The authors note that few studies have investigated the impact of digitalisation on Robert Putnam’s two-level game theory – his suggestion that it was not possible to separate international and domestic politics in the context of international negotiations, which should therefore be conceptualised as a two-level game.

The authors note that such an investigation is warranted given that state and non-state actors can employ digital tools to influence decision-making processes at both national and international levels.

The article advances a new theoretical concept, Domestic Digital Diplomacy, referring to the use of social media by a government to build domestic support for its foreign policy. The model is introduced through the case study of the @TheIranDeal twitter channel, a social media account launched by the Obama White House to rally domestic support for the ratification of the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

The study demonstrates that digitalisation has complicated the two-level game by democratising access to foreign policy decisions and increasing interactions between the national and international levels of diplomacy.

Corneliu Bjola and 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, DOI:10.1080/09557571.2018.1476836