By Maureen Couch
Moira Whelan, BlueDot Founding Partner, was featured on a panel for the 2019 French Series hosted by the Embassy of France on Tuesday, May 21st. This year’s panel series, an annual event at the embassy, addressed the matter of failing diplomatic exclusivity of international communications.
The French Embassy promoted the panel series indicating that social media has become a major player in funneling information to – and from – the public, “allowing non-state actors to become involved in the communication between states.” Rather than avoiding the inevitable, the panel spoke on how foreign policy can welcome and, in turn, help shape the future of diplomacy as it evolves.
“One of the mistakes we are making is taking the antiquated rules and applying it to the current diplomacy. That people to people opportunity is huge and in the end will help salvage the relationship,” said Whelan on the panel series.
Including Whelan, the panel co-featured Priya Doshi, a professorial lecturer of Public Relations at American University School of Communication, and James Barbour, the Former Head of the Press and Public Diplomacy Section of the Delegation of the European Union. The panel was moderated by John Hudson, National Security Reporter at The Washington Post.
To learn more about the French Series, visit the French Embassy site or take a look at tweets by the Digital Diplomacy Coalition and the French Embassy.
This post originally appeared on the BlueDot website.