Digital Diplomacy

Iran shut down its U.S. embassy 32 years ago.  More recently, Iran has demonstrated just how different modern diplomacy can be by shutting down a virtual U.S. embassy.  News sources in Iran have called this virtual embassy the “latest plot by Washington against the Iranian nation.”  Of course, the actions of Iran were condemned by our administration as the Iranian government’s “commitment to build an electronic curtain of surveillance and censorship around its people.” The U.S. hasn’t had a physical embassy presence in Iran since 1980, after it was removed due to conflict from the Islamic Revolution.  This recent move by Iran and the U.S. occurred only a week after the British Embassy was vandalized by student protestors suspected of working for the Iranian government.  The attack on the British Embassy is now referred to as the Occupy Embassy protests by Iranians, correlating it to the Occupy Movements gaining popularity in the U.S.    

Check out the embassy here: http://iran.usembassy.gov/index.html

Iran’s leaders have approved, if not caused, the students actions against the British Embassy and the media praises their decision on the U.S. virtual embassy.  There are numerous websites that are unavailable to Iranians, including social networking and news sites, and it took less than 24 hours for Iran to ban the embassy site nationally.  Ignoring Iran’s reaction for a moment, I can’t help thinking that the U.S. had some bad timing.  One week after the British Embassy is ransacked and removed from Iran, with accusations that the attack was organized by the Iranian government, the U.S. decides to implement a virtual embassy in the country when it is well known for online censorship.  Filtering through all of the publicity surrounding the issue, I still can’t find what the U.S. could have hoped to achieve with the virtual embassy.  The site seemed doomed from the beginning.  

I can only assume that the U.S. issued this site in response to a need in its intelligence war with Iran.  If Stuxnet, the malicious software designed to degrade Iran’s nuclear capability, was designed by the U.S., it represents a huge focus on Iran.  Stuxnet was previously an unknown capability of advanced governments.  Using the software revealed this capability and decreased its future effectiveness.  My personal opinion is Stuxnet was probably was implemented to buy time, since Iran will probably still develop nuclear weapons despite the setbacks the virus caused.  It was a covert diplomatic decision that reflects the times and demonstrates the new tools we have at our disposal.  Perhaps the virtual embassy had a similar unknown purpose.  I’m sure the State Department isn’t naïve enough to assume the site would remain open to regular Iranians.

Stuxnet and virtual embassies represent significant differences technology has brought in our response to threats.  United States diplomacy has always been intertwined with intelligence, with both offensive and defensive strategies.  While this has been true for many years, the tempo of events has increased drastically.  Digital diplomacy is the response to that tempo.  We can more effectively react digitally with the speed and size required for modern threats.  While I’m wowed by recent abilities demonstrated by governments, we will probably see even more incredible capabilities in the near future.