SELA debates challenges of Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy in current geopolitical scenario

In compliance with the multi-year work programme of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), and as part of the activities of the Social Development Area in the training programme for senior officials in the digital era, the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Clarems Endara, launched last Monday the second specialisation courses on Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy, in partnership with the European Institute of International Studies (IEEI) and the Institute of European Studies and Human Rights of the Pontifical University of Salamanca (UPSA).

Ambassador Endara stressed the importance of the digital strategy in the context of international policy and interaction of actors in a digital scenario, driven by the pandemics in the last two years. “The coronavirus pandemic has pushed us more and more into the digital era and diplomacy is not exempt from this reality. Cyberspace is an area of growing importance on the international agenda due to its instantaneous nature, real-time interaction and transparency (...) Little by little, cyberdiplomacy is gaining weight in the foreign strategies of the countries that implement this tool. We are facing a reality in which States are making greater use of new information and communication technologies to achieve their foreign policy objectives,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary of SELA explained the importance of taking advantage of the digital world in diplomatic functions and structures. He added that the reconfiguration of the digital world demands the action of governments through diplomacy on issues such as security, Internet governance and regulation in terms of data protection or consumer protection. Therefore, “it is important to emphasize that the use of cyberdiplomacy goes beyond the expansion of diplomatic networks at the digital level. States should approach it as a state policy that involves all actors interacting in international relations; define the objectives, short- and long-term actions, the message promoters; identify the main stakeholders and the type of messages to be conveyed, in short, the image of the country that is to be projected.”

Ambassador Antonio Núñez-García y Saúco, President of the European Institute of International Studies (IEEI), also participated in the start of the specialisation courses on Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy, highlighting the importance of this training in the current digital scenario.

For his part, Professor Shaun Riordan, Director of the Chair of Diplomacy and Cyberspace at the IEEI, raised the need to define cyberdiplomacy and its application in geopolitics. During Monday's session, Riordan presented key issues of Internet Governance, as well as the challenges that cybersecurity poses to cyberdiplomacy.

The specialisation courses on Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy were held from 21 to 24 March 2022. For this second edition, SELA had 621 registered participants representing the following Member States: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.