nämlich ein besseres Bild mit weniger Datenverbrauch

reflect on the huge attention generated by GPT-3 and what it heralds for the future research

Tikhanovskaya’s short video message had barely begun when the Belarusian representative, Yuri Ambrazevich, demanded it be switched off. He repeatedly interrupted the screening, raising procedural objections and insisting her words had “no relevance on the substance ... on the events that are taking place today”.

“hybrid diplomacy”

digital meetings become “equalizers of power”,

new modus operandi of the World Health Organization (WHO)

the saving in airfares and carbon emissions is vas

re-evaluate their use of time, and to be more efficient

Through video calls you can maintain existing relationships, you cannot cultivate new ones.

Many diplomats say they have felt like fish out of water over the past few months, rattling around empty embassies, reminding colleagues to unmute on video calls.

“Actually what we have seen is that Zoom and other digital tools are making dialogue and negotiations more accessible, and can help to bring a wider range of people together – people who would never otherwise have been at the same table.”

“With Zoom, there is no real interaction, but compromise needs interaction and diplomacy feeds off compromise. It is all far too formal and hierarchical. We press the mute button at the end and we are no further. Everyone has set out their previous position in 12 monologues. Maybe it’s fine for businessmen, but not for us.”

even more vital forum, if only as a place for members to vent grievances.

Mr. Trump also has abandoned or slashed support for U.N. agencies

“What is really frightening at this moment,” Dr. Walling said, is “the state of multilateralism in general, and whether the world’s governments and people will see the value of multilateral cooperation.”

increasingly collides with principles in the same Charter emphasizing national sovereignty and nonintervention in a country’s internal affairs.

“There have been lots of ups and downs, but we’ve been on a significant down,

“The U.N. is weaker than it should be,”

been met with commitments totaling just a quarter of the goal. That response “barely justifies the description of ‘tepid,’” said Mark Lowcock, the top U.N. relief official.

from the balance of political appointees versus career professionals in ambassadorial appointments

“It’s power without responsibility.” He paused. “There’s so much power, and so little responsibility. This is not notional abstract power. This is real power about day-to-day lives. It’s both material and cultural and financial. The world has to know that this is how it works . . . There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark,” he said, quoting Hamlet a little melodramatically.

As far asAfrican-Americans are concerned, thenumbers are appalling,” says Ms Thomas-Greenfield. Just 2.8% of the senior ranksare black; a few years ago the figure was“upwards of 8%”, still short of a representa-tive share.

At Harvard Mr Burns and three otherex-ambassadors are leading an ambitiousproject to reimagine the longer-term fu-ture of American diplomacy; they will pub-lish their proposals after the election.

“we employmore people to work in military grocerystores than we do foreign-service offi-cers”—and professionalising its envoys in-stead of “selling swanky diplomatic poststo rich buffoons”.

A nimbler entry-exam process,faster promotions and greater opportuni-ties to enter at every level would all help.

“There you have a wiping outof the career service.” Between 1975 and2014, the share of career diplomats in the50 or so jobs at assistant-secretary leveland above shrank from about 60% to 30%;now, says Mr Neumann, it is down to 8%

“If you don’t fund theState Department fully then I need to buymore ammunition,”

between a quarter and a thirdof a president’s ambassadors have been po-litical appointees, often hefty campaigndonors. In Mr Trump’s case the figure is43%.

favoured political picks over careerdiplomats to a degree that is unprecedent-ed in modern times.

“corediplomatic capability” (excluding outlayson security) declined by nearly a quarter inreal terms between 2008 and 2016.

mid-1990s after the end of the cold war,when America thought it could scale backdiplomacy

increasing politicisation, poor profession-al education and outdated career structure.

In total, nearly a third of Brit-ain’s ambassadors, heads of mission or go-vernors are women

NneNne Iwuji-Eme, Brit-ain’s High Commissioner in Mozambiquesince 2018, is the first black woman to holdthe rank. Officials would like to see morenon-white diplomats follow.