Diplomatic Relations, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Threats

Diplomatic relations in the 21st century are very different from those in the 17th century, when diplomacy in its modern form began to emerge. Back then, envoys of kings and queens travelled the world to deliver important documents or convey important news to the ruler of another state, at the same time discussing the relationship between the two countries. Nowadays, heads of state do not even need to leave their office to convey their thoughts or intentions — this can be done through a speech to the media or a single post on social media. And the whole world will immediately know the intentions of a particular state in its foreign policy. A striking example is Twitter diplomacy, or “Twiplomacy”, which was particularly popular and widespread before Twitter became known as X and diplomats faced a difficult dilemma of whether or not to continue their presence there.

Nevertheless, diplomatic relations have not lost their relevance today, it is only their form that has changed and improved. Although many professions are beginning to disappear due to the emergence of artificial intelligence, displacing people from the labour market, AI is unlikely to significantly affect diplomats. They are still important intermediaries in relations between states.

At the same time, the development of new technologies has brought changes to the way diplomatic missions operate and the issues they deal with. The Vienna Conventions of 1961 and 1963 regulate diplomatic and consular relations exclusively between states. At the time of their adoption, no one thought that new diplomatic actors such as the European Union (EU) would come to play such a dominant role or that diplomatic representatives would be assigned to technology companies in Silicon Valley. But times are changing rapidly and what used to seem unreal has now become a reality, such as the introduction of the position of a Tech Ambassador in Denmark or the positions of Cyber Ambassadors in Australia, Estonia, the USA and other countries. Even the EU has recently opened an office in Silicon Valley to have access to large technology companies. The United Nations (UN) has also not been left behind and introduced the position of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology in 2022 and, from 1 January 2025, the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies.

Many states consider it necessary to conduct a direct dialogue with large technology corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and many others. And this is not surprising, because more and more power, money and information are concentrated in the hands of these corporations. The legendary phrase of the British banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild “He who owns the information, owns the world” seems very relevant today, as these companies store an incredibly large amount of information on their servers. States are establishing ties with big tech companies in the Silicon Valley, because their influence has already gone far beyond that of ordinary private companies. In fact, cooperation with technology companies has become a separate area of activity for foreign affairs ministries and, accordingly, a vector of diplomatic relations.

The activities of diplomatic institutions themselves are also being influenced by new technologies, especially artificial intelligence. For example, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a few years ago that it would use artificial intelligence to improve its work on analysing and making diplomatic decisions. And, oddly enough, it was the Chinese company DeepSeek that made a lot of noise in January 2025 when it released the first reasoning model that can not only give direct answers to questions but can also “think”, generating a “chain of thought” before delivering the answer to a query and argue its decision. Now OpenAI with its ChatGPT has a competitor in another part of the world.

Today, many states are trying to develop their own AI-based tools for optimising the work of their diplomatic missions and modelling certain international situations.Today, many states are trying to develop their own AI-based tools for optimising the work of their diplomatic missions   Of course, AI cannot make decisions instead of diplomats: we all know that AI makes a lot of mistakes and generates inaccuracies, and that we shouldn’t rely on AI alone to solve problems of global importance. Foreign ministries, too, are well aware of this and that diplomats should carefully check all data generated by AI before making a final decision. At the same time, AI is a powerful new tool in the sense that it can create new opportunities for diplomacy: analysing large amounts of information in a short period of time, creating reports or summaries of meetings, and performing other routine paper-based diplomatic tasks.

A striking example of AI being used by diplomatic and consular institutions is the visa issuance process. In recent years, this process has become so automated that it allows consular officers to save significant time previously spent analysing thousands of applications and thus to focus on more important issues. AI is already actively used by the Schengen countries to control European borders, not only for biometric data processing but also for emotion recognition and risk assessment. It allows not only for exchanging information between the visa systems of member states but also for joint approaches to solving common problems.

While using the latest technologies, diplomats should not forget about the growing number of cyber threats. Cyberattacks on state bodies, including diplomatic and consular missions, have already become commonplace and, unfortunately, their number will only increase.Cyberattacks on state bodies, including diplomatic and consular missions, have already become commonplace  In this situation of constant technological challenges, states should pay special attention to hiring IT specialists who will not only deploy AI and monitor cybersecurity, but also help diplomats understand the new technologies and the nuances of their application. This is now a necessity that will strengthen a state’s position both in the international arena and in its diplomatic relations.