Rwanda has received international praise for its rapid development and is said to be undergoing a ‘technology revolution’ at the hands of President Paul Kagame who has been described as a ‘Digital President’. This quantitative content analysis of Kagame’s official Twitter account analysed the first ten years of his tweets and found that he primarily tweets in English, with a positive sentiment about cross-government and cross-border interactions and, in doing so, presents Rwanda as a progressive, democratic player that is connected multilaterally to both African and global affairs. Throughout the decade, Kagame’s tweets evolved from being domestically focused on self-promotion to more globally focused on foreign engagement. While these findings could be indicative of a semi-authoritarian state, they also point to the presence of ‘Twitter diplomacy’ and the use of soft power tactics, which become stronger and clearer in the latter part of the decade.
Review of Susan Hockfield (2019). The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution
