‘The Show Must Go On(line)’ explores how the Brussels Bubble adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, transforming crisis into an opportunity to redefine the boundaries of EU governance. As the virus disrupted face-to-face diplomacy in early 2020, the European Union’s institutions faced an unprecedented test: could the ‘compromise machine’ function without its traditional rituals of physical presence? This chapter traces the rapid shift to virtual formats, revealing how digital tools became both lifelines and sources of friction. COREPER ambassadors, deemed essential, continued in-person meetings, consolidating their influence, while others navigated the challenges of online negotiations – from ‘death by PowerPoint’ to the loss of informal corridor chats. Through the experiences of diplomats, interpreters and civil servants, the chapter illuminates the emotional and professional toll of ‘synthetic situations’, where screens replaced handshakes and digital skills became diplomatic currency.

The pandemic exposed and reinforced hierarchies, as access to physical spaces signaled status and power. Yet, it also spurred innovation, with virtual pre-meetings and new protocols becoming permanent fixtures. By 2025, the Bubble had embraced a hybrid model, reserving in-person gatherings for sensitive negotiations and using digital platforms for routine coordination. Ultimately, the crisis demonstrated that while the EU’s show could go on(line), the tension between digital efficiency and the irreplaceable value of face-to-face interaction remains at the heart of Brussels’ diplomatic culture.

The Conclusion reflects on how digital technologies have become inseparable from the rhythms, identities and power structures of the Brussels Bubble and the European Union itself. Drawing on Stefan Zweig’s vision of technology as both a unifier and disruptor, the chapter argues that the EU is now a virtual social field – a polity where governance, diplomacy and community are co-constituted by digital infrastructures. Through ethnographic insights, it reveals five key transformations: the EU as a digitally mediated space; social media as a symbolic economy of insider recognition; diplomats and officials as cyborgs, their bodies and selves extended by devices; the everyday negotiation of digitalisation, where technology is not imposed but adapted and contested; and the necessity of a practice turn for understanding global governance in the digital age.

The chapter underscores that digital tools do not merely facilitate EU politics – they reshape its boundaries, hierarchies and temporalities. From WhatsApp groups to virtual meetings, technology is both a site of empowerment and vulnerability, challenging ideals of transparency, equality and sovereignty. Ultimately, the EU’s future will be negotiated at the intersection of human agency and digital mediation, where the ambivalence of progress and disruption mirrors the complexities of European integration itself.

This chapter introduces and immerses readers in the ‘Brussels Bubble’, a term encapsulating both the geographic heart of the European Union’s political machinery and its distinctive social and professional ecosystem. Through the daily routine of Jack, a mid-level Irish diplomat, the chapter reveals the rhythms, rituals, and jargon that define life in the European Quarter – where EU institutions, diplomats, lobbyists, and journalists converge. The Bubble is a microcosm of multilingual, multinational exchange, shaped by its own language (‘Bubblespeak’), unwritten rules, and digital habits, from Politico’s influential newsletters to the relentless scroll of Twitter.

The chapter situates the Bubble within the EU’s evolution from a post-war coal and steel community to a unique polity, blending functionalist pragmatism with normative ideals. It introduces the book’s dual focus: first, to chronicle the everyday practices and lived experiences that make the Bubble a world unto itself; second, to explore how digital technologies – smartphones, social media, and virtual meetings – reshape diplomacy, governance, and social hierarchies within this space. By treating Brussels as an ethnographic ‘village’, the authors argue for a grounded, practice-based understanding of international politics, where the digital and the material are increasingly entangled, and where the EU’s future is negotiated not only in meeting rooms but also on screens and in real-time feeds.

This chapter immerses readers in the love–hate relationship Brussels diplomats have with digital technologies. We meet Daan, who thrives on WhatsApp and in-person networking but worries about leaks and information overload; Sabine, who uses two phones to separate work and private life yet still feels overwhelmed by constant connectivity; Jakub, who despises negotiating with devices in the room, fearing they disrupt trust and focus; and Lukas, drowning in his perpetually updating email inbox, struggling to maintain analytical depth. Through their experiences, the chapter reveals how digital tools – smartphones, emails, and social media – have become both indispensable and disruptive. While enabling rapid communication and public engagement, these technologies also fragment attention, blur professional and personal boundaries and threaten the confidentiality essential to diplomacy. The chapter probes the classic idea of the diplomat as an information-gatherer and mediator, asking what happens to diplomatic identity, intimacy and trust in an era of near-constant digital connection. Ultimately, it frames this tension as a defining paradox of modern EU diplomacy: the promise of efficiency and connectivity clashes with the reality of distraction, overload and the erosion of traditional diplomatic practices.

This chapter outlines the significance of the digital revolution for International Relations. The first section establishes the political context that shaped the development of the internet, showing how this informed both its technical building blocks and modes of governance. The second section explains how these new technologies also entailed a distinct set of vulnerabilities. In doing so, it highlights the emergence of cybersecurity as an issue of national security, including the potential for cyber warfare between states. The third section introduces the politics of social media platforms that have enhanced pro-democracy movements such as the Arab Spring, but also driven polarisation, fostered extremism and been harnessed by a range of actors, from terrorist groups and intelligence services through to diplomats and even heads of state. The final section tracks the rise of internet sovereignty, which began in the early 2000s and has since become a significant international political tension point. We highlight how some states have sought to control information within their geographical borders, and use online censorship, propaganda and surveillance to govern their populations.

The systemic crisis we face today imposes the need for a new paradigm of global order and governance that takes into account the dynamics brought by globalization.

First and foremost, the fate of mankind as a whole now faces a series of very large-scale threats. These threats require an endeavor beyond just optimizing nation-states’ self-interests, because they are of their nature transnational not international. Issues such as climate change, environmental problems, cybercrime, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terror have now reached a scale that presents a threat to everyone, everywhere, and are becoming increasingly difficult to resolve purely through inter-state relations based on “territorial sovereignty and hegemonic geopolitics” . There is a clear need for a comprehensive new system of values in which states and concerned international civil society can participate to address these threats to humanity’s shared destiny, together with conventions based on such a system.

From this perspective in the eight chapter of the book the principal elements of a vision for a possible new global order are analysed and the author’s recommendations on a result-oriented UN reform process are discussed.