Information Technologies and Global Politics: The Changing Scope of Power and Governance Paperback details from bookadda

Returning to the fundamentals of political science, namely power and governance, this book studies the relationship between information technologies and global politics. Key issue-areas are carefully examined: security (including information warfare and terrorism); global consumption and production; international telecommunications; culture and identity formation; human rights; humanitarian assistance; the environment; and biotechnology. Each demonstrates the validity of the view now prevalent within international relations research-the shifting of power and the locus of authority away from the state. Three major conclusions are offered. First, the nation-state must now confront, support, or coexist with other international actors: non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations; multinational corporations; transnational social movements; and individuals. Second, our understanding of instrumental and structural powers must be reconfigured to account for digital information technologies. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, information technologies are now reconstituting actor identities and issues.

Table Of Contents:

List of Figures and TablesPrefaceAcronymsImportant Terms1Introduction: Information Technologies and the Changing Scope and Global Power and Governance12Global Networks and Their Impact39Pt. IThe Changing Scope of Power3Public Eyes: Satellite Imagery, the Globalization of Transparency, and New Networks of Surveillance654Informational Meta-Technologies, International Relations, and Genetic Power: The Case of Biotechnologies91Pt. IIThe Changing Scope of Power and Governance5Circuits of Power: Security in the Internet Environment1156The Global Political Economy of Wintelism: A New Mode of Power and Governance in the Global Computer Industry1437New Technologies and Consumption: Contradictions in the Emerging World Order169Pt. IIIGovernance in Telecommunications8Capitalism. Technology, and Liberalization: The International Telecommunications Regime, 1865-19981899Understanding Shifts in the Form and Scope of Telecommunications Governance: Canada and the United States in the Twentieth Century21110Negotiating Regime Change: The Weak, the Strong, and the WTO Telecom Accord23911Information Technologies and the Skills, Networks, and Structures that Sustain World Affairs275List of Contributors289Index293