The Naked Diplomat: Understanding Power and Politics in the Digital Age

The Naked Diplomat: Understanding Power and Politics in the Digital Age
Tom Fletcher

Who will be in power in the 21st century? Governments? Big business? Internet titans? And how do we influence the future?Digital technology is changing power at a faster rate than any time in history. Distrust and inequality are fuelling political and economic uncertainty. The scaffolding built around the global order is fragile, and the checks and balances created over centuries to protect liberty are being tested, maybe to destruction. Tom Fletcher, the youngest senior British ambassador for two hundred years, considers how we – as governments, businesses, individuals – can survive and thrive in the twenty first century. And how we can ensure that technology can make it easier of citizens truly to take back control.

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Copyright (#u3b300cf6-c529-5e0a-a3e6-bad96a3209b0) (#u3b300cf6-c529-5e0a-a3e6-bad96a3209b0)

William Collins

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First published as Naked Diplomacy in Great Britain by William Collins in 2016

Copyright © Tom Fletcher 2016

Tom Fletcher asserts the right to be identified as the author of this work

‘The Embassy’ (‘Sonnets from China XV’), from Collected Poems by W. H. Auden copyright © 1976 the Estate of W. H. Auden, by permission of Random House Inc.

Extracts from Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister copyright © 1980 Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay, by permission of Alan Brodie Representation Ltd, www.alanbrodie.com (http://www.alanbrodie.com)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover design by Johnathan Pelham

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Source ISBN: 9780008127589

Ebook Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9780008127572

Version: 2017-02-20

Dedication (#u3b300cf6-c529-5e0a-a3e6-bad96a3209b0)

To Louise, without whom this book would never have been written.

To Charlie, Theo and Twitter, without whom it would have been written much faster.

And to the colleagues who march towards the sound of gunfire, in order to try to stop it.

Contents

Cover (#ue47218cf-2589-5b88-a3c2-d370f879f892)

Title Page (#ulink_a766b7dc-7161-5924-846d-4d76a0c844d3)

Copyright (#ulink_eb60a544-a081-53c2-b59d-2ef9163b7ddb)

Dedication (#ulink_d9f61728-ca23-5dce-b5e8-8eb70e1d329a)

Epigraph (#ulink_718a6a65-9e8d-5a89-9ff8-4c8bde368526)

INTRODUCTION TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION (#uafdd96fc-22b9-56d3-9c26-ed70ed628b68)

PREFACE: The Diplomat Who Arrived Too Late (#ulink_39eb528c-9f57-5fb0-86f0-c8dc7fa4e760)

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION: Here Lies Diplomacy, RIP? (#ulink_0fc63d44-a991-56ab-8a9e-ef5729d6ef1e)

PART ONE – Glad-handing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Short History of Diplomacy (#ud70626f9-0561-51fb-a3cb-13b6f5030fb3)

1. Early Diplomacy: From Cavemen to Consuls (#ulink_4cac51a0-c4c3-5d13-a831-2d1ca4794e0b)

2. Diplomacy By Sea: From Columbus to Copyboys (#ulink_6fcd4091-7b98-55dc-bf5a-22425c60246e)

3. Diplomacy’s Finest Century (#ulink_169a6ac6-d3b4-5fa0-b765-5c68fef37283)

4. From Telephone to Television (#litres_trial_promo)

5. From E-mail to E-nvoys (#litres_trial_promo)

6. What Makes a Good Diplomat? (#litres_trial_promo)

PART TWO – Statecraft and Streetcraft: Power and Diplomacy in a Connected World (#litres_trial_promo)

7. iDiplomacy: Devices, Disruption and Data (#litres_trial_promo)

8. The End of Secrecy? Assange, Snowden and the Death of Bond (#litres_trial_promo)

9. Building New Power: Bombs, Books and Beckham (#litres_trial_promo)

10. Using New Power: Only Connect (#litres_trial_promo)

11. Selling Ladders for Other People to Climb Down (#litres_trial_promo)

12. A Naked Diplomat (#litres_trial_promo)

13. Envoy 2025 (#litres_trial_promo)

PART THREE – What Next? (#litres_trial_promo)

14. Who Runs the Digital Century? (#litres_trial_promo)