Exponential Growth of Ediplomacy at US State Department

SYDNEY, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report published by Australia's leading think-tank, the Lowy Institute for International Policy, has revealed the rapid growth of ediplomacy at the US State Department.

Over 150 people are now employed in 25 different ediplomacy nodes at State Department Headquarters and more than 900 officers use it to some extent at US missions abroad.

"State created the first office of ediplomacy a decade ago and ever since has been extending its technological lead over other foreign ministries," said Fergus Hanson, the report's author and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"Americans might be surprised to discover their foreign ministry now operates over 600 Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels that collectively reach over eight million people directly or to learn that State has spent more than $70 million on internet freedom initiatives designed to help activists around the world get around government firewalls.

"Ediplomacy is finding solutions to problems that have plagued foreign ministries for decades and turning out to be useful in the most unlikely of areas. Other foreign ministries around the world could learn from the advancements made at State."

However, the report found there was room to consolidate these gains. It concluded that after "a free-wheeling period of experimentation and innovation....it should now be possible to begin laying down a more concrete conceptual framework to guide the future roll-out of ediplomacy".

The result of a four month Professional Fulbright scholarship in the United States, the report 'Revolution @State: The Spread of Ediplomacy', offers the first comprehensive overview of the rapidly expanding ediplomacy work at State.

The full report can be downloaded from the Lowy Institute website http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=1795

For media inquiries contact:
Fergus Hanson (United States)
+1 347 636 8466 or
Stephanie Dunstan (Australia):
+61 2 8238 9040

SOURCE Lowy Institute