“Global Diplomacy in the Digital Age: Decoding how Technology is Transforming International Relations”
Join this public discussion on the important and timely issue of how technology and digitisation are reshaping international relations and global power relations. Incidents like the release of internal emails from Hillary Clinton's US presidential campaign by WikiLeaks, ongoing cyber attacks on governments, businesses, and civil society groups, and the recruitment of ISIS-fighters through social media and messenger apps pose a major challenge to international security and global diplomacy. The Canadian ambassador to Venezuela Ben Rowswell and David P. Fidler, adjunct senior fellow for cybersecurity at the Council on Foreign Relations, will share their insights and experiences navigating today's digital world.
Ben Rowswell is a serial innovator exploring the possibilities that technology brings to revolutionize diplomacy and mobilize the power of citizens to solve global challenges. As ambassador to Venezuela, he has pioneered the use of social media in Canadian foreign policy. As a public policy entrepreneur, Ben launched the foreign ministry's first dedicated democracy promotion unit in 2006 and introduced techniques of mass collaboration to foreign policy development in 2012.
David P. Fidler is Adjunct Senior Fellow for Cybersecurity at the Council on Foreign Relations and is the James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University and an Associate Fellow with the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House. He is an expert in international law, cybersecurity, national security, counterinsurgency, biosecurity, and global health.