In the story, Ana has to deal with an environmental emergency. After an accident at a huge oil storage depot in a neighbouring country, oil spilled into a major international river, creating a risk to five countries downstream. Ana’s country will be the first polluted by the oil slick. Significant threats to water-supply systems, agriculture, and the ecosystem require urgent regional action.
The storyline combines elements of routine and crisis diplomacy. The crisis elements bring some tacit and discrete forms of diplomacy into sharper focus. Crises often trigger retrospection and reform, in which the trappings of day-to-day routine and inertia are displaced, and real-life problems and issues come to the fore.
The left column in the paper (the yellow boxes) contains comments on each story episode. The comments reflect on technological aspects, changes in diplomacy, and the need for management reform. Each story episode is introduced by one drawing illustrating Ana’s diplomatic activity. All episode drawing are integrated into the poster “A Day in the Life of an E-Diplomat” (see above).
