E-Government in Public Diplomacy

In an attempt to empirically explore the ways in which governments take advantage of interactive interfaces on the Web for public diplomacy purposes, the authors conduct a content analysis on 83 nations’ ministry of foreign affairs Websites. Through a statistical analysis, they found that a nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and level of telecommunication infrastructure are significant factors in accounting for variations in the level of interactivity offered in such E-Government Websites. In addition, the findings indicate a notable disparity between nations in the interactive adoption in several ways. The authors discuss implications and suggestions with respect to success factors for E-Government in public diplomacy.