21st Century Statecraft...Dun dun dun dun....(Required Post #9)

While 21st Century Statecraft sounds like a futuristic, high-tech, overwhelming and scary, Star Trek-type idea, it is not quite as daunting. Rather it is a super fancy way to say: the art of running a country. And the technology isn't even that fancy, considering the US Government is pretty far behind the rest of the world in terms of social media usage. "The Gov" is now officially using Twitter and Facebook and working with all the big players like Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to make sure that they are staying up-to-date on the latest and greatest technologies.


But when the US Government is buddy buddy with Google, Facebook and Twitter, the implications are not always positive. This is because Google, Facebook and Twitter are therefore seen by the rest of the world as an extension of the US Government. Nowadays, big brother is not only watching us....

............he's friending us too!


While this is a bit of an exaggeration, it is true that the US Government is being rooted into our social media. And other countries are not going to respond positively to this. Just like last year when Jared Cohen told Twitter that they better not do their scheduled maintenance during the Iranian protests (and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said nothing nor did nothing to stop him), other countries are getting suspicious and worried about the US trying to infiltrate their countries. When we suggest to other countries that they should use Facebook or Twitter, our suggestions are not going to be thought of as simply a matter of bettering their communication.


But honestly, this isn't exactly a new idea. The US government has been tightly integrated within Facebook and Twitter and Google since the beginning. These big three (FB, Twitter and Google) are constantly working with The Gov to help them develop better technology. Youtube and Flickr are definitely being used by the government too. 


In 2009, the US Government got a YouTube channel. This article details the ways that YouTube worked with the government in order to create this. For example: "One of the steps that YouTube took was creating a goverment version of its embeddable video player that does not deposit a cookie on the viewer's computer until the video play button has been clicked." I strongly believe that coordination like this will be the only way that the US government can really understand the technology they are using. This ability to work together has been and will continue to be absolutely essential for the advancement of our nation into the world of...dun dun dun dun...digital diplomacy.