IForeign policy and defense policy do not lend themselves well to telework. “This sovereign domain which is characterized by secrecy in the exchange of information requires very regular contact”observes Delphine Deschaux-Dutard, lecturer in political science at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, in a study for the Foundation for Social Sciences. During the crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, in 2020-2021, diplomats as well as civilian and military defense actors had little choice: they had to, like everyone else, give up travel and face-to-face exchanges.
Is teleworking possible in a field where secrecy governs the exchange of information? How to conduct diplomatic negotiations in virtual format? To answer these questions, the political scientist interviewed, after the confinements of 2020, many actors in foreign policy and defense policy at the Elysée, the United Nations, ministries or staff. And his conclusion is clear: if the virtualization of exchanges does not fundamentally change their practices, it deprives them of the informal contacts that form the essence of their profession.
When the pandemic began in 2020, the digitization of practices that had been in place for a few years suddenly accelerated. “For meetings of the Head of State or his diplomatic team with their foreign counterparts, the telephone is preferred for short meetings (less than thirty minutes), videoconferencing for long meetings with more than two interlocutors”, explains Delphine Deschaux-Dutard. These are the types of format that are retained, in 2020-2021, for the preparation of the French presidency of the European Union (EU) or for the weekly update of the then Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, with her counterparts of the “Takuba” force in the Sahel.
Importance of “Hallway Diplomacy”
Although conferences by telephone or video require heavy preparation in advance, they are proving to be very useful: the flexibility of digital tools makes it possible, according to the political scientist, to multiply and deepen contacts with cooperation partners – at the point that these practices that appeared during confinement survived him. “In 2022, many meetings with foreign partners, even internally or interdepartmentally, remained in remote or hybrid format due to the flexibility and travel time savings that this solution offers to agents with overloaded agendas”emphasizes Delphine Deschaux-Dutard.
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