Corneliu Bjola
Biographic Data
| ID | 1162897 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Corneliu Bjola |
| GIVEN NAMES | Corneliu |
| FAMILY NAME | Bjola |
| SIGNATURE | BJOLA C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3609-4240 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Studying Tech Diplomacy—Introduction to the Special Issue on Tech Diplomacy
This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on tech diplomacy, exploring its emergence and evolution as a distinct approach to global affairs in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Originating with Denmark's 2017 “TechPlomacy” initiative, tech diplomacy has gained global momentum, with over two dozen countries adopting it to address challenges posed by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and…
Tech Diplomacy and the Digital International Order: The Case of the EU –U.S. Trade and Technology Council
This article examines the evolving role of the U.S.–EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in advancing the EU's digital diplomacy, with a particular focus on its contribution to global digital ordering. Positioned at the intersection of normative engagement and regulatory coordination, the TTC operates as a hybrid mechanism that integrates networked ordering—through norm diffusion, stakeholder engagement, and shared value promotion—with structura…
Public diplomacy in the crossfire: Decoding Ukraine's ‘Strategic Self’ during wartime
This article examines the evolving role of public diplomacy in wartime, focusing on how it functions and what shapes its influence on digital publics. Using Ukraine's response to Russia's war of aggression as a case-study, it introduces the Strategic Self framework, composed of two interconnected elements: the Projecting Self, which builds international solidarity through narratives of resilience and shared values; and the Distancing Self, which …
The Ukrainian meme machine: Digital Diplomacy and ‘Quantum Humour
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion, Ukrainian state-affiliated actors have increasingly employed humour – particularly in the form of memes – as a strategic instrument of digital diplomacy targeting Western audiences. This article examines how memes disseminated via official Ukrainian accounts on X (formerly Twitter) function to shape international perceptions of the conflict, reinforce transnational solidarity and sustain diplomatic support. Buil…
The Digital Hybridization of Ministries of Foreign Affairs: The Case of the Nordic and Baltic States
Drawing on assemblage theory, the chapter advances a novel theory of digital hybridization to explain the transformative impact of digital technology on the practice of diplomacy. We define digital hybridization as an ordering process by which new structures with a distinct internal logic (digital assemblages) are formed through the co-junction and co-evolution of digital and diplomatic components that ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) combine…
The Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy
In recent years, digital technologies have substantially impacted the world of diplomacy. From social media platforms and artificial intelligence to smartphone applications and virtual meetings, digital technologies have proven disruptive, impacting the norms, practices, and logics of diplomats, states, and international organisations. Although the term digital diplomacy is commonly used by academics and diplomats, few works to date have clearly …
Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy
AI for development: Implications for theory and practice
The arrival of AI technology promises to add a fascinating new chapter to development theory and practice. Current studies have made good progress in examining the potential contributions of AI to achieving sustainable development goals and addressing challenges in specific development areas (poverty, global health, human rights, environment etc.). However, four lessons stand out when considering the impact of future research on the AI/developmen…
Virtual Venues and International Negotiations: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID -19 pandemic has altered international diplomacy, with many negotiations now conducted in ‘virtual venues’ facilitated by videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Interprefy. Drawing on a survey of diplomats with experience in virtual venue negotiation, we analyze respondents’ perceptions of efficacy, tactics, and legitimacy in these venues. We find that virtual venues not only affect the format, but also th…
The rise of hybrid diplomacy: From Digital Adaptation to Digital Adoption
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced diplomats to embrace virtual platforms and to learn to combine virtual and physical meetings in their work. In this article, we investigate how this process has taken place and with implications for the conduct of diplomacy. Specifically, we ask how diplomats have adapted to the transition to the virtual medium, what lessons have they learned from this, and how these lessons may inform the conduct of diplomacy in …
Tackling Covid-19 Disinformation: Internal and External Challenges for the European Union
The corona crisis is also a disinformation crisis for the global community in general, and for the European Union ( EU ) in particular. What is less clear is how adequate the EU ’s response to the ‘infodemic’ has been. This essay exposes the dangers of disinformation for the EU , which have intensified in the context of the COVID -19 pandemic, and reviews relevant EU responses. It then zooms in on two challenges exacerbated by the corona crisis: …
Digital propaganda, counterpublics and the disruption of the public sphere: The Finnish approach to building digital resilience
Drawing on the case of Finland and its model of 'resilience' to digital disinformation, the article provides an original framework for understanding the logic of digital propaganda and the conditions that may facilitate an effective response. Building on recent research connecting digital propaganda to the disruption of the public spheres in democratic societies, the study argues that the logic of digital propaganda could be unpacked by examining…
Visual narratives of global politics in the digital age: An introduction
Social media are inherently visual platforms. Every day, billions of photographs, videos, cartoons, memes, gifs, and infographics are uploaded and shared for the world to see online. As a result, political actors such as diplomats, militaries, international organisations, terrorist groups, corporations, celebrities, diasporas and members of the general public are now visual narrators of global politics. They tell stories about themselves, each ot…
International Organisations and Digital Diplomacy
Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age
As data fast become the ‘new oil’, the opportunities for public diplomacy to grow as a field of practice are real and game-changing. Drawing on social informatics research, this article seeks to advance our understanding of how digital technologies shape the context in which public diplomacy operates by reshaping the medium of public communication, blurring the boundary between foreign and domestic affairs and empowering new actors. Despite inevi…
Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy
"Exploring the 'dark side' of digital diplomacy, this volume highlights some of the major problems facing democratic institutions in the West and provides concrete examples of best practice in reversing the tide of digital propaganda"
Revisiting Putnam’s two-level game theory in the digital age: Domestic digital diplomacy and the Iran nuclear deal
Few studies to date have investigated the impact of digitalization on Putnam’s two-level game theory. Such an investigation is warranted given that state and non-state actors can employ digital tools to influence decision-making processes at both national and international levels. This study advances a new theoretical concept, Domestic Digital Diplomacy, which refers to the use of social media by a government to build domestic support for its for…
The Ethics of Countering Digital Propaganda
How can a state react to being a target of disinformation activities by another state without losing the moral ground that it seeks to protect? This essay argues that the concept of moral authority offers an original framework for addressing this dilemma. As a power resource, moral authority enables an actor to have its arguments treated with priority by others and to build support for its actions, but only as long as its behavior does not deviat…
Propaganda in the digital age
Media revelations about the alleged use of social media networks by the Russian government for influencing the presidential elections in the United States in 2016 or, more broadly, for disrupting e
Digital diplomacy – the state of the art
When Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani held the first direct talks between American and Iranian leaders since the 1979 Islamic revolution, news about the conversation reached the public not through a
Getting digital diplomacy right: What quantum theory can teach us about measuring impact
The issue of maximizing the impact and effectiveness of digital diplomacy has become high on the agenda of many ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). What impact means in the digital context, how to capture it and how best to make use of it are questions that nevertheless remain poorly understood. Drawing heuristically on quantum theory, the article argues that the nature of the impact and the method of measuring it are two facets of the same ont…
Digital containment: Revisiting containment strategy in the digital age
Since the Ukraine conflict began in 2014, there has been an increased awareness of the threat to EU interests posed by Russia. In early 2015, the EEAS created the East StratCom Team to respond by promoting the EU’s soft power, strengthen media resilience, and catalogue disinformation. This article categorizes several examples of Russian disinformation in order to conceptualize the conduct of digital warfare and suggest how it might be contained. …
An enduring diplomatic dilemma: To be feared or to be loved
“If one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved” Machiavelli once famously contended after taking note of the presumed fickleness of promises of friendship as opposed to the allegedly enduring magnetism of fear: “for love is sustained by a bond of gratitude which, because men are exclusively self-interested, is broken whenever they see a chance to benefit themselves; but fear is sustained by a dread of punishment that …
Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice
Diplomatic Challenges in a Crisis World
The objective of this forum is to provide a framework for intellectual exchange and debate about the role of diplomacy in negotiating global crises and the impact of such crises on the evolution of diplomatic leadership, identity and method. Drawing on theories of leadership, decision-making, power and crisis management, the five contributions to this forum invite readers to reflect upon the analytical implications of theorizing crisis diplomacy
Security communities and the habitus of restraint: Germany and the United States on Iraq
Borrowing from Norbert Elias, we introduce the habitus of restraint to the study of security communities. This habitus constitutes a key dimension of the glue that holds security communities together. The perceived compatibility of practices emanating from the habitus that members hold fosters the collective identity upon which a security community is built. The violation of a member’s habitus by the practices of another member, however, disrupts…
Revisiting Putnam’s two-level game theory in the digital age: Domestic digital diplomacy and the Iran nuclear deal
Few studies to date have investigated the impact of digitalization on Putnam’s two-level game theory. Such an investigation is warranted given that state and non-state actors can employ digital tools to influence decision-making processes at both national and international levels. This study advances a new theoretical concept, Domestic Digital Diplomacy, which refers to the use of social media by a government to build domestic support for its for…
Visual narratives of global politics in the digital age: An introduction
Social media are inherently visual platforms. Every day, billions of photographs, videos, cartoons, memes, gifs, and infographics are uploaded and shared for the world to see online. As a result, political actors such as diplomats, militaries, international organisations, terrorist groups, corporations, celebrities, diasporas and members of the general public are now visual narrators of global politics. They tell stories about themselves, each ot…
Digital propaganda, counterpublics and the disruption of the public sphere: The Finnish approach to building digital resilience
Drawing on the case of Finland and its model of 'resilience' to digital disinformation, the article provides an original framework for understanding the logic of digital propaganda and the conditions that may facilitate an effective response. Building on recent research connecting digital propaganda to the disruption of the public spheres in democratic societies, the study argues that the logic of digital propaganda could be unpacked by examining…
The Ethics of Countering Digital Propaganda
How can a state react to being a target of disinformation activities by another state without losing the moral ground that it seeks to protect? This essay argues that the concept of moral authority offers an original framework for addressing this dilemma. As a power resource, moral authority enables an actor to have its arguments treated with priority by others and to build support for its actions, but only as long as its behavior does not deviat…
Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age
As data fast become the ‘new oil’, the opportunities for public diplomacy to grow as a field of practice are real and game-changing. Drawing on social informatics research, this article seeks to advance our understanding of how digital technologies shape the context in which public diplomacy operates by reshaping the medium of public communication, blurring the boundary between foreign and domestic affairs and empowering new actors. Despite inevi…
Legitimating the Use of Force in International Politics: A Communicative Action Perspective
The legal provisions of the United Nations Charter offer imprecise and insufficient criteria for discriminating properly between legitimate vs illegitimate uses of force. The conflation of the concept of the legitimacy of the use of force with what is lawful, as agreed upon by a small number of major international actors, overlooks those situations in which legal standards are rendered instruments of political deception and manipulation in the ha…
The rise of hybrid diplomacy: From Digital Adaptation to Digital Adoption
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced diplomats to embrace virtual platforms and to learn to combine virtual and physical meetings in their work. In this article, we investigate how this process has taken place and with implications for the conduct of diplomacy. Specifically, we ask how diplomats have adapted to the transition to the virtual medium, what lessons have they learned from this, and how these lessons may inform the conduct of diplomacy in …
Tackling Covid-19 Disinformation: Internal and External Challenges for the European Union
The corona crisis is also a disinformation crisis for the global community in general, and for the European Union ( EU ) in particular. What is less clear is how adequate the EU ’s response to the ‘infodemic’ has been. This essay exposes the dangers of disinformation for the EU , which have intensified in the context of the COVID -19 pandemic, and reviews relevant EU responses. It then zooms in on two challenges exacerbated by the corona crisis: …
Virtual Venues and International Negotiations: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID -19 pandemic has altered international diplomacy, with many negotiations now conducted in ‘virtual venues’ facilitated by videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Interprefy. Drawing on a survey of diplomats with experience in virtual venue negotiation, we analyze respondents’ perceptions of efficacy, tactics, and legitimacy in these venues. We find that virtual venues not only affect the format, but also th…
Digital diplomacy – the state of the art
When Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani held the first direct talks between American and Iranian leaders since the 1979 Islamic revolution, news about the conversation reached the public not through a
Digital containment: Revisiting containment strategy in the digital age
Since the Ukraine conflict began in 2014, there has been an increased awareness of the threat to EU interests posed by Russia. In early 2015, the EEAS created the East StratCom Team to respond by promoting the EU’s soft power, strengthen media resilience, and catalogue disinformation. This article categorizes several examples of Russian disinformation in order to conceptualize the conduct of digital warfare and suggest how it might be contained. …
Understanding Enmity and Friendship in World Politics: The Case for a Diplomatic Approach
This article invites diplomatic scholars to a debate about the identity of diplomacy as a field of study and the contributions that it can make to our understanding of world politics relative to international relations theory (IR) or foreign policy analysis (FPA). To this end, the article argues that the study of diplomacy as a method of building and managing relationships of enmity and friendship in world politics can most successfully firm up t…
Legitimacy and the use of force: Bridging the analytical – normative divide
By remaining epistemologically committed to an outdated distinction between facts and values, traditional definitions of legitimacy either divest the concept of an important critical component or fail to properly anchor it in the social reality. As an alternative, the article proposes a constitutive theory of legitimacy that reconciles the epistemological tension via the concepts of fairness and tractability and bridges the theoretical gap via th…
Negotiation Breakthrough Analysis: The Case of Climate Negotiations
The article addresses an important gap in the literature on climate negotiations, namely, the question of breakthroughs: what exactly counts as breakthroughs in climate negotiations, how do you measure them empirically, and what practical implications do they have for the negotiation process? To address these questions, the article draws on market trading theory and develops a framework of negotiation breakthrough analysis for defining, recognizi…
The ethics of secret diplomacy: A contextual approach
Under what conditions is secret diplomacy normatively appropriate? Drawing on pragmatic theories of political and ethical judgement, this paper argues that a three-dimensional contextual approach centred on actors' reasoning process offers an innovative and reliable analytical tool for bridging the ethical gap of secret diplomacy. Using the case of the US extraordinary rendition programme, the paper concludes that secret diplomacy is ethically un…
The Ukrainian meme machine: Digital Diplomacy and ‘Quantum Humour
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion, Ukrainian state-affiliated actors have increasingly employed humour – particularly in the form of memes – as a strategic instrument of digital diplomacy targeting Western audiences. This article examines how memes disseminated via official Ukrainian accounts on X (formerly Twitter) function to shape international perceptions of the conflict, reinforce transnational solidarity and sustain diplomatic support. Buil…
Getting digital diplomacy right: What quantum theory can teach us about measuring impact
The issue of maximizing the impact and effectiveness of digital diplomacy has become high on the agenda of many ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). What impact means in the digital context, how to capture it and how best to make use of it are questions that nevertheless remain poorly understood. Drawing heuristically on quantum theory, the article argues that the nature of the impact and the method of measuring it are two facets of the same ont…
Diplomatic Challenges in a Crisis World
The objective of this forum is to provide a framework for intellectual exchange and debate about the role of diplomacy in negotiating global crises and the impact of such crises on the evolution of diplomatic leadership, identity and method. Drawing on theories of leadership, decision-making, power and crisis management, the five contributions to this forum invite readers to reflect upon the analytical implications of theorizing crisis diplomacy
Diplomatic Leadership in Times of International Crisis: The Maverick, the Congregator and the Pragmatist
Using Momentum Analysis to Explain and Forecast the Outcome of International Negotiations
Drawing on the literature of technical analysis in financial markets, this article introduces an original framework and methodology for explaining and forecasting the outcome of international negotiations based on two concepts: the relative strength negotiation index ( rsni ) and the negotiation contextual conduciveness index ( ncci ). By comparing the parties’ levels of interest in the negotiations, rsni serves as a powerful indicator of the dir…
Prospects for Democratic Consolidation in East-Central Europe
International Conditionality: Easing Ethnic Politics
In Ethnic Politics in Europe: The Power of Norms and Incentives, Judith Kelley takes a serious look at the role that international institutions play in reducing ethnic tensions. In the process, she provides a refreshing theoretical counterbalance, especially in the current international context, to the view that military power and realpolitik hold the key to international stability. Kelley's research topic is, obviously, hardly new. The debate ab…
Legitimating the Use of Force in International Politics: A Communicative Action Perspective
The legal provisions of the United Nations Charter offer imprecise and insufficient criteria for discriminating properly between legitimate vs illegitimate uses of force. The conflation of the concept of the legitimacy of the use of force with what is lawful, as agreed upon by a small number of major international actors, overlooks those situations in which legal standards are rendered instruments of political deception and manipulation in the ha…
Ontology, All the Way Down
It is generally assumed that an academic discipline passes the threshold of maturity when it becomes self-reflective regarding its deep-seated presuppositions, theoretical developments, and practical consequences. Agents, Structures, and International Relations by Colin Wight skillfully proves this point. Wight's main objective is to provide a comprehensive ontological investigation of the basic units and processes that underpin the theory and pr…
Security communities and the habitus of restraint: Germany and the United States on Iraq
Borrowing from Norbert Elias, we introduce the habitus of restraint to the study of security communities. This habitus constitutes a key dimension of the glue that holds security communities together. The perceived compatibility of practices emanating from the habitus that members hold fosters the collective identity upon which a security community is built. The violation of a member’s habitus by the practices of another member, however, disrupts…
Legitimacy and the use of force: Bridging the analytical – normative divide
By remaining epistemologically committed to an outdated distinction between facts and values, traditional definitions of legitimacy either divest the concept of an important critical component or fail to properly anchor it in the social reality. As an alternative, the article proposes a constitutive theory of legitimacy that reconciles the epistemological tension via the concepts of fairness and tractability and bridges the theoretical gap via th…
Legitimising the Use of Force in International Politics: Kosovo, Iraq and the Ethics of Intervention
Arguing Global Governance: Agency, Lifeworld and Shared Reasoning
Understanding International Diplomacy: Theory, Practice and Ethics
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of international diplomacy, covering both theory and practice. This second edition has been revised and updated, with new material on such key contemporary issues as Syria, Ukraine, migration and the South China Sea. The text summarizes and discusses the major trends in the field of diplomacy, providing an innovative theoretical approach to understanding diplomacy not as a collection of…
Understanding Enmity and Friendship in World Politics: The Case for a Diplomatic Approach
This article invites diplomatic scholars to a debate about the identity of diplomacy as a field of study and the contributions that it can make to our understanding of world politics relative to international relations theory (IR) or foreign policy analysis (FPA). To this end, the article argues that the study of diplomacy as a method of building and managing relationships of enmity and friendship in world politics can most successfully firm up t…
The ethics of secret diplomacy: A contextual approach
Under what conditions is secret diplomacy normatively appropriate? Drawing on pragmatic theories of political and ethical judgement, this paper argues that a three-dimensional contextual approach centred on actors' reasoning process offers an innovative and reliable analytical tool for bridging the ethical gap of secret diplomacy. Using the case of the US extraordinary rendition programme, the paper concludes that secret diplomacy is ethically un…
Negotiation Breakthrough Analysis: The Case of Climate Negotiations
The article addresses an important gap in the literature on climate negotiations, namely, the question of breakthroughs: what exactly counts as breakthroughs in climate negotiations, how do you measure them empirically, and what practical implications do they have for the negotiation process? To address these questions, the article draws on market trading theory and develops a framework of negotiation breakthrough analysis for defining, recognizi…
Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice
Diplomatic Challenges in a Crisis World
The objective of this forum is to provide a framework for intellectual exchange and debate about the role of diplomacy in negotiating global crises and the impact of such crises on the evolution of diplomatic leadership, identity and method. Drawing on theories of leadership, decision-making, power and crisis management, the five contributions to this forum invite readers to reflect upon the analytical implications of theorizing crisis diplomacy
Diplomatic Leadership in Times of International Crisis: The Maverick, the Congregator and the Pragmatist
Using Momentum Analysis to Explain and Forecast the Outcome of International Negotiations
Drawing on the literature of technical analysis in financial markets, this article introduces an original framework and methodology for explaining and forecasting the outcome of international negotiations based on two concepts: the relative strength negotiation index ( rsni ) and the negotiation contextual conduciveness index ( ncci ). By comparing the parties’ levels of interest in the negotiations, rsni serves as a powerful indicator of the dir…
Diplomacy as world disclosure: A fractal theory of crisis management
This article: Introduces the concept of world disclosure to diplomatic studies; Advances a new logic of diplomatic action that combines pre-reflective and reflective modes of reasoning; Explains why international crises are defined by fractal not linear patterns; Suggests a world disclosing method for making sense of and managing international crises. Drawing on Heidegger’s concept of ‘world disclosure’, the article advances an original analytica…
Digital diplomacy – the state of the art
When Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani held the first direct talks between American and Iranian leaders since the 1979 Islamic revolution, news about the conversation reached the public not through a
Getting digital diplomacy right: What quantum theory can teach us about measuring impact
The issue of maximizing the impact and effectiveness of digital diplomacy has become high on the agenda of many ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). What impact means in the digital context, how to capture it and how best to make use of it are questions that nevertheless remain poorly understood. Drawing heuristically on quantum theory, the article argues that the nature of the impact and the method of measuring it are two facets of the same ont…
Digital containment: Revisiting containment strategy in the digital age
Since the Ukraine conflict began in 2014, there has been an increased awareness of the threat to EU interests posed by Russia. In early 2015, the EEAS created the East StratCom Team to respond by promoting the EU’s soft power, strengthen media resilience, and catalogue disinformation. This article categorizes several examples of Russian disinformation in order to conceptualize the conduct of digital warfare and suggest how it might be contained. …
An enduring diplomatic dilemma: To be feared or to be loved
“If one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved” Machiavelli once famously contended after taking note of the presumed fickleness of promises of friendship as opposed to the allegedly enduring magnetism of fear: “for love is sustained by a bond of gratitude which, because men are exclusively self-interested, is broken whenever they see a chance to benefit themselves; but fear is sustained by a dread of punishment that …
Propaganda in the digital age
Media revelations about the alleged use of social media networks by the Russian government for influencing the presidential elections in the United States in 2016 or, more broadly, for disrupting e
Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy
"Exploring the 'dark side' of digital diplomacy, this volume highlights some of the major problems facing democratic institutions in the West and provides concrete examples of best practice in reversing the tide of digital propaganda"
Revisiting Putnam’s two-level game theory in the digital age: Domestic digital diplomacy and the Iran nuclear deal
Few studies to date have investigated the impact of digitalization on Putnam’s two-level game theory. Such an investigation is warranted given that state and non-state actors can employ digital tools to influence decision-making processes at both national and international levels. This study advances a new theoretical concept, Domestic Digital Diplomacy, which refers to the use of social media by a government to build domestic support for its for…
The Ethics of Countering Digital Propaganda
How can a state react to being a target of disinformation activities by another state without losing the moral ground that it seeks to protect? This essay argues that the concept of moral authority offers an original framework for addressing this dilemma. As a power resource, moral authority enables an actor to have its arguments treated with priority by others and to build support for its actions, but only as long as its behavior does not deviat…
Political science (34 works) · Law (33 works) · Politics (27 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Law (23 works) · Diplomacy (19 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · International relations (14 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Political economy (11 works)