: Connecting the Dots” co-hosted with the Swedish Embassy to London, (Jan 2019)
• Colloquium on Sports & Digital Diplomacy: A Vision For The Future co-hosted with SOAS, University of London at Rhodes House (University of Oxford, Nov 2018)
• Symposium on 'How Digital Technologies Influence Relations between Diplomats & the Media'. co-hosted with the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom (June 5, 2018)
• Workshop on ‘Combating Echo Chambers of Hate’ – grant-based project exploring strategies by which diplomatic institutions can 'fracture' online echo-chambers of hate so as to facilitate engagement and dialogue with online audiences (June 2018, University of Oxford)
• Digital Public Diplomacy session at the Hague Digital Diplomacy Camp convened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (February 2018)
• 3rd London Ambassadors' Forum – co-hosted by the Slovakian Embassy to London, examines how emerging technologies challenge and shape the practice of cultural diplomacy (London, February 2018)
• The Ambassadors’ Forum in Tokyo in partnership with the Israeli embassy (Jan 2018)
• Israel's 2nd Digital Diplomacy Conference – in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel and attended by diplomats from more than 20 foreign ministries around the world (Jerusalem, December 2017)
• 2nd London Ambassadors' Forum co-hosted by the Latvian Embassy to London. The forum was attended by Ambassadors from the North Atlantic region and discussed the impact of big data and algorithms on the practice of diplomacy (London, November 2017)
• Digital and Technology workshop (November 2017). Download the call for papers.
• Doctoral Conference on Digital & Public Diplomacy in partnership with the USC Center on Public Diplomacy (Oxford, June 2017)
• Digital Diplomacy and Social Network Analysis (EISA workshop, Cardiff, June 2017)
• The Embassy in the Digital Age – workshop at the United Nation Office at Geneva (May 2017, The Palais des Nations)
• Digital Diplomacy Strategy: What it is and How it Works, with Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv (April 2017)
• The Ambassadors’ Forum in partnership with the Cyprus High Commission (March 2017)
• Images and Online Narratives of International Relations (Oxford, Jan  2017)

Related publications

Books and monographs

Bjola, Corneliu (with James Pamment) (eds) (2018) 'Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy', Routledge

Bjola, Corneliu (with Markus Kornprobst) (2018) 'Understanding International Diplomacy: Theory, Practice and Ethics (2nd ed)', Routledge

Bjola, Corneliu (with Marcus Holmes) (eds) (2015) 'Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice', London and New York: Routledge

Journal articles

Bjola, Corneliu (with Ilan Manor) (2022) 'The rise of hybrid diplomacy: from digital adaptation to digital adoption', International Affairs 98 (2) 471–91

Bjola, Corneliu (2021) 'Digital diplomacy as world disclosure: the case of the COVID-19 pandemic', Place Branding and Public Diplomacy

Bjola, Corneliu (with Jennifer Cassidy and Ilan Manor) (2019) 'Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age', The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 14 (1) 83-101

Bjola, Corneliu (2018) 'Digital Diplomacy 2.0: Trends and Countertrends', Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior (in Spanish) 113 (July/August) 35-52

Bjola, Corneliu (with Ilan Manor) (2018) 'Revisiting Putnam’s Two-Level Game Theory in the Digital Age: Domestic Digital Diplomacy and the Iran Nuclear Deal', Cambridge Review of International Affairs 31 (1) 3-32

Bjola, Corneliu (2018) 'The Ethics of Countering Digital Propaganda', Ethics & International Affairs 32 (3) 305-15

Bjola, Corneliu (2016) 'Getting digital diplomacy right: What quantum theory can teach us about measuring impact?', C Bjola (ed) Forum on 'Digital Diplomacy: State of the Art' Global Affairs 2 (3)

Bjola, Corneliu (with J Pamment) (2016) 'Digital Containment: Revisiting Containment Strategy in the Digital Age', Global Affairs 2 (2)

Working papers

Bjola, Corneliu (2022) ‘Artificial Intelligence and Diplomatic Crisis Management: Addressing the ‘Fog of War’ Problem’, DigDiploROx Working Paper No 6

Bjola, Corneliu (2021) 'The European Union’s Quest for Digital Sovereignty and its Implications for the Transatlantic Relationship', DigDiploROx Working Paper No 5

Bjola, Corneliu (2020) 'Combating Online Hate Speech and Anti-Semitism', DigDiploROx Working Paper No 4

Cassidy, Jennifer (2018) 'Digital Diplomatic Crisis Communication: Reconceptualising Diplomatic Signalling in an age of Real Time Governance', DigDiploROx Working Paper No 3

Manor, Ilan (2018) 'The Digitalization of Diplomacy: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Terminology ', DigDiploROx Working Paper No 2

Bjola, Corneliu (2018) 'Adapting Diplomacy to the Digital Age: Managing the Organisational Cultures of Ministries of Foreign Affairs', DigDiploROx Working Paper No 1

Research

Fracturing echo chambers of hate

Read about the impact of our research here.