According to Britannica, the main reason for having foreign policies and diplomacy is to protect and further a state’s interests that generally revolve around geographic, economic and cultural factors. Although idealistic, the idea of equity in the distribution of international power can also be a major reason behind maintaining international relationships. To make up for its traditional counterpart’s shortcomings, digital diplomacy tries to achieve the same goals using the digital medium.

 

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Unbeknownst to most people, several nations today have national AI strategies in place to use the technology for various developmental purposes. Accordingly, AI is the perfect tool to facilitate digital diplomacy in the current landscape. Here’s how AI plays its part in creating and strengthening digital diplomacy around the world:

Improving National Policymaking Processes

Amidst today’s globalization, the internal politics and national policies of a country can have effects on its relations with other countries. For instance, companies looking to establish themselves in a foreign country will have to follow the laws there with regards to regulation compliance, employment and other factors. Additionally, the interest rates and production capacities in any country are governed by such policies and cause ripples in the global supply chain and fiscal markets.

Due to these reasons and many more, the role AI plays in improving policymaking in your country influences international diplomacy either positively or negatively. Considering that, here’s how AI can disrupt the internal policymaking process in your country:

a) Identification

The first phase of any policymaking process is the identification of problem areas that need to be worked on. Once governments or local bodies concerned with making binding decisions identify those, they can create policies to resolve the problems.

As we know, the data processing power and pattern recognition abilities of an ‘experienced’ AI tool are second to none. Such capabilities are invaluable for policymakers during crises like the ongoing pandemic, natural disasters or others. The basis of machine learning is to monitor such events and dig deep through past archives to know about how countries and governments worked their way out of them. Accordingly, the tools provide their recommendations to the public-sector leaders so that they can make the most effective policies.


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In hindsight, the identification of a crisis before it strikes—like detecting the spread of a mysterious pneumonia-causing virus through several cases in hospitals—could have been useful to stop the COVID-19 outbreak when it had not reached pandemic proportions.

b) Formulation

Once an area is identified for which the creation of national policies is necessary, the formulation process enters the picture. After a thorough consideration of projected expenses, benefits and, in general, the odds of a policy working, AI speeds up this process by providing insights and predictive analyses.

Formulation is arguably the most vital aspect of policymaking as it involves elements of trial and error. It requires a significant amount of research, and necessitates the need for policymakers to have an in-depth understanding of the financial and cultural issues within their country. Digital databases can be configured to maintain records of such factors, making the task simpler. AI-powered tools can analyze historical big data and other information from the private sector, public sector, social media and other sources before generating insights for policies to be formulated. Rich and advanced countries can use specially-configured AI systems to optimize their trade-related national policies and improve their national balance of payments. […]

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