Technology, Development, and Democracy

International Conflict and Cooperation in the Information Age

Edited by Juliann Emmons Allison

Subjects: Development
Series: SUNY series in Global Politics
Paperback : 9780791452141, 262 pages, May 2002
Hardcover : 9780791452134, 262 pages, February 2002

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Table of contents

I. Introduction

1. Information and International Poltics: an Overview
Juliann Emmons Allison

II. Contending Perspectives

2. Communications Revolutions and International Politics
Arthur Stein and Cherie Steele

3. Information and Turbulence in International Politics
James N. Rosenau and David Johnson

4. Globalization, Information and Change
Frank Webster

III. Contemporary Issues

5. Coincident Revolutions and the Dictator's Dilemma: Thoughts on Communication and Democratization
Christopher Kedzie, with Janni Aragon

6. The Media, Public Opinion and U. S. Foreign Policy
Matthew Baum

7. Making the National International: Information Technology and Government Respect for Human Rights
David L. Richards Jr.

8. Gender, Women's Organizing and the Internet
Deborah Stienstra

9. Technology Transfer in the Computer Age: Africa's Experience
Ali Mazrui and Robert L. Ostergard Jr.

Contributors

Index

The impact of internet technologies on international politics.

Description

Technology, Development, and Democracy examines the growing role of the Internet in international affairs, from a source of mostly officially sanctioned information, to a venue where knowledge is often merged with political propaganda, rhetoric and innuendo. The Internet not only provides surfers with up-to-the-minute stories, including sound and visual images, and opportunities to interact with one another and experts on international issues, but also enables anyone with access to a computer, modem, and telephone line to influence international affairs directly. What does this portend for the future of international politics? The contributors respond by providing theoretical perspectives and empirical analyses for understanding the impact of the communications revolution on international security, the world political economy, human rights, and gender relations. Internet technologies are evaluated as sources of change or continuity, and as contributors to either conflict or cooperation among nations. While the Internet and its related technologies hold no greater, certain prospect for positive change than previous technological advances, they arguably do herald significant advances for democracy, the democratization process, and international peace.

Juliann Emmons Allison is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California.

Reviews

"This is an outstanding book, which addresses a serious gap in the existing literature on information technologies and conflict in international relations. " — Ronald Deibert, author of Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia

"The impact of information technologies on world politics is much bandied about in scholarship and policy circles, but detailed studies are few and far between. This volume provides sorely needed foundational and conceptual work in this area. " — J. P. Singh, author of Leapfrogging Development?: The Political Economy of Telecommunications Restructuring