Digital diplomacy : a Twitter breakthrough between Iran-US relations in the JCPOA agreement

Abstract

Diplomacy between Iran and the United States has been significantly hampered since the severing of diplomatic ties in 1980. Hostilities are ingrained in their relations and the nuclear dispute between the two nations further worsened such conditions. Given the difficulties of high-level diplomatic engagement between Iran and US, traditional diplomacy could not serve its purpose in resolving the nuclear issue. However, advancement in technology brought a new form of diplomacy known as digital diplomacy. Digital diplomacy provides another option for communication between states. It involves the use of social media platforms such as Twitter as diplomatic tools in the pursuit of their foreign policies. Twitter enables the possibility of countries with severed diplomatic ties such as Iran and US to engage and form dialogue for diplomatic outreach. Furthermore, digital diplomacy tools are useful for management of incremental change. Thus, this research aims to understand on how Twitter serves as a diplomatic tool for Iran and US in the case study of nuclear agreement. Diplomacy theory of R.P. Barston and G.R. Berridge as well as the theory of digital diplomacy by Marcus Holmes will be used as a conceptual basis to support analysis. The method of data collection used in this research is qualitative content analysis in case study research. This research concluded that Twitter can be used as an alternative diplomatic tool for communication between states in particular with a severed diplomatic tie and also, a strategy for management of incremental change.