Debating Digital Diplomacy Perspectives on Strategic Propaganda in National Security

Three Legs Consortium Working Paper on National Security, No. 2 [September, 2019]

The discipline of diplomacy operates in a dynamic world. Diplomatic practices serve the discipline as it interacts with that dynamic environment. As a result, diplomatic practices have always reflected changes that happen whenever the hinterland of the discipline is extended.This extending of the discipline is always marked by new themes of diplomacy. Over time these have been for example peace diplomacy, economic diplomacy, border diplomacy, diplomacy of the diaspora, and environmental diplomacy. These extended diplomacies do not exit from the discipline: they instead form sub-disciplines. These extended diplomacies extend the terrain of diplomacy and its content. And this in turn requires diplomatic practice to adjust itself to accommodate these new hinterlands of the discipline.

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Where We Are Now Commentary, Perspectives and Issues on Kenya’s Defence White Paper (2017)

Three Legs Consortium Working Paper on National Security, No. 2 [June, 2019]

Those who conceptualized Defence White Papers performed a useful task. They provided for a Paper that is made public, hence enhancing public participation, and sense of ownership. They also thereby provided for accountability of the content of such a Paper. The release of a Kenya Defence White Paper is therefore a welcome development. It is welcome because it spells out the defence policy of a country. It is part of the troika of policies that are core for the development of any grand strategy. It is the policy pillar of the third leg of the three-legged stool of national security.

The release of Kenya’s Defence White Paper (2017) - aka Kenya’s Defence Policy - is an equally welcome development. It is especially welcome in times like these when the formulation of the country’s Grand Strategy is underway – or at least on the intellectual cards of the minds of national policy makers. It is also welcome because it opens room for debate about the country’s defence policy. Such debates are part of the Constitution’s permission – indeed demand – for public participation in government engagements in policy and strategy making.

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