WhatsApp with Diplomatic Practices in Geneva? Diplomats, Digital Technologies, and Adaptation in Practice

Abstract

Diplomats in embassies and permanent representations are increasingly using the messaging application WhatsApp to communicate with their peers. They use WhatsApp groups to coordinate initiatives at multilateral forums, communicate more rapidly with headquarters and stay in touch with organizational developments at home, as well as form more personal working relations among their peers. To make sense of this phenomenon, our analysis looks at adaptation in practice. Instead of separating digital practices from offline/traditional ways of doing things, we build on the practice turn in International Relations and develop a nuanced framework in which improvising agents in a transformed context adapt to new realities while continuously being influenced by past ways of doing things—a phenomenon called “hysteresis” by practice turners. We analyze how traditional practices are supplemented by new technologies (complementarities) as well as how offline and online relationships are shaped by similar practical logics (similarities). We apply these micro-lenses to understand multilateral diplomacy at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Building on twenty-three interviews with practitioners, we find that WhatsApp redefines the meaning of face-to-face interactions among ambassadors and permanent representatives and makes physical meetings between diplomats more—rather than less—important.