CLIMATE DIPLOMACY ON X: HOW GLOBAL NORTH AND GLOBAL SOUTH STATES USED X AS A PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PLATFORM DURING THE AFRICA CLIMATE SUMMIT AND COP28 -A CASE OF KENYA AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

As the world of diplomacy becomes more platformized, states' foreign-policy agendas are communicated differently to international audiences. Research, however, on digital diplomacy typically views social media as a means of communication, and not as a medium where states craft a strategic narrative, shape international problems, and conduct diplomacy in front of networked audiences. This study explores the use of X as a public diplomacy platform by Kenya and the United States in the 2023 Africa Climate Summit (ACS) and COP28. The study looks at the ways states deployed X to build strategic narratives, shape climate politics, articulate a diplomatic stance, record diplomatic activity, and to establish national and regional identity, drawing on a comparative thematic analysis of 284 official posts across four sub-corpora: Kenya ACS, United States ACS, the Kenya COP28, and the United States COP28. The theories of Strategic Narrative, Media Diplomacy and Framing were used to guide the analysis. Findings illustrate different yet interwoven forms of public diplomacy based on X. In Kenya, X became a tool for African leadership building, a development for solutions, an advocacy tool for climate finance and a documentation tool for diplomacy. The United States applied X to the ACS and more intensely to COP28, focusing on the urgency of climate, domestic policy delivery, technological action and US leadership. The analysis also reveals a clear transition in ACS-COP28 communication in Kenya from a normative rhetoric on reform and leadership from Africa to investment and implementation. As the comparison shows, X does not obviate the distinction between Global North and Global South diplomacy. Instead, states have their own micro-narratives that they use to convey strategically differentiated messages based on their diplomatic stances, identities, and goals.