“粉絲代替核彈” 美國駐俄大使玩轉“數字外交”

For Ambassador Michael McFaul, the unfiltered communication offered by social media means he can tweet U.S. policy, blog it and post it on Facebook, an alternative to the mostly hostile traditional media here.

While Russian Internet use is widespread, the majority of people still get their news from television, so McFaul is unlikely to win the nation’s hearts and minds tweet by tweet. But his use of social media gets him buzz — and a direct line to a new audience.

McFaul tweets, he said in an interview, because Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state who sent him to Moscow two years ago, told him to.

“Her message was that our diplomacy goes beyond meeting with our counterparts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said.

McFaul’s reception when he arrived here in January 2012 helped reinforce his boss’s orders. Officially directed anti-Americanismwas on the rise, and television crews, taking cues from the Kremlin, hounded McFaul. They pounced on him when he met with human rights activists. He was accused of giving the activists orders and stirring up revolution.

Time to power up the computer.

Many public officials tweet, but McFaul has been noticed for his willingness to answer questions and get into some give-and-take on Twitter. A few days ago, a tweeter asked if there would ever be war between Russia and the United States. “Never,” he wrote in Russian. That touched off a longer exchange about whether the two countries threatened each other. McFaul argued they faced common threats. Pressed, he tweeted, “al-Qaeda.”

Months after his arrival, a paper prepared for the Center for New Media and Society at the New Economic School in Moscow declared that McFaul had taken digital diplomacy much further than other diplomats. Sam Greene, then a senior research fellow at the center, also wrote that McFaul was already among Russia’s 10 most influential bloggers, as evaluated by numbers of mentions by other bloggers and readership.

The December issue of State, the magazine published by the U.S. State Department, and the January-February issue of the Foreign Service Journal ran admiring this-is-how-you-do-it articles about his use of social media.

He tries to vary the discourse, following up a tweet about Secretary of State John F. Kerry discussing Iran or a link to a strong U.S. statement on human rights in Russia with something personal about himself or his family.

When he and his wife celebrated the new year by watching a Bolshoi Ballet performance of “The Nutcracker,” he tweeted photos and posted them on Facebook, commenting on the wealth of Russian culture. A year and a half ago, a photo of him in Red Square with family members visiting from Montana got a thousand likes.

In a series of 15 or more tart tweets, the Foreign Ministry called itself shocked by remarks McFaul had made to students at the Higher School of Economics, describing him as distorting the U.S.-Russian relationship and spreading falsehoods.

McFaul defended himself; his standard PowerPoint presentation had emphasized positive results, he said. Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister who was watching in cyberspace, called it the first Twitter war.

“I see that Russia MFA has launched a twitter-war against US Ambassador @McFaul,” tweeted Bildt, who has 251,600 followers. “That’s the new world — followers instead of nukes. Better.”據美國《華盛頓郵報》1月12日報道，在俄羅斯這樣一個經常貶損美國、沒有耐心接受西方價值觀念，同時嚴格管控傳媒的國家，美國大使通常很難向普羅大衆傳遞他想傳達的信息。然而，現任美國駐俄大使邁克爾•麥克福爾卻另闢蹊徑，藉助社交媒體、玩轉“數字外交”。

***新時代嘗試新外交

“數字外交”的想法從何而來？麥克福爾說，這受到美國前國務卿希拉里•克林頓的啓發，“兩年前，她派我來莫斯科。當時，她告訴我，外交的含義遠遠大於在外交部會見他國大使”。

2012年1月，麥克福爾上任，他在俄羅斯的所聞所感加深了他對希拉里贈言的理解。當時，俄羅斯反美情緒高漲，電視裏、報紙上充斥反美言論。作爲新任美國駐俄大使，麥克福爾的日子可不好過。隨後，他頂着輿論壓力與俄人權活動人士會面，更是成爲媒體炮轟的對象，他被指暗中下令、企圖挑起衝突。

經過一番深思熟慮，麥克福爾認爲是時候轉戰“數字戰場”了。

在麥克福爾看來，雖然俄羅斯傳統媒體對美國不甚友好，但社交媒體可提供未經過濾的信息溝通，這意味着他可以在微博上、在博客上傳播美國政策。儘管單純依靠發微博，麥克福爾無法贏得俄民衆的認同，不過他也志不在此，他的目的是與一個新的羣體進行直接溝通。

***“有來有往”成其賣點

政府官員開微博並不少見，但麥克福爾卻以和網民“有來有往”而與他人區分開來。幾天前，一名網友在微博上向麥克福爾發問：“美俄會爆發戰爭嗎？”“不會！”麥克福爾用俄語乾淨利落地回答。

隨後，此次問答在微博上引發一場有關美俄是否互爲威脅的大討論，麥克福爾也參與其中。“基地組織”，他在對話框裏寫下四個字，然後點擊發送，指出這是美俄面臨的共同敵人。

麥克福爾在“數字外交”領域作出的嘗試和努力得到外界認可。麥克福爾赴俄任職數月後，莫斯科一家學術機構刊文稱，相較於同行，他把“數字外交”推行得更爲深入。該機構高級研究員薩姆•葛林更把麥克福爾列入俄羅斯十大最具影響力博主榜單，稱其博文的閱讀人數和影響力不容小覷。

***公私兼顧獲得成功

而在美國國內，政府和媒體也在嘗試解讀麥克福爾使用社交媒體的成功之處。美國國務院發行的《國家》雜誌2013年12月刊，以及美國《外交雜誌》1、2月刊都發表文章，向讀者介紹這位學者出身的美國駐俄大使如何進行“數字外交”。

“他會聲援美國政府，但也會在社交媒體上稍稍展示一下私人生活。”《華盛頓郵報》說。例如，麥克福爾把他和妻子在莫斯科大劇院觀看芭蕾舞表演的照片放上“臉譜網”（Facebook），同時附文讚歎俄羅斯文化博大精深。一年半前，他帶家人蔘觀莫斯科紅場的照片還收穫了一千個“贊”。

除了“贊”，麥克福爾在微博上還遭遇過怒斥。此前，俄羅斯外交部曾連發至少15條微博，斥責麥克福爾在俄國立高等經濟大學做演講時措辭不專業，指其扭曲美俄關係、散播謊言。麥克福爾隨即“回擊”，說自己所做的PPT演示合乎標準，聽衆反響熱烈。

當時，瑞典外交部長卡爾•比爾特在推特（Twitter）上圍觀這場口舌論戰，並將其稱爲史上第一場“推特戰爭”。“我看到，俄羅斯外交部對美國駐俄大使發動了一場推特戰爭，”擁有超過25萬粉絲的比爾特在微博上寫道，“這是一個新的時代，粉絲代替了核彈，現在變得更好了。”