Diplomats of the Digital Era

The impact of telecommunications on diplomacy, specifically, the role of diplomatic agents in a context in which technical knowhow is just as important to multilateralism as politics and traditional diplomacy, is the subject of this essay by Martha Cecilia Amero and María Victoria Romero, who take stock of the global telecommunications scene and the important part the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) plays in this process. The authors go on to look at the challenges Mexico’s telecommunications policy faces and attempt to determine its potential compared to that of other countries. They suggest how foreign policy can be redirected to have a greater, longterm impact, allowing us to better forecast Mexico’s position on the international arena. Finally, Amero and Romero stress the importance of producing government officials capable of understanding and functioning in an increasingly digitalized diplomatic environment, given that foreign policy has embraced ict as a tool of modern-day diplomacy.