The Scottish Government's Digital Influence

1. Introduction

The brief

7. This report was commissioned by the Scottish Government as a one off project from the Digital Influence and Intelligence Lab (DIIL) on 'digital influence'.

8. The brief was to:

"... map current and future (next 3-5 years) user requirements with an international focus across the Scottish Government, situate it within existing best practice, internationally, and explore issues identified."

9. It also called for:

9.1 The identification of priorities and options for the Scottish Government in relation to these identified needs. The options would be costed, where possible, and analysed in terms of value for money;

9.2 An outlined benefits case for the Scottish Government to consider, taking account of other recent research literature and current practice;

9.3 Benchmarking the Scottish Government approach against a small number of comparator countries such as Sweden and Switzerland; and

9.4 Recent research on soft power in the contemporary competitive environment, Digital Diplomacy and Digital Cultural Relations.

Policy context

10. The context for this work was A Fairer, Greener Scotland: Programme for Government 2021-22, which sets out the Scottish Government's aspirations and activities designed to promote Scotland's standing in the world.

"At a time of increasing insularity, Scotland's strength will remain in its internationalism. We will continue to work with our friends and partners in Europe and beyond to reaffirm diplomatic ties, improve our global networks, enhance international communications activity, and unlock new economic and trading opportunities".

11. The Programme also commits to strengthening Scotland's network of international offices to increase Scotland's economic and cultural visibility and support the development of bilateral relationships.

12. Scotland's international relations are conducted within the framework of the devolution settlement. While Scotland does not have the full powers of an independent state, it nevertheless has the scope to conduct a substantial range of international relations activities with the agreement of the UK Government.^[1]

Policy aims

13. The Scottish Government considered that it would benefit from having an explicit strategic approach to digital influence, which is increasingly central to international relations. Policymakers have a need for strategies that help them understand and navigate the digital ecosystem. There are many opportunities for international relations utilising new technologies. Online infrastructures can play a role in redesigning international relations, political dialogue, cultural exchange and the conditions for the creation of new ideas.^[2] Among the many areas where digital communications technologies currently have an impact on international relations are horizon scanning, threat assessment, the communication of strategic narratives (including disinformation) and the facilitation of global networks of those seeking to influence decision making on issues of common concern such as the pandemic or climate change.^[3] Digital communications technologies should also be recognised as a source of creativity for those involved in international relations, and as offering the Scottish Government opportunities to process information, contribute to the definition of emerging issues and the shaping of agendas for action, create networks, and two-way flows of communication.

14. Given the pace of change and increasing levels of complexity, it is hard, however, to measure influence in this new world. This reflects the fact that influence is highly nuanced and any attempt to reduce it to a single number, based on a single digital data source that can be 'gamed', is a flawed concept. Tools which attempted to do this are seen as inadequate, and approaches such as social media analysis that counts re-tweets, followers, hashtags etc. are no longer seen as satisfactory.^[4] Therefore, work on digital influence needs to consider data, methods, and tools for analysis and interpretation including the use of data-driven analytical services through which organisations can analyse the nuanced impact of their digital influence activities over time and in comparative contexts.^[5]

The evidence

15. There is very little literature which analyses and appraises Scotland's digital engagement. There are, however, a number of policy documents published by the Scottish Government which are discussed here.

16. There is a substantial and growing academic and grey literature on digital diplomacy and a much smaller but growing number of commentaries and studies on digital foreign policy. This is unsurprising as the concept of digital foreign policy is much more recent than that of digital diplomacy. There are academic and business-led studies on the measurement of digital influence and a vast literature on digital transformation, digital communications, and digital governance. These were drawn on selectively for the literature review and for the two case studies, in so far as they were directly relevant to the aims of the Scottish Government.

17. To obtain a more in-depth and nuanced view of the evidence, a limited number of interviews with Scottish Government staff and external stakeholders from Scottish public bodies were conducted. A workshop was held in which options were presented to Scottish Government staff for discussion. The interview material and workshop conclusions supported and enriched the evidence from the desk research.

Acknowledgements

18. Our approach to the brief was to be as systematic in data collection and analysis as possible. This was helped by the range of expertise within the DIIL team which includes leading experts in digital influence, international relations, communications and public policy. This enabled rigorous quality assurance of the research throughout.

19. The Scottish Government team who led on this research were also essential. We are grateful to them for sharing their time and insights, and for their practical assistance at a time when the Scottish Government was preparing for one of the most important international events of our time – COP 26, which was held in Glasgow during the time when this research was underway.

20. Finally, we are grateful to the interviewees who gave their time to participate and share their insights and experience.