W. Alejandro Sanchez
The government of Denmark has
sent Casper Klynge, a career diplomat who previously served as the
Danish ambassador to Indonesia, to Silicon Valley to strengthen ties
between the IT industry and Copenhagen. A
Wired Magazine published an article last year, described this initiative with a provocative title:
The first Silicon Valley ambassador is out to make nice with tech giants.
Denmark’s
Consulate General in Palo Alto is part of Copenhagen’s strategy to approach global technological hubs via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’
Innovation Centre,
which also has offices in New Delhi, Seoul, and Shanghai. Ambassador
Klynge’s tasks as tech ambassador are similar of any other diplomat: “
he’s trying to encourage investment
into Denmark from the West Coast tech companies, and to promote Danish
exports to Silicon Valley StartUps. Along the way, he’s also hoping to
push brand Denmark on to the world, convincing them there’s more to his
home country than bacon, LEGO and Hans Christian Andersen,” the article
explains.
Ambassador Klynge’s deployment could be the trend-setter, as other
governments could choose to follow this initiative. On March 1, the
Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington DC
organized an event titled “
A National Machine Intelligence Strategy for the United States.”
During the Q&A section, I asked if other governments could
similarly deploy tech ambassadors to IT hubs like Silicon Valley, New
Delhi, Shenzhen, among others, in the near future, to establish more
direct government-industry relations. One panelist responded that it is
important to have “direct outreach from governments around the world to
the tech industry because there is a recognition that this technology
has so much potential but poorly crafted policy could be detrimental to
the development of the technology and to all of its benefits.”
Ambassador Klynge’s new post is a preview of the future of diplomacy.
Government-to-government relations will generally continue as normal,
with diplomats posted in capitals, trying to cultivate relations with
the hosting government and promote their own country’s interests.
Nevertheless,
technological advances are affecting how diplomacy
is conducted, as now diplomats can chat with their home governments
instantaneously via text messages or WhatsApp, and foreign policy
decisions can be made through the small screen of a smartphone—though of
course, ostentatious ceremonies in which heads of state meet to sign
major agreements will continue to take place.
Additionally, there is the issue of the rising importance of
information and communication technologies (ICTs) as part of a
government’s foreign policy strategy. There is growing academic
literature dedicated to science diplomacy or innovation diplomacy, like,
for example, the 2017 essay
Exploring the future of innovation diplomacy
by Jos Leijten of the Joint Institute for Innovation Policy. Leijten
explains how “many, if not all, developed nations have special offices
in their foreign services, which are responsible for science diplomacy
actions,” because, as the author aptly argues, “with the rise of the
knowledge economy or, to put it differently, with the growth of the role
of knowledge as a factor in economic prosperity of countries, knowledge
has become an increasingly important issue in the relations between
nations.”
Diplomacy is an ever-morphing organism and governments need to adapt
constantly in a changing world, especially nowadays. Hence, it is no
surprise that commentaries about the future of diplomacy published in
recent years stress the need for diplomatic officers to be open to new
ideas.
Case in point, some governments may now wish to focus on improving
relations with a specific industry situated in another country; hence a
local diplomatic office, like a consulate,
in situ will be
necessary. After all, Washington DC is geographically distant from
California, no matter the size of an embassy’s trade and IT offices in
the U.S. capital.
The deployment of the Danish tech ambassador offers one additional
positive option: Copenhagen can now communicate directly with Silicon
Valley companies without having to go through Washington, at a time when
U.S.-Europe government relations are at a low point.
Information Technology is a multibillion-dollar industry with hubs
around the world. The government of Denmark’s decision to have a tech
ambassador directly aimed at improving relations between Copenhagen and
the world of IT in the U.S. is an intriguing initiative that could prove
to be very (financially) successful. Copenhagen’s move also supports
the argument that diplomacy is an evolving field as governments come up
with new initiatives to both protect and promote their national
interests.
About the author: W. Alejandro Sanchez is a researcher who focuses on geopolitical, military, and cybersecurity issues. Follow him on Twitter: @W_Alex_Sanchez.
The
views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and do
not necessarily reflect those of any institutions with which the author
is associated.
The author would like to thank Brittney J. Figueroa for editorial assistance.
