Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

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Digital Diplomacy as A Tool for Peaceful Secession: The Use of Twitter in Somaliland’s Campaign for International Recognition
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Rubidge, Laura; Benjamin, Larry
The last two decades have witnessed major disruptions to the traditional diplomatic practice as a result of technological breakthroughs. New advantages and challenges have emerged beyond the auspice of traditional diplomacy. Although there is a plethora of research emerging on digital diplomacy theory and practice, gaining momentum since the Covid-19 pandemic, it remains an under researched area of inquiry. This research report is interested in the use of Twitter by the Somaliland government, as a de facto state, as a foreign policy tool. This report employs Damien Spry and Kerrilee Lockyer’s (2022) triangulation methodology to conduct an applied evaluation of Somaliland’s use of Twitter in its foreign policy. As such, the report firstly examines Somaliland’s foreign policy strategy using document analysis, secondly, analyses overarching trends considering metadata and lastly, zooms in to the microdata to analyse small, outlier cases. The overall aim of this research report is to evaluate Somaliland’s use of Twitter in its foreign policy activities, extracting unique advantages of digital diplomacy over traditional diplomacy in addition to contributing to the emerging literature on digital diplomacy.