Eric Van Rythoven
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Eric Van Rythoven
@ericvanr.bsky.social
490 followers 900 following 130 posts
Writing and teaching on security, diplomacy, and emotion in global politics.
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On Trump cutting off trade talks

When I wrote about mockery in Canada-U.S. diplomacy, one of the points I stressed was just how sensitive some individuals can be to perceived sleights
October 24, 2025 at 1:50 PM
But, the report fails to model any of the actual costs of climate change into its accounting.
August 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The Hub is running a very typical story on the report:
August 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Finally, we need to change how we think about digital ‘space’. In the 2010s, Twitter was a digital space invested with a particular emotional and social meaning. Now it has changed into a different kind of space (a 'toxic' space) and that complicates diplomacy.
Finally, this article aims to provoke a reconsideration of ‘space’ in debates about digital diplomacy. One of the key contributions of digital diplomacy scholarship is in pushing how International Relations (IR) thinks about space beyond territory, and to consider the digital spaces where new forms of statecraft can emerge (Adesina 2017; Bjola et al. 2019; Manor 2019). Yet discussions of these digital spaces are often limited to new technologies and their potential for disruption. This stops short of considering how digital spaces themselves become invested with social and emotional meaning (Solomon and Steele 2016: 277). Digital spaces, whether they be websites, dating apps, or the social media platforms used by diplomats, take on symbolic meanings which shapes our interaction with them.
July 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Second, IR scholars—and digital diplomacy in particular—need to start examining the politics of social media companies. These are not neutral actors…
Second, my argument pushes scholars of digital diplomacy to start examining the politics of social media companies. Studies of digital diplomacy typically treat social media companies as neutral parties; as a kind of apolitical infrastructure upon which diplomatic practices travel, but not as political actors in their own right. Yet a growing literature on the international politics of Big Tech and algorithmic governance shows how these firms become key sources of political authority (Srivastava 2023).
July 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
The article offers three contributions for IR.

First, I make the case for thinking about *insecurity* in digital diplomacy, especially as states struggle to project a particular image.
Far from being benign, Goffman viewed facework as frequently involving threats and symbolic violence (Faizullaev 2017; Wong 2021). Coupling Goffman’s ideas to debates about aesthetic insecurity (Steele 2012) brings into focus the recurring problem of insecurity in diplomatic facework. This is a much needed perspective for a field which emphasizes the role of soft power (e.g. Adesina 2017) and assumes diplomacy is non-violent (Bjola and Holmes 2015)
July 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
The article draws on theories of facework (Goffman) and aesthetic insecurity (Steele) to argue that digital diplomacy is about the projection of a positive public image amid recurring *threats* to this image.
The face management approach to digital diplomacy then is not simply about the projection of a positive public image, but doing so amid recurring aesthetic insecurity. This view of digital diplomacy is not meant to preclude other definitions: states certainly engage in digital diplomacy to communicate with foreign publics, frame events, and generate legitimacy for different policies. The claim is simply that the purpose of managing face and limiting aesthetic insecurity lurks in the background of these acts. The crucial implication of this, however, is that when new sources of aesthetic insecurity emerge, they can threaten a state’s ability to manage face.
July 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Some articles have openings, and some have *openings*
Ayn Rand justifying her affair in a manipulative way.
February 20, 2025 at 12:52 PM