Diplomacy in the Age of Information Technology

Abstract

The invention of new technological devices, mostly in the field of transportation and telecommunications, has significantly affected the process of diplomacy. It was, for instance, the arrival of the railways that first gave diplomats great mobility over land. Another major turning point was the invention of the electric telegraph, which enabled direct and fast communication between headquarters and missions.¹ It is generally accepted that this weakened diplomatic representatives’ independence from headquarters, i. e. the ministry of foreign affairs. To these inventions influencing diplomacy one should add the telephone, radio, television and satellite communications, but, although most technological innovations influenced diplomacy, they did not challenge the very nature of diplomatic procedures.