Theorizing network diplomacy on Twitter: A symbolic interactionist approach

We theorize network diplomacy as a form of symbolic interaction and examine Twitter as an arena for such interaction by comparing the social networks of U.S. missions in Britain, India, and China. Network analysis of a year’s sample of tweets, followed by manual coding of “strong ties” in each country, reveals the three networks reflect and reproduce different national identities for the United States—a friend to Britain, an ally to India, and a rival to China. Our study develops a three-dimensional framework of account-level variables—including Verification, Location, and Type—to evaluate the symbolic significance of diplomatic networking practices.