UAS and Russia national branding in digital diplomacy (Case study: Twitter account of foreign ministries)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ph.D in International Relations, University of Isfahan

Abstract

Today, the U.S. and Russian foreign ministries are using social media such as Twitter to spread their national narratives and digital diplomacy branding. The United States and Russia are trying to take their conflicting interests into cyberspace and create a parallel world through their digital channels. The main struggle between the United States and Russia revolves around public opinion to establish their desired order through national branding in the parallel digital world. Based on this, this article attempts to answer these questions through three-step coding in the content of the Twitter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United States and Russia. How do the United States and Russia seek to create their national branding through digital diplomacy? And what is the difference between these two governments' approaches? In response, it is pointed out that when reviewing and studying the two Twitter accounts of the US and Russian Foreign Ministries, these ministries have tried to highlight their two national brands "concept". While America has sought to maintain its hegemonic role in the world and globalize the order of liberal democracy, Russia, in turn, has been trying to redefine its leadership role in the world and fight against the unilateralist order of America. This redefining and Russia's struggle with the desired order of America has made Russia to put the identity and historical role of the Soviet Union at the forefront of its political performance today. This is while America wants to shape the values of the world by maintaining its hegemonic role and expanding its values, and to analyze his narrative of the target governments based on American values and culture. In this article, we have attempted to identify the hidden meanings of the U.S. and Russian State Department tweets using the method of qualitative content analysis.

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