PRACTICE OF DIGITAL DIPLOMACY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Abstract

With the current massive coverage of Internet technologies and ongoing spread as well as progressively growing influence of social media platforms, it is natural that diplomacy as a sphere could not refrain from this phenomenon. Moreover, not only did it nor abstain, it has harnessed the new opportunities instead. This paper contributes to the debate on the phenomenon of digital diplomacy which has entered the scientific environment relatively recently and has not yet been comprehensively conceptualized into a single and globally recognized theory. In this paper we study how digital diplomacy is organized and implemented in the Czech Republic.

The paper focuses on the approach of the Czech Republic to digital diplomacy, the country’s implementation of its tools and digital diplomacy is embedded within the foreign policy of the state. The author provides an overview of the legal framework underlying development of digital diplomacy in the Czech Republic. The paper also outlines the institutional system operating in the sphere and how its elements contribute to the attainment of the goals typically set up by digital diplomacy. Finally, the author defines the projects created by the Czech governmental and non-governmental bodies aiming at strengthening the image of the country and promoting its brand for the foreign audiences using online tools and solutions. The paper also offers the analysis of efficiency of the primary digital diplomacy tools applied by the Czech Republic in its foreign policy and provides recommendations and conclusions based on the data included for the research.