THE RISE OF NETPOLITIK:The Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy

[Sally Furniss]

THE RISE OF NETPOLITIK: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy

THE RISE OF NETPOLITIK: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy A Report of the Eleventh Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology "The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program convened the 2002 Roundtable on Information Technology to address ways to consider the complex issues facing national and international policymakers as we enter into this Era of Complexity. What are the significant factors that determine the evolution, and even the survival, of the layers of networks extant in the world today? What are the best frameworks for understanding the trends, forces, and characteristics of our emerging network society? How do we understand the stories of peoples who are different from us, and how do we tell our own stories, our national grand narratives, or our cultural heritages, so that they will be understood by others?" by David Bollier, The Aspen Institute
Read the full text here

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: THE RISE OF NETPOLITIK:The Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplom

Re: THE RISE OF NETPOLITIK:The Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplom

Passages of note:

"...diasporic communities around the world affect the internal politics and
external policy positions of their homelands through e-mails and
websites. The rapid transmission of news directly from the source
allows world players to bypass formal diplomatic channels, requires
quicker and perhaps less considered responses by government officials,
and enables NGOs to express and impress their positions more widely.
Cybercampaigns influence political and economic decisions
throughout the world..."


"...Until the current period—call it the Information Age,
Communications Revolution, Third Wave, or Postindustrial Era—
world affairs have been in the hands of diplomats and national leaders..."


"...Something is different: the emergence, significance, and
importance of the network structure within a world of complexity. The
“life form” and organizational structure that is most in evidence in this
new world of ideas and media is the network—social networks,
electronic networks, media networks, to name a few...."


"...Global Interdependence or “Liberal Internationalism” regards
the world as moving to an intertwined world organism
composed of international players—governmental and
nongovernmental—for whom reality is interreliance among
nations and cultures, economies and environments, and lack of
control over many of the actions that affect one’s own locale. It
recognizes that people belong to several communities at the
same time, have multiple self-images and identities, and need
to see themselves as world citizens as well.

Here, informal diplomats use soft power, the attractive power of ideas, to
survive or prevail...."

"...The Internet has greatly lowered the costs of transmitting
information, enabling people to bypass traditional intermediaries
whose power revolved around the control of information: national
governments, the diplomatic corps, transnational corporations, and
news organizations, among others. As a result, nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), academic experts, diasporic ethnic
communities, and individuals are using the Internet to create their own
global platforms and political influence..."