This article presents a theory and analysis of the social aesthetics of digital diplomacy. Drawing inspiration from the sociology of taste and visual theory, we conceptualize social aesthetics as the encoding of social norms and hierarchies into visual representations. Through this lens, we examine how the multitude of images uploaded by diplomats on social media daily contribute to the symbolic authority of their profession, ritually conveying ideals of international mediation and sovereign equality. Using advancements in computer vision methods, we analyze over 55,000 images sourced from tweets by more than 1,000 ambassadors globally. In contrast to prevailing research highlighting how social media images disrupt traditional diplomatic norms, facilitate strategic nation-branding, or promote individuals, our large-scale analysis reveals a remarkable uniformity in these images across diplomats from different countries. We demonstrate how diplomatic images perpetuate a Western visual canon, thereby reinforcing structures of power and distinction, and delineating the normative boundaries of diplomacy as a global institution. The article contributes to debates about diplomacy, aesthetics, taste, rituals, and power in international relations. Furthermore, it underscores the value of computer vision and convolutional neural networks in uncovering large-scale social patterns and relationships within practices previously perceived as highly personalized or strategic.

中文翻译：

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数字外交的社会美学


本文介绍了数字外交的社会美学理论和分析。从品味社会学和视觉理论中汲取灵感，我们将社会美学概念化为将社会规范和等级制度编码为视觉表现。通过这个镜头，我们研究了外交官每天在社交媒体上上传的大量图片如何促进了他们职业的象征性权威，仪式性地传达了国际调解和主权平等的理想。利用计算机视觉方法的进步，我们分析了来自全球 1,000 多名大使的推文的 55,000 多张图像。与强调社交媒体图像如何破坏传统外交规范、促进战略性国家品牌或提升个人的主流研究相反，我们的大规模分析揭示了来自不同国家的外交官的这些图像具有显着的一致性。我们展示了外交图像如何延续西方视觉经典，从而加强权力和区别的结构，并划定外交作为全球机构的规范界限。这篇文章为国际关系中关于外交、美学、品味、仪式和权力的辩论做出了贡献。此外，它强调了计算机视觉和卷积神经网络在揭示以前被认为高度个性化或战略性的实践中的大规模社会模式和关系方面的价值。