Digitalizing South American MFAs: Reform and Resistance

Abstract

An important part of adapting what is sometimes referred to as “the world’s second oldest profession,” that is, diplomacy, to the twenty-first century, entails developing and applying the appropriate digital tools for the practice of statecraft. Paradoxically, the obstacles to this undertaking are often more cultural and organizational than technical. This is especially true for institutions steeped in ancient traditions like ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs), something that is very much the case in South American MFAs that have been somewhat late to the game of digital diplomacy. The purpose of this chapter is to track how MFAs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru overcame resistance to change on this front, and examine what they did right and what they did wrong in so doing. Though this digitalization is still a work in progress, diplomats in these countries have come a long way, offering lessons for other MFAs from the Global South. The essay draws on data analysis extracted from Twitter, in-depth interviews with digital diplomats, and participant observation by one of the authors.