فناوری‌های اطلاعات و سیاست جهانی: تغییر دامنه قدرت و حکمرانی (مجموعهٔ SUNY در سیاست جهانی)

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. Annotation Sharing the assumption that information technologies are shifting the locus of political power away from powerful nation-states towards NGOs, international organizations, businesses, and transnational social movements, 11 contributions are presented by Rosenau (international affairs, George Washington U.) and Singh (communication, culture, and technology, Georgetown U.). For the most part, the contributors examine the impact of specific information technologies and issue-areas on three modes of the exercise of power. These modes are defined by the editors as consisting of instrumental power (who is empowered versus disempowered), structural power (who is constrained in a given situation versus who gets to write the rules), and the relatively new concept of meta-power which addresses "how basic identities, interests, and issues themselves are reconstituted or transformed in particular historical contexts, in turn redefining other relations of power." Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR