TechPlomacy: A new strategic priority in Danish foreign policy

TechPlomacy: A new strategic priority in Danish foreign policy
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Denmark is going to appoint a specially designated Tech Ambassador. The Tech Ambassador will spearhead a new ‘TechPlomacy’ initiative, making tech and digitization a priority across the Foreign Service, including at our embassy network around the world. Resources will be allocated at head-quarter level and abroad. Make no mistake: This is not symbolic. I will kick start our TechPlomacy initiative next week, visiting Silicon Valley (my first visit to the US in my capacity as Danish Foreign Minister) and engaging in a dialogue with key tech actors, VCs, researchers, government agencies and businesses.

Just as we engage in a diplomatic dialogue with countries, we also need to establish prioritized and comprehensive relations with tech actors such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Alibaba; startups in epicenters and powerhouses such as Silicon Valley, Shenzhen and elsewhere; and last but not least universities, civil society, NGOs, cities and regions who have valuable insights and experience in this field. Broad-based outreach is not new. Diplomats from Denmark and other nations do that every day. But we need to do more – and we need a much more systematic focus on tech and digitization in these efforts.

Tech companies are not the only relevant actors in this domain. But they are important. Some of them with market values outranking the GDP of most nations. Not to suggest that Denmark shares interests with leading tech companies all the time. Just as in our bilateral discussions with foreign governments, there will be things we agree on and things we don’t. Both are good reasons for dialogue. In parallel, we will promote the tech agenda – its possibilities as well as political dilemmas – through ‘classic’ diplomacy vis-à-vis nations and in multilateral organizations.

But why? Artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, blockchain, the internet of things, robots, driverless cars. The pace of digital technology development is mind-blowing. Buzzwords like ’disruption’ and the 4th industrial revolution may sometimes even give the impression that robots are talking over the world tomorrow. There is no need to add to this dramatic ‘hype’. But there is a need to make sure we understand and take into account the enormous effects that tech is having on our society. In the broadest possible sense: Politically, economically and ethically. And it is not an option to just wait and observe.

Tech and digitization needs to be a foreign policy priority for at least two reasons: (1) We cannot approach technology and digitization in a black box in Denmark. And (2) Denmark has something to offer. Denmark has to a very large degree taken advantage of digitization. The EU Commission’s 2016 Digital Economy and Society Index ranked Denmark as no. 1. In a diplomacy vocabulary, this is ‘soft power’. But we also have challenges. Too many of our companies haven’t yet jumped on the digitization train, we need more IT specialists in our workforce and our e-trade balance is negative.

An important aspect of TechPlomacy will be to use our embassies as satellite outposts feeding information into our policy formulation at home. This could be in the foreign and security policy sphere (cyber, drones, data protection etc.) and in development policies (taking advantage of new technologies in humanitarian aid and as a driver for economic growth in developing countries). But equally important, within many other both public and private sectors of society – such as the economy, labor market, environment, energy, healthcare, education, transportation and critical infrastructure.

We have seen a number of the world’s biggest IT companies deciding to establish new facilities in Denmark. An illustration of the importance of tech as a priority in our exports and investment policies. But time has come to broaden and elevate this to a cross-cutting foreign policy priority. The purpose of TechPlomacy is clear: To increase our knowledge of global developments in a crucially important area where Denmark has vital interests at stake - and to use Denmark’s strengths to promote our interests, values and visions in the relevant spheres of influence. That is the raison d’etre of not only TechPlomacy but diplomacy in general.

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