African Digital Diplomacy in the era of COVID-19:Virtual Introduction to Digital Diplomacy Seminars
The concept and practice of digital diplomacy, also referred to as virtual diplomacy, e-diplomacy, mobile diplomacy, cyber diplomacy, and networked diplomacy, was already becoming standard practice before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures implemented globally to contain the pandemic served to accelerate and enhance the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across many spheres of society. Practices in the international affairs sphere, broadly, and the diplomatic field specifically were suddenly transformed, fast-tracking the uptake of digital diplomacy. If African foreign policy was attempting to embrace the digital turn in diplomacy, the new circumstances left little room for knowledge acquisition, policy and strategy development, skills and capability development and consideration of the potential dangers.
