CANADA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY: ON-LINE AND INTERACTIVE

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written on the role of information technology in reshaping international relations, including the practice of public diplomacy. The rise of the Internet and electronic communications has opened new possibilities for the exchange of information and perspectives between governments and domestic and international publics.

Three years ago, Foreign Affairs Canada launched an innovative website that sought to more deeply involve Canadians in discussions of international policy issues. This website—the Canadian International Policy website (CIP) at www.cfp-pec.gc.ca—uses a range of online features to bring more and more dynamic information resources to Canadian and international audiences. These features go well beyond the traditional staples of government communications—speeches and press releases—to include netcast interviews with experts on international issues, unofficial department papers that offer a glimpse into early policy thinking, and video features ‘from the field’.

Public input is also an important dimension of the Canadian International Policy website. Students and members of the public participate in e-discussions around ‘feature issues’ posted to the web and are invited to submit their own policy papers for departmental consideration. In some cases, Canadian universities have integrated these feature issues into their international affairs curricula.

This article provides an overview of the Canadian International Policy website—its rationale, key online features and reach—and also sets out some future plans for strengthening the contribution this site makes to Canada’s public diplomacy.

ORIGINS OF THE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL POLICY WEBSITE

The Canadian International Policy website has its origins in a strategy developed in November 2003.¹The creation, development, and implementation of this website has overwhelmingly been due to one individual—Mark McLaughlin, who is the E-communications Strategist in the Policy Research Division. He has brought to his work a creative understanding of the power and possibilities of the Internet and a journalist’s knack for ‘finding the story’. His skill and imagination are largely responsible for making the CIP a leading website in Canadian government and among foreign ministries That strategy had three principal aims:

• First, to put Canadian foreign policy issues into a broader framework so that online members of the public could gain a wider appreciation of the context for their country’s international positions;
• Second, to provide a space and opportunity for a public discussion of international policy issues; and
• Third, to make the website a principal source of information on Canada’s international policies, through a combination of official and unofficial government documents, netcast interviews with non-government experts, and hyperlinks to related sites (official and unofficial).

In a sense, the overall goal of the website was to bring departmental communications efforts more squarely into the modern Internet era.

THE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL POLICY WEBSITE: HOW IT WORKS

The Homepage

The CIP site features prominently on the home page for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. One click and you’re in. It is also often just one click in on the homepage for the Government of Canada: www.gc.ca.

Visitors to the CIP homepage are presented with the main features of the site and ‘what’s new’. The first two items provide links to information on an upcoming feature issue on the site—non-proliferation, arms control, and disarmament. Information is also provided on other topical concerns, specifically Canada’s engagement in Haiti and Afghanistan and the renewal of the NORAD agreement with the United States.

Staying ahead of the wave: Proactive E-Communications

Much of government communications is traditionally reactive and consists of departments responding to the crises of the day. The CIP site does provide information on issues that have become hot topics in the nation’s media; however, a good deal of its content is developed proactively, whether to provide information on issues that do not see a lot of media coverage or to highlight topics that we think may gain greater public profile in coming months.

An example of that has been the site’s feature on Canada’s role in Afghanistan, and specifically in the southern province of Kandahar. In 2005, 2,300 Canadian troops were deployed to Kandahar. This represented significantly stepped-up engagement by Canada in Afghanistan. In advance of that deployment, the e-communications strategist, Mark McLaughlin, developed a proposal in consultation with appropriate officers in Canada’s foreign, defence, and aid ministries, to post a feature item on Canada’s role in Afghanistan on the CIP website.²This ‘whole-of-government’ approach to developing web content is another strong feature of the CIP site. In addition to widely consulting within Foreign Affairs and International Trade as feature issues are developed, the e-communications strategist and his team typically work with other departments, as well as professors and students, in the development of web content. Cooperation is such that other branches of the foreign ministry have proven willing to pool the resources required to get feature issues up and running.

The strategist flew into Afghanistan himself to film and develop online resources for the feature item, and engaged as well the invaluable support of Mark Sedra, an expert on security sector reform and Afghanistan who was then serving as the Cadieux-Léger Fellow in the Policy Research Division. Illustration 2 provides a snapshot of the type of resources provided on the CIP site. They included netcast interviews with Canada’s Ambassador to Afghanistan and links to the websites of other Canadian government departments, including the defence ministry.

This proactive approach to communications has also included reporting on issues that have not been well reported in the media.Two examples are provided below in Illustration 3.

The following video netcasts feature the former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander (2003–05), discussing Canada’s involvement in disarmament

Dynamic media: Not just the written word

Another defining feature of the website is its dynamic use of web media. Visitors to the site can find the statements and written texts that typically populate government sites worldwide. What is different about the CIP site is its extensive use of netcast videos, the overwhelming majority of which feature interviews with non-government experts (see Illustration 4). More recently, the site has also included podcasts in its online resource library, which allows students and other users to download items to their iPods for viewing or listening anywhere and at any time. For those who prefer the written word, full transcripts, in French and English, are provided for all interviews.

Two points are worth mentioning here. First, the calibre of experts featured on the CIP site is impressive and includes such notables as Jagdish Bhagwati, Martin Wolf, Hans Blix, John J. Mearsheimer, Robert Rotberg, and James Lindsay. Second, these experts provide users with access to a diverse range of opinions—opinions, moreover, that are not necessarily in line with the official views of the Government of Canada. These netcasts with external experts make up by far the greatest part of the online resources featured on the CIP site. This helps ensure that the site is something more than simply another source of official opinion.

E-Discussions

Perhaps the feature that most sets the CIP site apart from other government sites is its use of e-discussions. Each year, the site hosts 3 consecutive e-discussions of two months’ duration.³No e-discussions are featured in the summer. This coincides with the onset of summer holidays for Canadian students and a falling off of online visits to the CIP site. These e-discussions are focused on a single international policy issue, which is highlighted as a ‘feature issue’. For example, from September to December 2005, the feature issue focused on ‘failed and fragile states’.

Feature issues are suggested by members of the Policy Research Division, by other parts of the foreign ministry and by users of the CIP site. Once an issue is selected, the Division’s e-communications team and policy officers begin developing online resources to help provide background and context to the upcoming e-discussions. Illustration 4 (above) provides an example of some of the resources provided for the failed and fragile states’ e-discussion.

A series of questions are also developed to help spark the online discussions and to provide a framework for them. Again, these questions are developed in consultation with policy officers across the government who have a keen interest in the subject matter.⁴E-discussion participants do not have to restrict their comments to the questions provided, though the discussion is moderated to ensure it remains broadly on-topic. Thus, one question not posed by the department emerged as a hot topic in the failed and fragile states e-discussion—namely, what is a failed state and how can it be defined in a way that does not reflect a specifically Western view of what is or is not a successful state? Once all the resources have been assembled and the questions developed, the feature issue goes live. Participants are invited to register or log in to the site through a message on the CIP homepage and via an email newsletter that reaches some 4,000 people. Participants in the e-discussion can then post submissions of up to 750 words each on the moderated discussion board.⁵A set of civil rules, posted on the site for all to see, is used to moderate the discussion. The main aims of these rules are to prevent racist and hateful speech from appearing on the site and to encourage a reasoned, rather than inflammatory, tone in the online discussions. Beyond these restrictions, participants are free to voice their opinions regardless of whether they conform or not to official government views. Illustration 5 provides an example of the web page soliciting input on a feature issue (and, given elapsed time, the reporting back on the discussion as described later in this article).

The CIP site has proven to be especially popular with university students, and the Policy Research Division has therefore developed extensive contacts with Canadian universities to encourage their participation in the e-discussions and to solicit their views on the choice of topics for the site and the experts who could be featured there. Interest among universities was such that several integrated the failed and fragile states into their classroom curriculum and these classrooms were then invited to submit a ‘policy paper’ for posting on the website (see Illustration 6). These papers have proven to be of high quality, and offer students the opportunity to test their skills as budding policy analysts. One from the Royal Military College of Canada proved to be influential in shaping the thinking on the failed states issue in a series of round table discussions undertaken by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, one of the oldest institutions in this country that is dedicated to the study of Canada’s international relations.

Universities have shown a very strong interest in participating in the CIP site—both in the e-discussions and in helping frame the issues presented there. Given this interest, the e-communications team is seeking to broaden the reach of the site to universities overseas. In June 2006, an email was sent to all Canadian missions asking them to provide information on the CIP site to institutions who host Canadian studies programs. In this way, we hope to share perspectives and resources with individuals abroad (Canadian or non-Canadian) who have an interest in Canada’s role in the world.

Once a feature issue has concluded, all submissions and policy papers are reviewed and summarized by officers within the Policy Research Division (see paragraph 3 in Illustration 5). Summaries of the submissions and the policy papers are then posted on the website for all participants to see to ensure that the department has been accurate and honest in how their views are presented. The summaries are circulated throughout the department, including to senior management, and an official response is then drafted by the Division in consultation with relevant parts of the foreign ministry and other government departments. That response weighs the pros and cons of views presented in the e-discussions and also explains the official position of the government on the issues raised. This official response is also posted on the CIP site for all to see.

Growth and success of the CIP site

The CIP site has grown rapidly since its inception. Statistics collected for 2005–06 show that there were about 280,000 visitors to the site and more than 2 million page views. The average length of visit to the site is 17 minutes—an eternity in cyber time. The monthly newsletter advertising content for the site has also doubled from a base of 2,000 subscribers in 2003 to 4,000 today.

The site has also gained strong support and recognition within Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and within government e-communications circles more generally. Senior management within the foreign ministry is solidly behind the site, and it is considered a best practice for consideration in a thorough review of the ministry’s overall Internet presence and management. Interest in the site has also been shown by other countries. Presentations on the site have been made to the Turkish, German, and Norwegian foreign ministries, as well as to Canadian diplomats in several European countries. In 2005, the Canadian International Policy site won a ‘Best Practices Award’ in the United Kingdom from the Local E-Democracy National Project, which is supported by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

And there is one more telling fact that hints at the growing interest in the Canadian International Policy website: It comes up first in a Google search for ‘e-discussion’.

CONCLUSION

The Canadian International Policy website demonstrates how the power of the Internet and new forms of media can transform policy dialogue between citizens and government. The scale of this dialogue—in numbers and geography—can be hugely expanded for a fraction of the cost of past forms of public engagement. Likewise, access to information resources—whether in new media or digitized presentations of traditional narratives—is greatly facilitated by the Internet and the home computer.

At the same time, familiar questions about the purpose and use of these dialogues remain and are often raised in relation to the CIP site. Are sites like this primarily there to deliver government perspectives to the public? Or is there real scope to hear differing opinions? And what ultimate end is served by this public engagement? Does it really make a difference in policy development?

The questions on purpose are most easily addressed. The CIP site does provide a forum where unofficial views can be presented, even where they conflict with those of the ministry hosting the site. Virtually all of the experts whose interviews are posted on the site come from outside of government (and often from outside of Canada), and therefore represent independent perspectives. At the same time, there are some considerations that inevitably shape the content provided on the site. The civil rules set the main parameters for what does or does not get posted to the site. But the e-communications team which manages the site is also aware that it is, in the end, a foreign ministry site and that must be factored into decisions on some content—for example, where it might inflame an already sensitive issue, particularly one involving conflict. What is remarkable is how rarely these kinds of decisions have ever had to be made.

As for the use of the e-discussions and the material generated for and by them, their greatest contribution in all likelihood lies in making available to Canadians a much increased body of information on important international policy issues.⁶This is emphatically not to argue that they can in any way replace the textbooks and readings that form the core of university curricula. Often the online resources seem to point students to experts and sources of information previously unknown to them. Providing a space for online dialogue also offers Canadians an additional opportunity to debate international policy issues. The summaries and responses prepared by the department are helpful to participants insofar as they capture the main challenges and opportunities lying within each issue area. The impact of the discussions on policy development within government is more difficult to describe, given that policy making is not a linear activity but rather an often amorphous process that is shaped by multiple influences. However, what the online dialogues clearly do provide are fresh (read: non-bureaucratic) perspectives, a sharpened sense of the interests and values that Canadians see engaged in different policy areas, and the acceptable parameters that they feel should inform Canada’s position on international issues of concern to its citizens.