Digital diplomacy — diplomacy of the future

This article examines the challenges and threats faced by Russian diplomacy in the modern world, in the context of new global changes (the COVID-19 pandemic, the global financial, economic and energy crisis, attempts to reformat the existing system of international relations). Diplomacy is being radically transformed before our eyes. In the face of new challenges, its structure and methods are changing, and new directions are emerging. Our modern world is filled with names — humanitarian, digital, scientific, integration, cultural, public, sports diplomacy. At the same time, it is not certain that the essential content of diplomacy — the construction of relations and their management — will be carried out without direct personal contact. Interpersonal contact has always been the foundation of diplomacy. The authors present proposals for the formation of Russia's foreign policy position in relation to the most important problems of modern development through the prism of positioning our country as an independent center of power. The article analyzes new opportunities and technologies for use by the diplomatic departments of various states in the course of carrying out current activities in the field of international relations. It is impossible to imagine the life of any modern society without social networks - a structure based on the contacts of individuals with each other, the exchange of various information, the discussion of pressing issues. For a modern person, the use of a social network is quite a familiar phenomenon, and for diplomats it is not so much a form of communication with thousands of strangers, as an understanding of what is happening in their country of residence, how citizens react to the decisions and actions of the foreign ministry, a free ideological space that can be used as a means of influencing public opinion, creating a positive image of their country abroad. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of the Internet and social networks has increased significantly (online work, study, conferences, meetings, entertainment, etc.).