How is the Internet Affecting World Politics
How is the internet affecting world politics?
The internet is an example of brilliant technological advancement created in the modern era, which enhances the process of globalisation. It is a global network that connects people and information through devices such as computers and laptops, which serves billions of users worldwide1. This usage of internet as a universal phenomenon has several political implications. It has affected world politics and altered the international system by disrupting the distribution of power between various actors. Its impacts, which will be examined in this essay, include undermining the states’ control of messages and communications, influencing states’ political campaigns and elections, and increasing the capabilities of states and non-governmental actors through the distribution of information. In addition, it provides an arena of cyber-warfare and, perhaps most alarmingly, is a crucial tool in aiding the operations of terrorist groups globally. By examining these impacts, it is possible to fathom that the endless benefits of internet are simultaneously being accompanied by its shortcomings and that this innovation ‘will be at the heart of various power struggles in the digital age2’. An ingenious power of the internet is its ability to undermine states’ control of information, messages and communications. This ability has for sometimes inflamed several Realists who regard the states as the highest authority in the international system. This virtual borderless territory enables people around the world to gain access to all types of information and to communicate almost unrestrictedly. Its decentralised structure allows citizens to voice their opinions far and wide and to bypass the states’ detection and this is the very act that poses a threat to state-centred hierarchies. Also, the lower costs of communications now mean that collective action by several activist groups can be better organised and better equipped
The internet is an example of brilliant technological advancement created in the modern era, which enhances the process of globalisation. It is a global network that connects people and information through devices such as computers and laptops, which serves billions of users worldwide1. This usage of internet as a universal phenomenon has several political implications. It has affected world politics and altered the international system by disrupting the distribution of power between various actors. Its impacts, which will be examined in this essay, include undermining the states’ control of messages and communications, influencing states’ political campaigns and elections, and increasing the capabilities of states and non-governmental actors through the distribution of information. In addition, it provides an arena of cyber-warfare and, perhaps most alarmingly, is a crucial tool in aiding the operations of terrorist groups globally. By examining these impacts, it is possible to fathom that the endless benefits of internet are simultaneously being accompanied by its shortcomings and that this innovation ‘will be at the heart of various power struggles in the digital age2’. An ingenious power of the internet is its ability to undermine states’ control of information, messages and communications. This ability has for sometimes inflamed several Realists who regard the states as the highest authority in the international system. This virtual borderless territory enables people around the world to gain access to all types of information and to communicate almost unrestrictedly. Its decentralised structure allows citizens to voice their opinions far and wide and to bypass the states’ detection and this is the very act that poses a threat to state-centred hierarchies. Also, the lower costs of communications now mean that collective action by several activist groups can be better organised and better equipped
Bibliography: Dunn, A., ‘Crisis in Yugoslavia – Battle Spilling Over Onto the Internet’, Los Angeles Times 3 April, 1999. Gilpin, R., War and Change in World Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 Hess, P., Cyberterrorism and Information War, Anmol Publications PVT Keohane, R.O & Nye, J.S. ‘Power and interdependence in the information age’, Foreign Affairs, Vol.77, Issue 5 (1998), pp. 81-94. Kupchan, C.A., The End of the American Era: US Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century, New York: Knopf, 2003 Last, M., & Kandel, A., Fighting Terrorism in Cyberspace, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co Shapiro, A.L., ‘The Internet’, Foreign Policy, No 115 (Summer 1999), pp.14-27.