Diplomacy has changed more than most professions during the pandemic

WHILE ASSORTED G20 “Sherpas”, officials who do the donkey work on summits, gathered in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia in March last year, lockdowns were starting and international travel was stopping. A scramble to get home began. But within weeks, after some teething troubles with videoconference technology, the Sherpas were conducting talks over Zoom and Webex, and their bosses were holding a leaders’ summit by video. Diplomacy had gone virtual.