Photo by Chris J. Davis on Unsplash

Social media is increasingly used as a means of communication between states. Diplomats and political leaders rely ever more on digital platforms such as Twitter (now ‘X’), Facebook and Instagram as part of their practice to communicate with their counterparts and foreign publics. These exchanges occur in view of a global audience, providing an added level of scrutiny that is unique to this form of communication.

My research on social media explores how this technology arguably challenges traditional notions of diplomacy according to which it is conducted through formal channels of communication and informal face-to-face social engagement. Social media is an important tool for signalling intentions, but questions remain as to how effective these platforms can be for dialogue and trust development even when traditional face-to-face diplomacy is limited. I argue that social media posts by state representatives reflect and frame state identity and how a state wishes to be recognized by others. If we are attuned to these dynamics, shifts in representational patterns communicated through social media during high-level negotiations allow realizations of political possibilities for change. Consider the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 that analysts and policy-makers initially struggled to explain. The role of Twitter as a key part of negotiation strategy was a crucial demonstration of how social media can shape the struggle for recognition, and thereby legitimize political possibilities for change. Understanding the increasingly prominent and powerful, yet largely unknown, variable of social media as a tool of diplomatic practice provides insight into the recurrent question of how diplomats affect change beyond upholding the status quo in the international order.

Images, too, are central to social media communication. Billions of images are shared across different social media platforms every day: photos, cartoons, GIFs and short video clips are exchanged by users, facilitating or framing discourse on ever-evolving participatory sites. A question arises here as to how such images mobilize public and policy-making responses to political events as they unfold. My research also examines how the particular qualities of social media can play an important role in how digital visibility of global events influences policy-making in response. There is an important connection between the properties of social media platforms that allow user images to reach a global audience in real time and the emotional responses that this level of circulation generates. In turn, the pressure created by events made globally visible through the circulation of images and the audience responses to those images can put governments in a position where they are forced to act, which has significant implications for policy-making.