Corneliu Bjola (PhD, University of Toronto) is an Associate Professor of Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford and the Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group. He is also a Faculty Fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California and a Professorial Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. His research focuses on the impact of digital technology on the conduct of diplomacy, with a special interest in public diplomacy, international negotiations, and methods for countering digital propaganda.

He has authored or edited several academic books on these topics, including the twin volumes Countering Online Propaganda and Violent Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy (2018) – listed by BookAuthority among the 20 Best New International Relations Books to Read in 2019 – and Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice (2015). His co-edited volume Digital Diplomacy and International Organizations: Autonomy, Legitimacy and Contestation (Routledge, 2020) examines the broader ramifications of digital technologies on the internal dynamics, multilateral policies, and strategic engagements of international organisations.

He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy (Oxford University Press, 2023), which offers a comprehensive overview of the theory, practice, and future of digital diplomacy across different regions and issues. Another upcoming volume, which he co-edited, is Digital International Relations: Technology, Agency and Order (Routledge, 2023), which explores how digital disruption impacts world order and global governance. Drawing on the new graduate course (“Diplomacy and Virtual Reality”) he has been teaching at the University of Oxford, Prof. Bjola’s next research project examines the ramifications of the Metaverse for the conduct of diplomacy, especially on its core diplomatic functions of representation, communication, and negotiation.