The blue bird of diplomacy
Since 1979, when the Islamic Republic of Iran was set up, the country’s foreign relations have been at best, a complicated affair. Among the hot buttons have been nuclear technology, and of course its conflict with Israel, at times almost leading to conflict.
Iran’s policy regarding the internet have also been problematic. After the demonstrations and violence in the wake of the presidential elections in 2009, the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad developed a sophisticated nationwide monitoring system, as well as proposing a halal-internet, a closed system with content strictly controlled by the government with severe restrictions of international data flows.
Given this background, it came as something of a surprise when newly installed President Hassan Rouhani, who took office on August 4, along with his foreign minister, Javad Zharif, used Twitter to wish a happy Rosh Hashanah, a move that has been widely interpreted as a radical policy shift. Zarif’s tweet was answered by the daughter of leading US Democratic Party figure Nancy Pelosi, Christine, with a terse: “thank you very much, but this year we’d be happier if Iran stopped denying the Holocaust.” To which the minister responded with an unequivocal: “Iran has never denied it, and the man believed to have been denying it is no longer around.”
Another hugely significant tweet from Presidente Rouhani noting that “the foreign minister will be heading negotiations on the country’s nuclear program, ready for a constructive role in the world,” would seem to suggest that a major change in the tone in which Iran conducts international relations is underway : a new government wants to tell the world using an immediate, direct, and open format like Twitter that things have changed. Some analysts what is going on in Iran as “the most significant public diplomacy outreach since the Revolution.”
From a communications tool initially conceptualized for personal use, Twitter is now a way of sharing all kinds of information, at the same time that in the business world it is also a commercial channel used for corporate communication and customer care. It is also now used for political marketing, and we can now see how it has been adopted for use in diplomacy. Twitter no longer needs to be validated: created almost by accident, it is now part of the planet’s central nervous system, expanding into new areas and being put to new uses.
The example of Iran, where a moderate government has followed a radical administration and has decided to use Twitter to tell the world that it intends to do things differently, is just the latest in a long list of situations involving messages of less than 140 characters. Every day, Twitter is being used by people in positions of responsibility in all spheres who must have very clear ideas about how to develop their online presence and manage the means at their disposal to generate efficient communication, skills that are particularly important in diplomacy. Iran shows us that the little blue bird has now arrived to the world of diplomacy and international politics.
