Join us for a conversation between a practitioner, a think tanker and an academic to help us understand the future (and the present) of digital foreign policy.

Is the increasing use of digital technologies in foreign policy fundamentally altering the way in which foreign policy is made and implemented? How are digital technologies contributing to reshape geopolitics? To what extent do digital technologies enhance international cooperation? Can they support multilateralism, or do they create new digital divides and even a new form of colonialism? 

Meet our speakers and chair

Corneliu Bjola is an Associate Professor of Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford. He was a research fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defense Force Academy (2012) and China Foreign Affairs University (2016). His current research interests relate to the impact of digital technology on the conduct of diplomacy with a focus on strategic communication and digital influence as well as on theories and methods for countering disinformation and propaganda. 

Sarah Bressan is a research fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where she contributes to the institute’s work on peace and security. Her work focuses on international security, political violence, conflict analysis and prevention, as well as the role of data, technology, foresight, and evaluation in German and European foreign policy.

Nicola Minasi is Director of the Crisis Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy. The Crisis Unit protects and assists compatriots in emergencies and in particular in cases of terrorism, socio-political tensions (coups, civil war, other forms of generalised violence); natural disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes); serious health emergencies and pandemics; terrorist kidnappings; acts of piracy and air disasters.

Federica Bicchi is Associate Professor in the International Relations of Europe in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is also the Director of the European Foreign Policy Unit of LSE. Her current research interests centre on the digitalisation of European foreign policy, on the interaction between the EU and its member states in international affairs and on the European External Action Service (EEAS). Her recent publications include Europe and the occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, 2020 (editor), European Diplomacy in Practice, 2018 (co-editor).

More about this event

The Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) at LSE is now in its 95th year, and is one of the oldest as well as largest IR departments in the world, with a truly international reputation. The Department is ranked 2nd in the UK and 4th in the world in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2022 tables for Politics and International Studies.

The European Foreign Policy Unit (EFPU) acts as a focus for research and teaching on issues relating to the attempts to create a collective European foreign policy. The International Relations Department is one of the world's leading centres for research into European foreign policy, and EFPU aims to build on and contribute to that reputation.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEDigitalForeignPolicy

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