James N. Rosenau, J. P. Singh Information Technologies and Global Politics The Changing Scope of Power and Governance PDF

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
A ND GLOBAL POLITICS
SUNY SERIES IN GLOBAL POLITICS
James N. Rosenau
editor
AND G LOBAL P OLITICS
The Changing Scope

of Power and Governance
edited by
JAMES N. ROSENAU
and
J. P. SINGH
S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y o f N e w Yo r k P r e s s
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, A LBANY
© 2002 State Universit y of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address

State Universit y of New York Press,
90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Production and book design, Laurie Searl

Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Information technologies and global politics : the changing scope of power and
governance / edited by James N. Roseanau and J.P. Singh.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in global politics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-5203-4 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5204-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Power (Social sciences) 2. Information technology—Political aspects. 3. Information
societ y—Political aspects. 4. State, The. 5. International relations. I. Rosenau, James N.
II. Singh, J. P., 1961– III. Series.
JC330 .I54 2002

327.1—dc21 2001048344
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii

PREFACE ix
ACRONYMS xi
IMPORTANT TERMS xv
1 INTRODUCTION: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND THE
CHANGING SCOPE OF GLOBAL POWER AND GOVERNANCE 1
J. P. Singh
2 GLOBAL NETWORKS AND THEIR IMPACT 39
Jonathan Aronson
PART I: THE CHANGING SCOPE OF POWER
3 PUBLIC EYES: SATELLITE IMAGERY, THE GLOBALIZATION OF

TR ANSPARENCY, AND NEW NETWORKS OF SURVEILLANCE 65
Karen T. Litfin
4 INFORMATIONAL META-TECHNOLOGIES, INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS, AND GENETIC POWER: THE CASE OF
BIOTECHNOLOGIES 91
Sandra Braman
PART II: THE CHANGING SCOPE OF POWER AND

GOVERNANCE
5 CIRCUITS OF POWER: SECURITY IN THE

INTERNET ENVIRONMENT 115
Ronald J. Deibert
vi INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND GLOBAL POLITICS
6 THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WINTELISM:

A NEW MODE OF POWER AND GOVERNANCE IN THE GLOBAL
COMPUTER INDUSTRY 143
Sangbae Kim and Jeffrey A. Hart
7 NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND CONSUMPTION: CONTR ADICTIONS
IN THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER 169
Edward Comor
PART III: GOVERNANCE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
8 CAPITALISM, TECHNOLOGY, AND LIBER ALIZATION: THE

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGIME, 1865–1998 189
Mark W. Zacher
9 UNDERSTANDING SHIFTS IN THE FORM AND SCOPE OF
TELECOMMUNICATIONS GOVERNANCE: CANADA AND THE
UNITED STATES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 211
Stephen D. McDowell
10 NEGOTIATING REGIME CHANGE: THE WEAK, THE STRONG,
AND THE WTO TELECOM ACCORD 239
J. P. Singh
CONCLUSION
11 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND THE SKILLS, NETWORKS,

AND STRUCTURES THAT SUSTAIN WORLD AFFAIRS 275
James N. Rosenau
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 289
INDEX 293
FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
1.1 The Information Industry 4
10.1 Comparison between the WTO Telecommunication

Liberalization Offers and Domestic Telecommunication
Liberalization Programs of Developing Countries 261
TABLES
2.1 Content Issues 50
2.2 Conduit Issues 58
vii
PREFACE
The essays that follow are the product of lengthy processes of conferring, writing,
and rewriting on the part of their authors. From the beginning our goal was to
bring together scholars who had contributed seminal work on the complex rela-
tionships bet ween information technologies and global politics and who would
then pool their expertise to clarify and further extend understanding of phenom-
ena that seem ever more relevant to the course of events. While readers will have
to decide for themselves whether we have, collectively, achieved this goal, the edi-
tors are persuaded that the lengthy collaboration has been a fruitful and reward-
ing experience.
The collaboration went through three face-to-face iterations. The first oc-
curred in August 1996, with a workshop composed of both comparativists and in-
ternational relations (IR) specialists in San Francisco sponsored by the Science,
Technology, and Environmental Politics, section of the American Political Science
Association (APSA). The second involved a one-day conference on Information,
Power and Globalization held on January 24, 1998, in Memphis and funded by
the BellSouth Foundation and the Universit y of Mississippi. On this occasion
outlines of the various projects and the papers they might yield were thoroughly
discussed. During the summer of 1998 the authors circulated first drafts of their
chapters to others, with each writer assigned as a “referee” for at least two other
chapters. The third iteration of our collaboration, another workshop sponsored by
the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section of the APSA, then
occurred on September 2, 1998, at the Association’s meeting in Boston. Subse-
quently, the final drafts were prepared and sent out for review by SUNY Press.
During this lengthy and complex process the editors incurred a number of
debts which they are pleased to be able to acknowledge. Needless to say, we are
grateful to APSA’s Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics Section for
sponsoring the t wo workshops on the issues and papers discussed in this vol-
ume. Woody Kay, Frank Laird and Vicki Golich were especially helpful with
workshop logistics and funds. Likewise, without the support of BellSouth Foun-
dation we could not have convened the second iteration under such conducive
circumstances. Our thanks go also to the referees for SUNY Press who, while
ix
x PREFACE
encouraging us with their approval, also provided feedback that helped to im-
prove the book’s qualit y. We also wish to express appreciation to several other
scholars who were closely associated with the project either throughout or in
particular workshops: Monique Moleon, Debora Spar, Tim Sinclair, and Vir-
ginia Walsh. Valuable help was provided by graduate assistants Ted Sirianni,
Simona Folescu and Sarah Gilchrist. Finally, but no less gratefully, we wish to
acknowledge Zina Lawrence, Priscilla Ross, Michael Rinella, and Laurie Searl at
SUNY Press for their support and guidance through the many stages that have
culminated in publication. Most importantly, we feel a deep indebtedness to our
fellow authors for their participation and their readiness to rework their chap-
ters in response to the many suggestions that came their way.
In addition, having worked together over such a long stretch of time, each ed-
itor wishes to express an overall feeling about the experience. J. P. Singh consid-
ers this project to be one of his most constructive scholarly experiences. The
volume would have been impossible without the level of collegialit y and intellec-
tual commitment that all the participants made. In particular, J. P. Singh is pro-
foundly thankful to his co-editor for his support throughout the project.
Co-editorship has been an inspiring experience for Singh and he is thankful to
Rosenau for his practical and creative insights, many of which have helped to
shape this volume’s qualit y. The volume has made Singh a strong believer in
group projects and edited volumes! Singh also thanks his partner Chuck Johnson
for his continual encouragement and important help with many aspects of this
project. He is also grateful to his new colleagues at Georgetown Universit y, espe-
cially Linda Garcia and Diana Owen, for providing him with an invigorating pro-
fessional environment.
Likewise, Rosenau wants to emphasize that although alphabetic order has
been used to list the editors, the order in no way ref lects the division of labor be-
tween them. The idea for the project, the conferences, and this book originated
with Singh. He and Rosenau collaborated throughout the project, but Singh
hosted and funded the conferences that launched and sustained the project and
he then gave considerable feedback to the authors in the process of their writing a
final draft.
Lastly we are impressed with the thought that this book will not be the final
word on information technologies, power, or global politics. The central thrust of
the book is that these are forces that will continue to sustain transformative
dynamics in the future. Hopefully we have provided a map with which to roam
across this ever-changing landscape. Reading the map is no easy task—the pace of
change being what it is in the information field—but the map is there and we take
pride in having brought it into fruition.
ACRONYMS
AHCIET Asociacion Hispanoamericana de Centros de Investigacion y

Estudio de Telecomunicaciones
AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
APSA American Political Science Association
ASATs Anti-satellite Weapons
ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations
ASETA Asociacion de Empresas de Telecomunicaciones of the Andean
Subregional Pact
AWACS Airborne Warning and Control System
BIOS Basic Input Output System
CBC Canadian Broadcasting Company
CCD Camouf lage, Concealment and Deception
CGIAR Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CITEL Inter-American Telecommunications Commission
COMTELA Comision de Telecomunicaciones de Centro America
CPNs Cross National Production Networks
CRTC Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DBS Direct Broadcasting Satellites
DoD Department of Defense (U.S.)
DR AM Dynamic Random Access Memory
ENGO Environmental Non Governmental Organization
EOSAT Earth Observation Satellites
ERTS Earth Resources Technology Satellite
FAO UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization
xi
xii ACRONYM
FCC Federal Communications Commission

FinCEN American Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services
GATT General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs
GBT Group on Basic Telecommunications
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GIS Global Information System
GM Genetically-modified
GMO Genetically-modified Organism
GNS Group on the Negotiation of Services
GODs General Obligations and Disciplines (WTO)
GPS Global Positioning System
GSD Ground Spatial Dimension
GSO Geostationary orbit
HNGO Humanitarian Non Governmental Organization
IARU International Amateur Radio Union
IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
IGY International Geophysical Year
IMF International Monetary Fund
INTELSAT International Satellite Organization
IOs International Organizations
IPE International Political Economy
IPR Intellectual Propert y Rights
IRU International Radiotelegraph Union
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISI Import Substitution Industrialization
ISP Internet Service Provider
ITU International Telecommunications Union, formerly International
Telegraph Union
J-STARS Joint Surveillance and Target Attack System
LDCs Less Developed Countries
LEO Low Earth-Orbiting (satellite systems)
ACRONYMS xiii
MEDEA Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis

MFN Most Favored Nation
MITI Ministry of International Trade and Industry
MNC Multi-National Corporation
MTN Multi-lateral trade negotiations
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NGBT Negotiation Group on Basic Telecommunications
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NICs Newly Industrializing Countries
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration
OAS Organization of American States
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
PC Personal Computer
PCCIP President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection
PGRFA Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
PTC Pacific Telecommunication Council
PTT Post Telegraph and Telephone
PVOs Private Voluntary Organizations, another term for NGOs
R&D Research and Development
S&T Science and Technology
SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar
SIGNIT Signals Intelligence Surveillance
SPIN-2 Space Information—2 Meter
SPOT Systeme Probatoire d’observation de la Terre
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TIROS Television Infrared Observation Satellite
TRIPs Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Propert y
Rights
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNESCO United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization
xiv ACRONYM
USTR United States Trade Representative

VERTIC Verification Technology and Information Center
VPN Virtual private network
WRI World Resources Institute
WTO World Trade Organization
IMPORTANT TERMS
ANALOG: Based on a system in which numbers are represented by continuously

variable and measurable physical variables, such as electrical signals.
BROADBAND: Comprised of or related to a wide band of electromagnetic fre-
quencies, especially in communications.
DIGITAL: Of, relating to or based on calculations and logical operations with
quantities represented as digits, commonly in the binary number system.
ENCRYPTION: To scramble (or encode) access codes to (computerized informa-
tion) in order to prevent unauthorized access.
HYPERMEDIA: A computer-based information-retrieval system that allows a user
to gain or provide access to texts, audio and video recordings, photographs, and
computer graphics related to a particular subject.
INFORMATION: A collection of data or facts in usable form. (As opposed to an
isolated and/or unrelated collection of data.)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: The technologies used in gathering, manipu-
lating, classifying, storing, and retrieving data. This includes (but is not limited
to): computers, telecommunication systems, broadcasting mediums, multi-media
convergence, etc.
INFORMATION INFR ASTRUCTURE: The basic facilities, services, and installa-
tions needed for the communication of information.
INTR ANET: System in which information is stored on a secure computer that
only serves other computers with designated access. The data is often displayed in
the form of HTML (Internet) pages.
KEY: A table, gloss, or cipher that allows the user to decode or interpret data.
NETWORK: A communications system that shares information via telephone
wires, direct cables, satellite links or other means.
NETWORKING: The exchange of information or assistance among members of
groups or institutions, in both formal and informal settings.
xv
xvi INPORTANT TERMS
PACKET SWITCHING: One method of data transmission in which small blocks

of data are transmitted rapidly over a channel dedicated to the connection only for
the duration of the packet’s transmission.
TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (the common inter-
connection standard)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION:
AND THE CHANGING SCOPE OF
GLOBAL POWER AND GOVERNANCE
J. P. SINGH
With the steamship, the electric telegraph, the newspaper,

the wholesale engines of war,
With these and the world-spreading factories he interlinks all
geography, all lands;
What whispers are these O lands, running ahead of you,
passing under the seas?
Are all nations communing? Is there but going to be one
heart of the globe?
Is humanit y forming en-masse? For lo, t yrants tremble,
crowns grow dim,
The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a general
divine war,
No one knows what will happen next, such portents fill the
days and night;
—Walt Whitman, Songs of Parting
It is somewhat ironic, and a tad unpoetic, to note that in 1865 as Walt Whitman
conjectured about the whispers passing under the seas, across the Atlantic in Paris
the industrializing Western powers met to found the International Telegraph
Union.1 Zacher echoes Whitman’s concerns in pointing out later in this volume
that capitalism in general, the world-spreading factories, and the electric telegraph
in particular, came with a “mandate for interconnection.” The workings of that
mandate have spiraled outward for 135 years.
1
2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND GLOBAL POLITICS
This volume studies the relationship between information technologies and

global politics, a relationship whose intricacies and the broad meanderings are
still being understood. For this reason, the authors return to the bricks and mor-
tar of political science: power and governance. Ref lecting a view offered by many
international relations researchers, they grapple with the way the spread of infor-
mation technologies is shifting power and the locus of authorit y away from the
state. The intent and contribution of the book are to show how this conclusion is
valid with respect to information technologies by examining several issue-areas.
The overall context of the volume is, of course, what information technologies
have now wrought—global information networks. Networking, entailing commu-
nication and information exchange, is changing both the way power is exercised
and governance is organized in global politics.
Information technologies in this volume refer to all technologies that help to
produce, gather, distribute, consume, and store information. These may include,
though are not limited to, print and broadcast media, telecommunications (tele-
phone, fax, Internet, World Wide Web, etc.), channels of communication (satel-
lite, different t ypes of cable including fiber optics), computers, and storage devices
(DVD, CD-ROM). Except for Aronson (chapter 2) and Rosenau (chapter 11), the
authors focus on specific information technologies and issue-areas.
This chapter puts the rest of this volume in a theoretical and, where neces-
sary, a historical, perspective. The chapter shows how “multiperspectival” identi-
ties, actors, and issues are supplementing national identities, states, and the
salience of high-politics, or strategic securit y issues, in global politics. The chapter
first discusses how the rise of information net works is facilitated by changes in
technology. The chapter then turns to the changing scope of power. It shows how
power with respect to technology needs to be understood as much in terms of ca-
pabilit y (instrumental and structural power) as in terms of the abilit y of informa-
tion technologies to constitute new identities and agendas—what this chapter
terms “meta-power.” Finally, this chapter discusses the scope of governance. The
argument is that the locus of authorit y, order, and legitimacy are shifting away
from the state toward pluralism and actor advocacy.
The volume’s authors are attempting to grasp the quotidian and the transfor-
mational effects of information net works over global politics. Information tech-
nologies and global politics have been studied before, and there are a few classics
in the field (Zacher with Sutton 1996; Sandholtz 1992; Krasner 1991; Cowhey
1990; Aronson and Cowhey 1988; Gilpin 1981). However, debates continue on
basic questions such as the impact of the information networks on the identities
of actors, and what these actors do unto each other in areas such as power, au-
thorit y, and governance.2 The authors in this volume try to build upon the nas-
cent body of literature that endeavors to grasp these effects (for example, Keohane
and Nye 1998; Deibert 1997; Der Derian 1990; Luke 1989). Fundamental
INTRODUCTION 3
changes, as those being brought about by information technologies, take time and
are thus hard to analyze when they have just begun. By critically analyzing issues
of power and governance, and by building on conclusions offered by international
relations scholarship, it is hoped that a few in-depth answers may be provided on
the relationship between information technologies and global politics.
THE RISE OF NETWORKS
The import of transactions conducted over net works is such that all conceptual
frameworks now speak of networked organizations. In one form or another, schol-
ars of various hues refer to these networks in speaking of the actors that interna-
tional relations scholars study. Rosecrance (1996) refers to the virtual state;
Deibert (1997) and Arquila and Ronfeld (1997) to networked securit y; Spar with
Bussgang (1996) to networked marketplaces; Gereffi (1995) to networked transna-
tional enterprises; Mathews (1997) and Keck and Sikkink (1999) to NGO-based
advocacy net works; and all forms of net worked organizations as preeminent in
world political economy are referred to by Aronson (chapter 2), Keohane and Nye
(1998), and Castells (1998, 1997, 1996). In Castells’s (1996, 469) words: “Net-
works constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of
networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes
of production, experience, power and culture.”
Technologies propose change; they do not determine it. The effects of net-
working on states, businesses, and international organizations transcend any kind
of technologically deterministic logic. Nonetheless, two developments are impor-
tant for understanding how technologies proposed the rise of net works that re-
placed earlier organizational forms. These developments are: digitization and the
fall in marginal costs. Skeptics of the effects of information technology often ques-
tion, not just the effects, but also the technological changes that facilitate them. It
is thus important to understand technology as well as its effects on power and gov-
ernance in the context of this volume.
Digital technology changed the way information industries were organized.3
Historically, different t ypes of information technologies evolved as distinct indus-
try t ypes dominated by one or more firms. The vertical dimension of Figure 1.1a
captures the tasks performed by the different t ypes of information industries. Ver-
tically integrated industries developed different pipelines for different functions
needed to deliver information. (Aronson discusses similar processes by referring
to conduits in the next chapter.) Thus, the telephony industry deployed a combi-
nation of transmission media with high bandwidths (to carry messages over long
distances) and narrow bandwidth copper wires (to deliver voice messages to par-
ticular homes, known as the “local loop” in industry jargon). The inabilit y of
FIGURE 1.1
THE INFORMATION INDUSTRY
1.1a
Inf luence of Analog Technology
INFORMAT ION
VOICE TEXT IMAGE DATA V IDEO
Create and Collect T E
(Content) E P
P N
L H C
Display E U T
C O O E
(Communication
O B
Devices) T M R
FUNC TION
M L
M O P T
Store U I
(Memory N G U A
I
S I
Devices) R T
C H N
A A I
Process
T I M
(Applications) I P N
N E
O H G N
Distribute N G
(Transport) S Y T
1.1b
Inf luence of Digital Technology
INFORMAT ION
VOICE TEXT IMAGE DATA V IDEO
Create and Collect
(Content) Digitized Content
Display
(Communication
Devices)
FUNC T ION
Store
Multimedia Devices
(Memory
Devices)
Process
(Applications)
Information Highway
Distribute
(Transport)
Source: Sheth and Singh (1994)

INTRODUCTION 5
these networks to carry high amounts of data (the first parallel horizontal frontier
that the telephony industry broached) over the local loop is still being felt. In a
few national markets, telecommunications providers were specifically barred
from providing any services other than telephony in return for monopoly privi-
leges. Similarly, cable television later distributed its content on a network capable
of handling high bandwidths, but not particularly capable of switching it (as in te-
lephony), because of the separation of industry t ypes. Analog technology thus
helped to separate voice, text, image, data and video industries.
Digital technology has undone the technological logic behind separate indus-
try t ypes and pipelines. This in turn has also spurred multimedia interactive in-
struments and fiber-optic cables capable of carrying all t ypes of messages at high
speeds and low costs (including over the local loop). Earlier technology was “anal-
ogous” (therefore the term analog) to sending information in electrical waves and
was time-consuming and often inefficient. New technology allows information to
be encoded in streams of binary digits (digitization) which can be sent efficiently
and at relatively low cost over long distances. Digitization impacts all aspects of
the information industry allowing various t ypes of media (voice, text, image, data,
and video) to be digitized and sent over the same pipeline and accessed by a single
instrument. As shown in figure 1.1b, this offers the potential for horizontal inte-
gration of industry t ypes. Even though the telecommunications industry is still
catching up with this horizontal integration, multimedia interactive devices are al-
ready a trillion-dollar industry.
The vertical and horizontal integration of pipelines due to digitization is ex-
panding and deepening information networks. The expansion is coming as different
types of vertical pipelines merge. For example, the fact that cable networks can now
accommodate telephony and vice versa allows for better and expanded geographic
coverage. Deepening occurs due to horizontal integration, allowing for a variety of
functions to be performed over the same network with the use of a multimedia de-
vice. It is this vertical and horizontal integration, whose genesis lies in digitization,
that is leading to the oft-discussed information superhighway. Negroponte (1995,
231), in a popular book written about digitization, notes that the “information su-
perhighway may be mostly hype today, but it is an understatement about tomor-
row.”4 This raises the stakes for the firms involved in physically laying out the
information superhighway, and also underscores the importance of the number of
transactions conducted over this infrastructure. Kim and Hart (chapter 6) ref lect
the former concern in noting the battle over intellectual property rights and Aron-
son (chapter 2) explains the transactions in terms of what he labels conduit and con-
tent issues. The chapters by Zacher, McDowell, and Singh deal with similar themes
of market access, user demands, and telecommunication providers’ rivalries.
The second technological feature of importance is the way technological in-
novation pushes down the unit cost of products. Anyone who buys a computer
one year to see its price halved the next season is familiar with this logic. Digital
technology comes with high fixed costs and minuscule marginal costs, a develop-
ment popularly known as Moore’s Law (after Intel Chairman Gordon Moore).
For example, a computer disk, once produced, can be reproduced a million times
over at negligible cost. Selling one disk for $1 million is hard, but a million can sell
for $1 each. Success for information age products derives in large measure from
the abilit y to rapidly generate large volumes of demand in a short time. Microsoft
Windows 95, with $700 million of sales on its first day, is one dramatic example.
It helps to explain the push by firms like Microsoft to develop global standards
and intellectual propert y rights in their favor. Superior and better microprocess-
ing chips are also helping to do increasingly complicated tasks at faster and
cheaper rates.5 Generating large amounts of demand helps to recover costs.6
Declining marginal costs are facilitating network deepening and expansion at
a rapid rate. A poor country with access to some capital can, if it has the political
will, leapfrog the technological frontier by using inexpensive satellite based ter-
minals and bringing a variet y of multimedia services to remote areas. Further-
more, network distance matters less and less. Consumers in the United States are
familiar with this logic through the one-rate long distance plans which replaced
distance sensitive plans of the past. But the extent to which net working comes
about, and the global impact it has, cannot be measured by technological devel-
opments alone. The fundamental points made in this volume about the impact of
information technologies are thus rooted in the political, economic, and cultural
context of their deployment and analyzed through the lens of the changing scope
of power and governance.
THE CHANGING SCOPE OF POWER
Global politics are inherently relational. Equations of power can be simplified to

“who does what to whom.” This may entail who is empowered versus disempow-
ered (instrumental power); who is constrained in a given situation versus who
gets to write the rules (structural power); and, finally, how basic identities, inter-
ests, and issues themselves are reconstituted or transformed in particular histori-
cal contexts, in turn redefining other relations of power (called meta-power here).
To political science’s traditional notion of instrumental or structural power, this
volume adds the notion of meta-power to which, one way or another, this volume’s
authors allude. This section explores how these three t ypes of power may be un-
derstood in relation to information technologies. Two arguments are extended:
the way information technologies are enabling formerly underprivileged groups to
play a role in global politics, and the way in which all actors’ identities and issue-
areas are being reconstituted.
INTRODUCTION 7
INSTRUMENTAL POWER
Instrumental power focuses on the capacit y or capabilit y of power holders to ef-

fect particular outcomes. Information technologies, or any technology for that
matter, are then forces that enhance these capabilities.7 This was one of the first
ways in which political scientists and policy makers examined the relationship be-
tween information technologies and power. Information technology enhances the
capabilities of traditional global actors, like states and firms, but it also empowers
other actors (like transnational social movements or terrorist groups) and may
even offer a few surprising insights into who is getting empowered and disem-
powered in global politics.
Early conceptualizations of the impact of technology on power, in scholarship
and public policy, revolved around notions of instrumental power.8 The instru-
mentalit y of the telecommunication infrastructure is apparent historically in the
U.S. Department of Justice’s concerns about AT&T’s use of monopoly power in
the early 1940s. These concerns were initially sidetracked, as the infrastructure
was deemed too important for national securit y to warrant an investigation. The
post-war investigation led to restrictions on AT&T in 1956 to stay out of informa-
tion services. The Pentagon, however, continued to support AT&T until its
breakup, deeming the latter a threat to national securit y.9
Securit y concerns began to spill over into the economic realm in the 1960s
when enhancing national wealth through information infrastructures surfaced
and became linked to concerns about national power. By the late 1960s, the
Japanese had encouraged an entire school of scholars to think about “johaka
shakai” or information societ y (Snow 1988). Powerful ministries such as MITI
(Ministry of International Trade and Industry) got involved as the economic im-
plications of information technologies became important (Aronson and Cowhey
1988). The French noted explicitly by the late 1970s that unless they enhanced
their information infrastructure, they would be left behind politically and eco-
nomically. A report written for President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing began with the
following statement: “If France does not respond effectively to the serious new
challenges she faces, her internal tensions will deprive her of the abilit y to control
her fate. The increasing computerization of societ y is a key issue in this crisis and
could either worsen it or help solve it” (Nora and Minc 1980, 1). Studies from in-
ternational organizations like the ITU and IBRD, beginning in the 1960s, also ad-
vocated that developing countries could accelerate their pace of economic growth
by expanding their information infrastructures (Saunders et al 1994/1983; ITU
1984; Hudson et al. 1979).
Instrumental power concerns were most obvious in the 1980s in national de-
bates about economic competitiveness. The case of France was mentioned earlier.
However, the prioritization of the information infrastructure also took place at a
European-wide level with the European Commission’s 1987 Green Paper and the
1993 White Paper laying down the necessit y of having suitable information su-
perhighways for European industry (Bruce et al. 1988; Fuchs 1993; Sandholtz
1992; Singh and Sheth 1997; Wellenius and Stern 1994, part IV) . In Asia, coun-
tries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and India launched national initiatives
to boost infrastructural development (Singh 2000 and 1999; McDowell 1997;
Melody 1997; Petrazzini 1995; Larson 1995; Wellenius et al. 1994; Sisodia 1992;
Bruce et al. 1988). South Korea’s waiting list of nearly 700,000 for telephones in
the late 1970s was reduced to provide universal or country-wide coverage by
1987. Singapore began to see an information infrastructure as vital to its entre-
pot role, articulated best through its “second industrial revolution” launched in
the 1980s. Singapore’s vision of an “intelligent island” is exemplified in the avail-
abilit y of 100 percent ISDN in 1989 and expected availabilit y of 100 percent fiber
optic broadband network by 2005.
The competitiveness concerns in the United States reached a crescendo in
the late 1980s with the growing fears about competitiveness in key sectors like au-
tomobiles and steel (Tyson 1992; Tyson and Zysman 1983; Hart 1992). These
concerns spilled over into infrastructural development (Aronson 1992). Reports
pointed out deficiencies in the U.S. infrastructure while pointing out others’
strengths (see NTIA 1991; NTIA 1988; NTIA 1985).10 Policymakers were soon im-
plementing initiatives to stem the tide. Even laissez-faire minded Reagan boosted
federal funding for Sematech in Texas to thwart the decline of competitiveness in
the semiconductor industry. Vice President Gore years later touted schemes for a
National Information Infrastructure, a broadband initiative. The Telecommuni-
cations Act of 1996, now considered a failure, was designed to help expand the in-
formation infrastructure.
Instrumental concerns about economic power and technologies were
joined by traditional concerns like securit y and political change by the end of
the century. Conceptions of securit y changed in t wo ways. First, information
technologies were deployed to enhance capabilities in tasks ranging from mak-
ing of “smart weapons” to organizational ones like defense preparedness (Ar-
quila and Ronfeldt 1997; Deibert 1997; Nye and Owens 1996). Second,
protecting national information infrastructres against varied threats became a
regular concern of states. The latter ranged from individual hackers getting hold
of crucial information to well-publicized cases of “cyberwars.” It was discovered
in 1998 that Russians, for example, got access to the Pentagon’s computers lift-
ing information, the extent of which even the U.S. government did not know.
Instrumental power advocates focused on enhancing capabilities to protect
these infrastructures. While recognizing that central control by states over de-
centralized net works is improbable, instrumental notions of another sort are ap-
parent in the solutions. A White House report on ensuring insfrastructural
INTRODUCTION 9
reliabilit y against natural and human calamities noted, “The national interest
can only be served with the sustained engagement of industry, utilities, the pub-
lic, and government at all levels” (Executive Office of the President 1997, 3).
How this other t ype of central coordination can be effected beyond acts of
moral suasion is not apparent.11 Deibert shows in chapter 5 that conjectures
about trying to enhance national power are unlikely to be sustainable in an age
of net works.
Political change was also inf luenced by information net works. Unlike the
1980s, when the United States was seen as lagging behind in infrastructural pro-
vision, confidence re-emerged about the country’s political role in the next
decade. The United States got a renewed lease on its hegemony after the fall of the
Soviet Union, East Asian financial crises, and Europe’s economic slowdown. “In
a world in which the meaning of containment, the nuclear umbrella, and conven-
tional deterrence have changed, the information advantage can strengthen the in-
tellectual link between U.S. foreign policy and military power and offer new ways
of maintaining leadership in alliances and ad hoc coalitions” (Nye and Owens
1996, 20). The country had come round a full circle, from being an infrastruc-
tural laggard to possessing an information advantage.
The instrumental features of information technologies, of course, extend be-
yond state concerns. The way that these technologies empower less privileged
groups is especially important in recognizing the promise of technology in instru-
mental contexts.12 The spread of democracy in Russia, as Rosenau points out in
chapter 11, was in crucial ways tied to the proliferation of information networks
and accessibilit y of information for individuals and groups. While Litfin (chapter
3) and Braman (chapter 4) go beyond merely positing instrumental contexts, both
of them do acknowledge how technology may empower NGOs (Litfin) and result
in defense technologies enabling civil groups (Litfin, Braman) or even terrorist
groups (Braman).
Chapter 10 offers a counterintuitive result f lowing from instrumental no-
tions of technology and underprivileged groups. Contrary to current wisdom, de-
veloping countries came away with significant concessions from developed
countries during the recent WTO telecommunications negotiations. This results
from the presence of multiple issues and actors in the global economy, themselves
a result of the information age, providing more alternatives to weak states instead
of the ‘take it or leave it’ scenarios that usually confronted them in the past.
Spar (1999) elsewhere has argued that MNCs, especially those producing
consumer goods, have an incentive to improve their human rights practices as a
result of what she calls the “spotlight phenomena,” or the increasing tendency of
information networks to spread the word about human rights abuses quickly. The
spotlight phenomena that Spar mentions is related to the proliferation of “public
eyes” that Litfin outlines in chapter 4.
Information technologies, in particular, are making us re-examine and rein-

force several cherished ideas about instrumental power. First, we need to go be-
yond a focus on states and firms. State capabilities are no longer dependent, for
example, on merely using these technologies, but also from working in concert
with a host of actors in enhancing their power. Second, the ways in which non-
state actors are privileged is important. There is ground for optimism as human
rights practices improve, democracy spreads, and the underprivileged make gains.
However, the latter argument must not be overstated. States and firms have better
access to information technology and information than others. Hackers, terrorist
groups and nations engaging in acts of information warfare are also difficult to
control. That instrumental power can have negative as well as positive conse-
quences unhinges the original positive connotation of instrumental power.
STRUCTUR AL POWER
Instrumental and structural power both deal with capabilities, but whereas the
former emphasizes the abilit y to effect outcomes, structural power is about the
abilit y to effect rules and institutions that govern these outcomes. The famous
formulations of structural power in international relations include Waltz’s (1979)
positing of nation-states as a structural hierarchy of power capabilities, exhorta-
tion by Keohane and Nye (1977) examining structural power within issue-areas at
the macro-level of the world system, and Cox’s (1987) contribution to how mate-
rial capabilities, ideas and institutions constrain human action. By definition,
structural power is concerned with the constraints and the fit of particular activi-
ties with given institutions, or the abilit y to change the institutions rather than
with notions of empowerment.
Structural power issues, like their instrumental counterparts, used to be
about states and firms. In many ways, they continue to be so. But information
technologies are making us appreciate the ways in which information, knowledge
and ideas shape these structures and, in turn, human behavior. Strange’s (1991,
1988) four structures (securit y, production, finance, knowledge) constraining op-
tions for international actors are determined by states, markets and technology.
Cox borrows from Gramscian thought to note that material and institutional
structures cannot be examined without reference to ideational hegemonic con-
texts.13 Finally, Rosenau (1997) shows that individuals are now performing in-
creasingly skillful tasks amidst complicated issue structures, in part sustained by
information technologies.
The reciprocal relationship bet ween technology and structures is noted in
three ways. First, technology inf luences the structures of securit y or economic af-
fairs. Second, existing structures or institutions shape technologies themselves.
INTRODUCTION 11
An in-between case may be the so-called best fit scenarios between particular tech-
nologies and governance institutions.
The case of technology shaping structures is made foremost in radical schol-
arship.14 Relatively doctrinaire Marxian schema posit so-called ‘forces of produc-
tion’ (including technology) to be essential in the unfolding of history, shaping
social relations (as between capitalists and workers). The dialectical relationship is
held in place by the superstructure, including the state that “exists to guarantee
the reproduction of these social (including economic) relations as a whole” (Fine
and Harris 1979, 95). Following Marxian footsteps, Winner (1977, 82) concludes
that “technologies are structures whose conditions demand the restructuring of
their environments.” To Winner, these structures and processes represent a “tech-
nological order” where technological adaptation is a “reverse adaptation,” co-
opting individuals into its workings. Unlike Faustian instrumental versions,
Winner presents a technological Frankenstein—technology out of control of
human agency (Singh 1994). Ends no longer follow from the means. “The true
price is loss of freedom,” a major theme that gets reiterated by historians such as
Polanyi (1944) Hobsbaum (1968) and scholars like Postman (1985) and Castells
(1996, 1997, 1998). In a famous formulation by Polanyi (running contrary to
Zacher’s and Rosenau’s in this volume), technology does not create freedoms, the
so-called freedoms serve the purposes of technology owners. “There was nothing
natural about laissez-faire; free markets could never have come into being merely
by allowing things to take their course” (Polanyi 1944, 139).15 The radical tradi-
tion is ref lected by Comor in this volume who argues that, in the context of capi-
talist social-economic relations, information technologies are being used to
‘deepen’ and ‘broaden’ the commodification of our daily lives. Capitalism here di-
rectly affects media contexts, sustaining the market system, generating a range of
tensions and potential contradictions.
In a “technological order,” information networks are governed not by an in-
visible hand, but by an invisible master. Network interconnections, countermove-
ments, and interdependencies lead to a hierarchical positing of structural power
with limited choice for human agency. A slightly different notion of structural
power comes from those who see existing structures constraining the use of in-
formation technology. Structure determines what technology can or cannot do, in-
stead of vice versa. Rosenau emphasizes this when he notes in chapter 11 that
technology is neutral but that its use is shaped by the environment in which it
finds itself.
The propert y rights literature in general has examined how rules or rights
governing propert y lead to different uses of technology. Why is it that England
took the lead in deploying technology that originated on the continent? North
and Thomas (1973) argue that it was because of the nature of England’s propert y
rights that fostered industry.16 When these propert y rights are not captured by
small inf luential groups, the benefits are the greatest (Olson 1982, 1965). There
are thus contexts in which technology and structures, or political-economic insti-
tutions, adapt to each other. Again, information technology can claim older coun-
terparts. Landes’s (1969) famous formulation of industrial technology and
economic growth, The Unbound Prometheus, was about how English institutions
and culture fostered constant innovation and technology usage while continental
Europe lagged behind. Since then, there have been several best fit arguments not-
ing how particular technologies falter or are adapted because of the institutional
mix in place (Hart 1992; Best 1990; Sabel 1982).
Comparative analysts examine how and why it is easier for a few countries to
expand their information infrastructures while others lag behind. Types of states
and other institutions are examined to posit levels of infrastructural provision
(Singh 1999; Levy and Spiller 1996; Wellenius et al. 1994; Duch 1991). Kim and
Hart (chapter 6) cite similar literature to show how the institutional mix in the
United States might be best suited to take advantage of Wintelist information
technologies, epitomizing in the synthesis existing between Microsoft Windows
and Intel.
Analysts also note that information networks are decentralized organizations
ill suited for institutional contexts that try to centralize or control information
f lows. Frequent media accounts abound about Singapore or China controlling in-
formation f lows. There are also subtler variations. Daniel Bell (1980) cited Stan-
ley Hoffman’s term societe bloquee or “a societ y that has become increasingly
rigidified in its bureaucratic and political institutions” for characterizing France as
it readied itself for information networks in the late 1970s. Two decades later, The
New York Times (February 11, 1997, A1) characterized the country’s dilemma as
follows: “In other words, how do you leap into the age of the Internet and still re-
main French?” Deibert (chapter 5) ref lects these concerns about the decentralized
and nonhierarchical nature of information networks to show how these networks
will themselves foster particular institutions.
In summary, three notions of structural power have been noted—one where
technologies shape institutions, one where institutions determine technological
use, and lastly the best fit scenarios where institutions and technology shape each
other. In each case, information technologies may not increase the structural
power of traditionally powerful actors.
META-POWER
Technologies not only impact existing actors and issues but, as an increasing body
of knowledge notes, networked interaction itself constitutes actors and issues in
global politics. If we merely focus on actor capabilities and take their identities and
INTRODUCTION 13
interests as given, as most instrumental and structural power versions do, the
transformation being brought about by information net works is missed. Net-
working is highly interactive. Meta-power thus refers to how net works reconfig-
ure, constitute, or reconstitute identities, interests, and institutions. Such power
is referenced in this volume by Braman (chapter 4) in drawing attention to meta-
technologies and genetic power; Litfin (chapter 3) to constitutive power; Kim and
Hart (chapter 6) to meta-power and post-structural power; and Deibert (chapter 5)
in referring to the constitution of ‘collective images’ about securit y. These authors
also note that as ideas, interests and institutions are reconstituted, power shifts
away from the original powerholders. The very nature of power itself and the
actors who wield it is also changed.
The distinction bet ween meta-power and instrumental or structural power
made earlier is now increasingly recognized by those working within and outside
traditional international relations scholarship. Interestingly enough, even neo-
realists implicitly recognized the notion of meta-power early on. Gilpin (1981, 39),
for example, distinguishes between regular interstate interactions and changes in
systemic governance versus fundamental changes of the system dealing with “the
nature of the actors or diverse entities that compose an international system.” He
notes that the latter change is understudied but that it is “particularly relevant in
the present era, in which new t ypes of transnational and international actors are
regarded as taking roles that supplant the traditional dominant role of the nation-
state, and the nation-state itself is held to be an increasingly anachronistic institu-
tion” (Gilpin 1981, 41). However, while recognizing these transformations,
Gilpin does not deviate much from the instrumental notions of power.
Krasner (1985) refers directly to meta-power when noting post-colonial Third
World advocacy. Meta-power would allow these states to steer the structure and
rules of the market-based liberal international economy toward an authoritatively
distributive structure. Krasner sees Third World calls for the creation of UNCTAD,
New International Economic Order, and New World/Information Communica-
tion Order as strategies for power maximization. He then returns to a familiar con-
clusion—meta-power itself depends on capabilities, the Third World must suffer
what it must. It can not reconstitute the system.
A few neoliberals, too, come close to delineating a notion of meta-power.
Keohane and Nye (1988) point out the ascendance of soft power, or power
through persuasion and attraction rather than force, as a new salient feature of
global politics when information net works proliferate. The cognitive and inter-
pretative insights offered by other neoliberal scholars also address issues of inter-
est and preference formations (Haas 1989; Sell 1998; Odell 2000).
Nonetheless, most neoliberal and neorealist analysts, with few exceptions,
take their cues from rational choice analyses, in which the identities and interests
of actors, mostly nation-states, are posed ex-ante. Gilpin’s concern is not how
identit y gets constituted but how new t ypes of actors (be they empires, nation-
states, transnational enterprises) inf luence the international system. Krasner’s
meta-power is about weak nation-states clamoring for power in the world system.
Keohane and Nye’s soft power is related to actor interests that have been taken as
given. These static notions are under scrutiny by analysts situating their argu-
ments in historical sociology, a growing tradition in international relations, now
called “the constructivist turn.”17 The challenge is best summarized by one of
constructivism’s chief proponents, Alexander Wendt (1992, 393–394): “Despite
important differences, cognitivists, poststructuralists, standpoint and postmod-
ern feminists, rule theorists, and structurationists share a concern with the basic
sociological issue bracketed by rationalists—namely, the issue of identit y- and
interest-formation. . . . They share a cognitive, intersubjective conception of
process in which identities and interests are endogenous to interaction, rather
than a rationalist-behavioral one in which they are exogenous.” Wendt recog-
nizes that there are scholars, especially in the neoliberal tradition, who have
craved such analysis, and he is answering the critics of constructivism as well as
trying to bring about a gestalt shift in them. Keohane (1988), years earlier, had
called these traditions ref lectivist. While appreciating the historical contextual-
it y of intersubjective interest and identit y formation, Keohane (1988, 381) noted
that “the sociological approach has recently been in some disarray, at least in
international relations: its adherents have neither the coherence nor the self-
confidence of the rationalists.”
Keohane’s critique notwithstanding, other disciplines have long offered the
kind of empirical insights that he demands. Halbwach’s (1992/1941) early work
on collective memory showed how images and symbols that societal groups hold
can be traced historically and shape the preferences of group members.18 Halb-
wach (1992/1941, 189) concludes that “all social thought is essentially a memory
and that its entire content consists only of collective recollections or remem-
brances. But it also follows that, among them, only those recollections subsist that
in every period societ y, working within its present-day frameworks, can recon-
struct.” Berger and Luckmann (1966) call attention to primary and secondary so-
cializations to argue that realit y is a social construction.19 “Identit y is formed by
social processes. Once crystalized, it is maintained, modified, or even reshaped by
social relations” (Berger and Luckmann 1966, 173). Anthropologist Geertz (1973,
20) was a forceful early advocate: “To set forth symmetrical crystals of signifi-
cance, purified of the material complexit y in which they are located, and then at-
tribute their existence to autogenous principles of order, universal properties of
the human mind, or vast a priori weltenschauungen, is to pretend a science that
does not exist and imagine a realit y that cannot be found.” Putting it bluntly,
“there is no such thing as a human nature independent of culture” (Geertz 1973,
49). Sociologist Castells (1997, 7) would agree: “It is easy to agree on the fact that,
INTRODUCTION 15
from the sociological perspective, all identities are constructed. The real issue is
how, from what, by whom, and for what.”
While postmodernists deliberately eschew what they term “instrumental
empiricism,” they provide a conceptual antidote to Keohane’s universal ration-
alistsic notions. Foucault’s analyses (1977, 1970) painstakingly reconstruct the
social circumstances that privilege particular knowledge. All forms of knowl-
edge then reveal micro-power relations carrying subtle means of co-opting or
marginalizing individuals. Said (1978, 40–41), acknowledging an intellectual
debt to Foucault, shows how colonizing Europe in fact created the Orient as a lo-
cation, idea, and homogenous culture: “Knowledge of the Orient, because gen-
erated out of strength, in a sense creates the Orient, the Oriental, and his world.
. . . Orientalism, then, is knowledge of the Orient that places things Oriental in
class, court, prison, or manual for scrutiny, study, judgment, discipline, or gov-
erning.” The construction and domination of the Orient are inextricably
linked.
Indeed, while the constructivist turn is somewhat new in international rela-
tions scholarship, conceptually it stands to benefit from constructivist claims
made elsewhere. To refine the concept of meta-power, this is a valuable exercise.
The constitution of identities and interests in global politics may be related to sim-
ilar conceptualizations by other social theorists.
The link bet ween information net works and constructivism can now be
made explicit. The collective meanings that actors hold about themselves, or
meanings imposed upon them, are shaped by networks and in turn inf luence net-
works. But the constitution and effects of such identit y formation remain con-
tested among scholars. A few theorists see technology as merely playing a catalytic
role in accelerating or reinforcing extant or incipient processes. Others see tech-
nologies as allowing for new t ypes of identit y and collective meanings. A quote
from Said (1978, 26) is illustrative: “One aspect of the electronic, postmodern
world is that there has been a reinforcement of the stereot ypes by which the Ori-
ent is viewed. Television, the films, and all the media’s resources have forced in-
formation into more and more standardized molds.” Here technology remains
neutral, reinforcing existing stereot ypes.
Litfin (chapter 3) offers a nuanced empirical case of the complicated, and
somewhat serendipitous, processes governing network effects. Building on Fou-
cault and on Jeremy Bentham’s ideas of the Panoptican, where a “disciplinary gaze”
monitors and conditions the human behavior, Litfin notes that the diffusion of
networks leads also to the decentralization of this gaze and the proliferation of
“public eyes.” In understanding such shifts, therefore, we must move beyond analy-
ses which view technology only in an instrumental fashion. Litfin shows that in-
formation networks are in fact facilitating a new social episteme that not only
changes the definition of issues in question (securit y, environment and human
rights in her chapter) but also allows for new actors (NGOs in her case) to start play-
ing key roles in global politics.20 Her analysis, therefore, illustrates “both of the
ways in which technological change can alter international realit y: instrumentally
and constitutively.”
Litfin’s makes us question the technological neutralit y assumption where
technology merely facilitates preexisting actors and issues and does not propose
new identities or action. This, however, is not technological determinism. Vat-
timo’s (1993, 214) notes on technology and postmodernit y are instructive: “what
concerns us in the postmodern age is a transformation of (the notion of) Being as
such—and technology, properly conceived, is the key to that transformation.”
Medium theorists have long argued that technological media privilege par-
ticular social epistemes and identities while weakening others. Harold Innis’s
(1950) famous formulation, Empire and Communication, pointed out that written
media extend administrative control through time, while oral traditions extend it
temporally. Media thus propose conditions of organization that are realized
through societal interactions. Marshall McLuhan’s medium theory focuses on
how media shape individual and societal experiences. At an individual level,
“hot” media like radio and print are authoritative and do not allow for much au-
dience participation, but “cool” media like television and telephone do allow for
interaction and participation. McLuhan would probably argue that information
networks are cool interactive media, albeit where the possibilities of conf lict and
cooperation are endless as we come together into a global village (McLuhan and
Powers 1989). This may be explained as follows: “The alphabet (and its extension
into t ypography) made possible the spread of power that is knowledge and shat-
tered the bonds of tribal man, thus exploding him into an agglomeration of indi-
viduals. Electric writing and speed pour upon him instantaneously and
continuously the concerns of all other men. He becomes tribal once more. The
human family becomes one tribe again” (McLuhan 1964).
Benedict Anderson, while not a medium theorist, is appreciative of the trans-
formative features of media. The spread of printed vernacular languages, as op-
posed to Latin, when printing began helped to form notions of nationalism and
the “imagined communit y” of a nation-state:
These print-languages laid the basis for a national consciousness in three

distinct ways. First and foremost, they created unified fields of exchange
and communication below Latin and above the spoken vernaculars. . . .
Second, print-capitalism gave a new fixit y to language, which in the long
run helped to build that image of antiquit y so central to the subjective
idea of the nation. . . . Third, print-capitalism created languages-of-power
of a kind different from the older administrative vernaculars” (Anderson
1983, 44–45).
INTRODUCTION 17
Technology does not determine politics but with capitalism and, what Ander-
son calls, fatalit y or preexisting conditions, technology shapes the rise of nation-
states and nationalism. Technology helps modernizing Europe organize territory
and time.
Deibert (chapter 5) extends medium theory and Anderson’s analysis to argue
that the kind of collective images that information networks or hypermedia privi-
lege differ from authoritative nation-state oriented images of the past. Ideas of se-
curit y centered around nations or states are unlikely to endure in interconnected
information networks. He notes the rise of “network securit y” in which “the pri-
mary ‘threat’ of the Internet is the potential for systems ‘crash,’ loss, theft or cor-
ruption of data, and interruption of information f lows. The primary object of
securit y is the network” (131).
Gilpin (1981) had argued that developments in military technology allowed
states to not think of territorial expansion as the only means and end of power.
However, physical territory itself, as epitomized geographically in nation-states,
continued to be of importance. Deibert and others are now positing constitutive
contexts where territorialit y no longer governs human interaction. The world of
hyperspace challenges the idea of territorial space as the only kind of space, espe-
cially defined by nation-states. Ruggie and Castells advocate looking at “space of
f lows” in information networks along with “spaces-of-places” that existed earlier.
The preceding analysis postulates that each epoch’s interactions are in part
proposed and molded by its technologies. Information technology net works in
particular show how the collective social epistemes are shifting away from hierar-
chical authoritative contexts privileging nation-states. Interconnected net works
may f latten hierarchies, or transform them altogether, into new t ypes of spaces
where territorialit y itself becomes extinct.
Luke (1989) offers an alternative view. While discarding the linear perspec-
tivism offered by modernit y, he is less sanguine about empowerment of marginal
actors. For him, “informational modes of production” lead to (24) “completely
commodified communication” (much like Comor in chapter 7) . Combining cultural
theory (Horkheimer and Adorno), Semiotics (Barthes, Baudrillard) and Marxian
theory, he notes (48): “The power exercised in nonlinear, screenal space, however, is
more puzzling. It seems to require continuous coproduction by those with access to
behind the screens and those without access before the screens. Power here is es-
sentially seductive, motivating its subjects with images to collaborate in reproducing
or completing the codes’ logic or sequence at their screens. Individuals recreate
themselves continuously in the permissive coding of individual self-management.
The institutional leadership of informational societ y recognizes that ‘rebelling’
within such screenal spaces is not necessarily a serious threat to the social order.”
Is information technology unique in speaking of meta-power? Braman (chap-
ter 4) proposes a conservative, yet revealing, precedent. She likens information
technology to biotechnology to show how both at their core contain genetic power
that can be utilized to affect the behavior of systems through control over the in-
formational bases of the materials, institutions, and ideas (94). Genetic power
thus changes the very stuff of other forms of power. Braman’s analysis of biotech-
nology, however unusual in a volume on information technologies, provides a fas-
cinating contrast. She cautions us about thinking that the only technologies that
create information bases to transform identities and agendas are information tech-
nologies. More importantly, that such technologies possess information bases
adds a crucial element to our understanding of how meta-power works.
The constructivist turn in international relations scholarship, that supports
the basis for what this volume terms meta-power, in its strongest version, is not
merely supplementing, but also replacing traditional notions of power and
authorit y. Nonetheless, it is hard to see how power based on capabilities, as in in-
strumental and structural variants, can be overlooked even in transformed con-
texts. This volume’s chapters, therefore, often take into account several forms of
power. The constitution of ideas, interests, and institutions is important but that
should not limit us from noticing actors’ capabilities within particular contexts.
For Wendt (1992), while state interests may be reconstituted, they can also be
taken as given in the short run. Similarly, this volume argues for noticing the
changing scope of power in all three conceptualizations discussed above.
THE CHANGING SCOPE OF GOVERNANCE
Power is ultimately about capabilities, identities, and interests. Governance in-

volves authorit y, concerted action, and the resultant institutions. Information net-
works themselves are governance net works. They allow for diffused forms of
authorit y to emerge, for concerted action to take place, and for institutional cre-
ation or reinforcement. A major theme in this volume is how the locus of author-
it y is shifting away from the state because of the rise of networks. Governance can
hardly be uncomplicated or purely path dependent in a multi-actor, multi-issue
world, in a state of f lux. Governance takes place at both informal and formal lev-
els and may be top-down, bottom-up or both. For Rosenau (1992, 4), governance
is “a system of rule that is as dependent on intersubjective meanings as on for-
mally sanctioned constitutions and charters.”
This volume discusses governance and information technologies in two pre-
dominant ways. First, governance of specific issue-areas, from securit y to eco-
nomic to cultural, is changing because of information net works. Information is
deemed, in scholarship and popular opinion, to make governance less hierarchi-
cal and more plural and democratic. Second, international governance of infor-
mation technologies, particularly telecommunications, may epitomize the new
INTRODUCTION 19
forms of governance arising in global politics. Therefore, governance both involves

information technologies in particular issue-areas and it is about information tech-
nologies regarding the rules that shape information net works. As noted earlier,
governance may also be affected by the t ype of media in use.
The rise of information net works thus impacts patterns of governance in
three distinct ways: (1) states are no longer the only actors in technological matters
globally, (2) we now speak more of technological pluralit y than of a technological
order, and, (3) global advocacy net works, especially among underprivileged
groups, are undermining the legitimacy of existing centers of authorit y.
FROM STATES TO MULTIPLE ACTORS
Whether the state fostered laissez-faire or dirigiste strategies in national techno-

logical deployment, they were explicitly or implicitly tied to considerations of na-
tional power. The state thus ref lected the industrial age technological compact.
Considerations of state power matched businesses’ need for monopoly privilege
(Viner 1948). For example, Zacher and Sutton (1996, 220) note that “there was a
general assumption in most publics that any self-respecting nation owned and
controlled its air transport, telecommunications, and postal industries.” The na-
tional competitiveness debates noted previously may even be a throwback to the
industrial era. Krugman (1994) explicitly likens them to mercantilist policies.
Dirigiste strategies increasing state power are well-known in cases such as the
rise of Prussia under Bismarck, Japan with the Meiji restoration, and France’s mer-
cantilist grand projets. Similar considerations applied even where business was pur-
portedly free. British industrial strength and its imperial designs went together;
the East India Company is an obvious example. Industry in general received many
special privileges from the state. As Polanyi (1944, 139) argues, even free trade
was created: “Just as cotton manufactures—the leading free trade industry—were
created by the help of protective tariffs, export bounties, and indirect wage subsi-
dies, laissez-faire itself was enforced by the state.”
Infrastructural industries such as shipbuilding and railways were especially
encouraged by states. They helped the states strengthen administrative control
over existing territories (domestic and colonial) and were often instrumental in
opening new frontiers. Railroads proliferated in America, sometimes through
state subsidies.21 The building of the transcontinental railroad in the United
States in 1869 and the Canadian Pacific transcontinental line in 1885 not only
brought disparate frontiers together in these countries but their “lessons were not
lost on the old empires in Asia, some of which similarly sought to use railroads to
demonstrate sovereignt y over remote territories and encourage economic and ad-
ministrative development” (Pacey 1990, 150).
Industry in the United States was afforded enormous protection in the nine-
teenth century. An inf luential early exponent of the “infant industry” mercantilist
tradition was Alexander Hamilton. Industry remained protectionist until its in-
creasing international competitiveness finally allowed trade barriers to be lifted
beginning with the late nineteenth century. “The ‘American system’ of moder-
ately high tariff protection was explicitly enacted to stimulate and encourage the
industrialization of the country” (Lake 1983). Industrial strength also came from
state support given to scientific and engineering research beginning with the Mer-
rill Land Grant Colleges Act of 1862. Universities specializing in applied research
existed in the United States by the end of the nineteenth century (Nelson and
Wright 1992, 1942). State support for this research was followed by business sup-
port through in-house research and development (R&D).
The state’s role with respect to information technologies has now changed.
First, states no longer solely promote technologies nationally and internationally.
International organizations, advocacy groups, and powerful individuals are often
involved. Examples include: technical standards promoted by organizations such
as the United Nations or the European Union; competing global standards fos-
tered by international businesses; promotion of information networks by domes-
tic and international NGOs; and proliferating use of the Internet by individuals
beyond the control of political authorities.
Second, whereas industrial age businesses looked for state protection, post-
industrial businesses increasingly petition states for free trade. The difference is
related to technology costs. As noted earlier, post-industrial technologies are more
demanding in terms of geographical space and populations. Businesses can also
increasingly ignore national regulations by offering products over the World Wide
Web through electronic commerce. As the latter expands, the state will be further
marginalized in international transactions. Rosenau (1990, 17) writes that tech-
nology allows “more people to do more things in less time and with wider reper-
cussions than could have been imagined in earlier eras. It is technology, in short,
that has fostered an interdependence of local, national, and international com-
munities that is far greater than previously experienced.”
This points to the diminishing importance of the state in human affairs. The
issue here is not whether the state is a dominant political actor, which it is, but the
extent to which its authorit y is undermined by competing domestic and interna-
tional inf luences. Ruggie’s (1993, 144) analysis of modern and postmodern
space—roughly equivalent to the state’s role in industrial and postindustrial
times—is instructive: “the modern system of states may be yielding in some in-
stances to postmodern forms of configuring space.” “The distinctive signature of
the modern—homonomous—variant of structuring territorial space is the familiar
world of territorially disjoint, mutually exclusive, functionally similar, sovereign
states” (151). Building on Jameson’s notion of postmodern hyperspace, Ruggie
INTRODUCTION 21
writes of multiperspectival institutional forms that coexist with the state. Thus, for
example, “the global system of transnationalized microeconomic links. . . . have
created a nonterritorial ‘region’ in the world economy—a decentered yet integrated
space-of-f lows, operating in real time, which exists alongside the spaces-of-places
that we call national economies” (172). For Rosenau (1990, 181–209), “the evo-
lution of a multi-centric world has deteriorated the automatic authorit y in the past
granted to state instruments. While the state may still possess instruments of
coercion, its legitimacy and authorit y may be declining.”
Many authors in this volume reveal a concern for the changed nature and
role of the state, both with respect to specific issue-areas and regarding telecom-
munications. In terms of issue-areas, Deibert (chapter 5) shows that state attempts
to regulate securit y from its viewpoint are no longer sustainable. Information
technology does not serve either the purposes of the state or that of the nation.
Another collective image of securit y gets favored where the “network itself is the
object or referent of securit y” (129). This includes data securit y and information
of importance to firms and consumers, important actors in the current global po-
litical economy. Kim and Hart (chapter 6) show that the state now plays second
fiddle to global business. Comor (chapter 7) not only deals with the importance of
what may be termed “private authorit y” in global capitalism, but also with the
commodification of everyday lives that furthers global consumption patterns.22
Comor differs from others in this volume, in that state-centric or capitalist hege-
mony are seen to be a false dichotomy. Instead, Comor speaks to the major theme
dealing with a focus on both the changing and ongoing characteristics of power in
the emerging global political economy.23
The changed role of the state is noted by authors with respect to telecommu-
nication, also. Zacher (chapter 8) shows how the rules governing telecommunica-
tions were dictated by state actors alone in the nineteenth century, whereas they
involve many other actors now. My chapter follows Zacher’s analysis and applies it
to North-South negotiations—with a twist. In a multiple actor world, the power of
traditionally powerful states decreases, allowing weak states to effect a few favor-
able outcomes. Finally, McDowell (chapter 11), uses a term coined by Barry
Buzan, to note the presence of “unlike units” in global telecommunications gov-
ernance which include states, sub-state actors and international organizations.
FROM ORDER TO PLUR ALITY
During the industrial era, technology facilitated a sociopolitical order. The notion
of this order, a set of streamlined circumstances facilitated by the extant technolo-
gies, is implicit in most writings. Technocentric ideas of progress informed by the
Enlightenment revolve around this notion (Meltzer et al. 1993, 1995). At the
other end of the spectrum, Marxian political economy views social relationships
as being ultimately determined by technology. Either way, it is technology’s exoge-
nous role that leads to the creation of an order.
Classical and neoclassical political economy implicitly refer to an order.
Adam Smith’s views on the invisible hand and division of labor are examples,
both dependent on available technology. Take the example of Smith’s pin factory.
“As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can to employ his capital
in support of domestick industry, and so as to direct that its produce may be of
greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue
of the societ y as great as he can” (1976/1776, 456). This elegant world view de-
rives its sanction from the prevalent moral philosophy, that promoted the virtue
of individual work applied to greater good. The poem “Fable of the Bees,” where
each bee contributes to the hive, inf luenced Smith’s views on division of labor
and the resultant order. Such views culminate in neoclassical economics with its
conception of general equilibrium and perfect competition. Landes (1980, 115)
represents the peculiar economics of technology resulting from this world view:
“Invention may follow genius, but production follows demand.”
The sociocultural context of the modern Enlightenment beliefs also help us
understand ‘technological order.’ Not only could rational human beings emanci-
pate themselves from the ills of the past, but also ensure a certaint y and societal
progress hitherto unknown. It leads Habermas to speak of a “project” of moder-
nit y which resulted in concerted efforts “to develop objective science, universal
moralit y and law, and autonomous art, according to their inner logic” (quoted in
Ruggie 1993, 145). For Ruggie, an important manifestation of the order was the
“single-point perspective” that elevated the idea of viewing art from a singular and
fixed viewpoint. “What was true in the visual arts was equally true in politics: po-
litical space came to be defined as it appeared from a single fixed viewpoint. The con-
cept of sovereignt y, then, was merely the doctrinal counterpart of the application
of single-point perspectival forms to the spatial organization of politics.” It is in
this context that Deibert (chapter 5) argues that securit y can no longer be exam-
ined purely from the singular vantage point of the state.
It is also important to understand how this political space avoided conf lict,
anarchy or disorder. The state being the dominant political actor, it either actively
promoted a particular technological viewpoint (as in planned economies) or be-
came the venue of conf lict arbitration itself. Landes’s (1980, 145) reference to
“the kind of environment that generates novelt y” is a synonym for the sociopolit-
ical relations defined by the state. Whether we come from a liberal or a radical
perspective, the state’s role in carving a technological order cannot be denied.
The scenario changes in the post-industrial era of information networks pre-
cisely because of the fragmentation of socioeconomic life at micro and macro lev-
els. The elegance of an order driven by the state is replaced by actor multiplicit y
INTRODUCTION 23
who at times demand state intervention, sometimes run parallel to state goals,
sometimes have nothing to do with the state, and at other times directly clash
with the state. Deibert (1997, 205) eloquently conveys this complexit y by citing
postmodernism:
Postmodern notions of “decentered” selves, pastiche-like, intertextual

spatial biases, multiple realities and worlds, and fragmented imagined
communities “fit” the hypermedia environment where personal infor-
mation is dispersed along computer net works and privacy is rapidly dis-
solving, where disparate media meld together into a digital intertextual
whole, where digital worlds and alternative realities are pervasive, and
where narrowcasting and t wo-way communications are undermining
mass “national” audiences and encouraging nonterritorial “niche”
communities.
This context makes Rosenau (1990, 193) refer to the “advent of the multi-
centric world and the concern for its actors for realizing autonomy.” This concept
of actor autonomy can be related to their will for empowerment. No longer do
these actors wish to be part of an order defining their existence. At the grassroots
level, the formation of social movements is related to their desire to be free of this
order. Brecher and Costello (1994, 7–8) note how the “struggles against the New
World Economy have brought about seemingly improbable alliances of environ-
mentalists and labor unions; farmers and public health activists; advocates for
human rights, women’s rights, and Third World development; and others whose
interests were once widely assumed to conf lict.” These struggles, whose concerns
may be local, are often global in scope. The women’s conference in Beijing in
1995 attracted about 40,000 attendees of which nearly 39,000 were from NGOs
(The Wall Street Journal August 24, 1995, A17). Groups protesting WTO trade
talks starting in Seattle on Novermber 30, 1999 and the World Bank meetings in
Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2000, included environmentalists, consumer
groups, human rights groups, farmers and peasants including the Zapatistas,
trade unions, minorities, and religious groups. The positions taken in this volume
with respect to NGOs (Litfin, chapter 3), individuals (Rosenau, chapter 11), and
societal actors (Aronson, chapter 2) are consistent with the actor empowerment
argument.
What happens to global governance processes when the goals of multiple ac-
tors in global politics conf lict with those of others, including those of tradition-
ally powerful states? While the process of this conf lict resolution or escalation is
just emerging, it is not always settled according the dictates of a state fiat alone as
used to be the case. When coercion does not resolve conf lict, bargaining plays a
major role, as we are beginning to witness in the case of most clashes involving
individuals, social movements, states and other transnational actors. Aronson

(chapter 2), Zacher (chapter 8), and Singh (chapter 10) provide an outline of some
of the bargaining processes underlying global politics.24
However, the presence of bargaining does not mean that the efforts of these
non-state actors are always successful. Weak actors are often pitted against other
actors who occupy dominant socioeconomic status, such as the state or transna-
tional businesses. But, it is important that we view the conf lict not just in terms of
winners and losers but also in terms of the process itself which continues to in-
struct us on the emerging forms of authorit y relations. It is akin to Ruggie’s (1993,
155) analogy of trade fairs in medieval Europe. “In no sense could the medieval
trade fairs have become substitutes for the institutions of feudal rule. Yet the fairs
contributed significantly to the demise of feudal authorit y relations.” Nonethe-
less, Comor (chapter 7) and McDowell (chapter 9) do warn here that even as state
hegemony declines, another hegemony, that of global capitalist businesses, is tak-
ing its place. Similarly, Luke (1989, 51) calls attention to “the f low of elite control,
mass acceptance, and individual consent in a new informational social forma-
tion—the ‘societ y of the spectacle.’”
To summarize, dominant technological relations resulting in an order often
defined by the state in the industrial era are now being replaced by the multiplicit y
of forces involved in technology adoption or their resistance. Often the goals of
these multiple actors are tied to their desire for autonomy. But information tech-
nology also reveals the fragmentation of individual and group lives. Taken to-
gether, technological pluralism may be replacing the erstwhile technological order.
FROM AUTHORITY TO ADVOCACY
The strength of the industrial era state-blessed technological order lay in its legiti-
macy, the latter intricately tied with the legitimacy of state instruments. In the
Weberian (1968, 946) sense, legitimacy or domination is a “situation in which the
manifested will (command) of the ruler or rulers is meant to inf luence the conduct
of one or more others (the ruled) and actually does inf luence it in such a way that
their conduct to a socially relevant degree occurs as if the ruled had made the con-
tent of the command the maxim of their conduct for their sake.” Legitimacy in the
modern (industrial) era is maintained through “a system of rational rules” which
“finds its t ypical expression in bureaucracy” (Weber, 1968, 954).
The basic point is this: a technological order existed because powerful interests
were legitimized through state instruments. The politics of technology in the indus-
trial era are often the politics of the construction of this legitimacy.25 The process of
obtaining privileges, such as property rights or trade protections, from the state can
thus be viewed as a construction of this legitimacy (North 1981; Tilly 1985).
INTRODUCTION 25
The politics of legitimacy construction work differently in a multi-centric

world of information net works. States are supplemented by other actors in the
process of this construction and the notion of legitimacy itself is weakened when
actors at various levels joust for control and inf luence. In a world of technological
pluralit y, with networks empowering various actors, it is more appropriate to con-
ceptualize technological advocacy than legitimacy. Legitimacy, even when it rests
on a narrow support base, implies domination and obedience from the popula-
tions. In technological pluralism, competing or multiple technologies often have
distinct, competing, or intersecting bases of support. The competing technologi-
cal agendas—whether put forth by the Wintelist strategy (Kim and Hart, chapter 6)
or NGOs (Litfin, chapter 3)—can be better viewed in terms of technological advo-
cacy. Where such advocacy strengthens in constituent support, it may be de-
scribed as authoritative advocacy. Whether this is grounds for describing it as
legitimate is debatable. Nonetheless, texts speaking to advocacy politics with
respect to information technologies keep increasing.26
Overall, in moving from an industrial to a post-industrial societ y, we are wit-
nessing a shift in governance from state to multiple actors, and from a technolog-
ical order to pluralit y and increased autonomy of actors involved. Thus, instead of
technology helping to determine state legitimacy, increasing advocacy by different
groups may be distinguished as nonauthoritative or authoritative depending on
the bases of support.
CONCLUSION
Technology not only helps to shape its own circumstances, but our own under-
standing of technology is also tied up in them. Thus, there was a connection be-
tween industrial technology and the nation-state and also between industrialization
and the Enlightenment and technocratic beliefs in progress.27 The latter led to in-
strumental notions of power. But, as industrialization also created masses of urban
poor along with wealthy capitalists, structural ideas of power began to supplement,
and at times, contradict instrumental understandings. Utopian socialists, Marx-
ists, and people like Thorstein Veblen contributed to this intellectual project.
While the old ones are still extant, information technology is helping to
bring about new politics and new intellectual configurations. These include the
following. First, the nation-state must now confront, support, or coexist with
other international actors. Second, our understanding of instrumental and struc-
tural powers, both resting on notions of capabilit y, must be reconfigured to ac-
count for digital technologies. Power may now be accruing to NGOs, international
organizations, businesses, transnational social movements, and to weak nation-
states. These further challenge our understanding of the nation-state and its
modus operandi. Third, most importantly, information technologies are helping

to reconstitute identities and issues. If preferences of actors are defined by how
they interact, information networks are fundamentally interactive. Similarly, iden-
tit y formation is undergoing a shift. These actors and their interactions are also
reconstituting time and space. The temporal shift comes from the speed of
human interactions coming from growing network interdependencies, impacting
everything from military readiness to global electronic economic transactions and
cultural f lows. Spatially, cyberspace must coexist with territorial space. Securit y,
economics, culture are transformed as a result.
Finally, the promises and perils of information technology need to be under-
stood with reference to digitization and cost dynamics. Consider the following
statement by Mathews (1997, 54): “Technology is fundamental to NGOs’ new
clout. The nonprofit Association for Progressive Communications provides
50,000 NGOs in 133 countries access to the tens of millions of Internet users for
the price of a local call. The dramatically lower costs of international communica-
tion have altered NGOs’ goals and changed international outcomes.” What Math-
ews notes in terms of NGOs and information technology applies equally well to all
international actors and their issues.
This volume’s authors attempt to grapple with the effect of information tech-
nology summarized above. While information technologies might be responsible
for fundamental transformations, the latter so far are not clearly understood in in-
ternational relations scholarship. Rosenau (1997, 17) writes that technology “has
profoundly altered the scale on which human affairs take place” but he goes on to
add that “students of global politics have not begun to take account of transfor-
mations at work within societies.” Daniel Bell (1980, X) calls it “an extraordinary
transformation, perhaps even greater in its impact than the industrial revolution
of the previous century” and goes on to note “that to the extent that we are sensi-
tive, we can try and estimate the consequences and decide which policies we
should choose, consonant with the values we have, in order to shape, accept, or
even reject the alternative futures that are available to us.”
To be sure, the effects of the so-called information revolution are heavily de-
bated,28 but there is no consensus. Particular effects in specific issue-areas and sub-
fields are least understood. Many scholars also caution us against reading too
much into such effects. Keohane and Nye (1998, 82) write that while information
technologies will tear down old hierarchies and shape new identities, “[P]rophets
of a new cyberworld, like modernists before them, often overlook how much the
new world overlaps and rests on the traditional world in which power depends on
geographically based institutions.”
Walt Whitman’s questions, still unanswered, are as relevant now, as when he
penned them. We are still trying to figure out how and if nations are communing,
if a global heart is developing, if humanit y is forming en-masse, and which t yrants
are trembling and crowns are dimming. One hundred thirt y-five years after Whit-
INTRODUCTION 27
man’s poem, and on the threshold of a new millennium, words by Keohane and
Nye in the last paragraph are eerily similar to those of Whitman’s when he notes
that “[N]o one knows what will happen next.” This volume, hopefully, provides a
few reasonable conjectures.
NOTES
I would like to thank Mary Beth Melchior, Chuck Johnson, and the authors of this volume
(especially Sandra Braman, Edward Comor and Jim Rosenau) for comments on earlier
drafts of this paper.
1. For histories of the International Telegraph Union, later International Telecom-
munication Union or ITU, see Codding (1972) and Headrick (1991).
2. In the works just mentioned, no author deals specifically with transformational
issues. Most of the works deal with the creation and sustenance of the global telecommu-
nications regime, which specifies the “principles, norms, rules and decision-making proce-
dures” (Krasner 1985, 4) for international actors by either attributing it to states or to
businesses and international organizations. Krasner takes a statist line while Aronson and
Cowhey, Sandholtz, and Cowhey take a neo-liberal position. Zacher with Sutton synthesize
neo-liberal and neo-realist analyses. Gilpin is not explaining regimes, but his analysis
remains limited to state-power and the effects of technology on this.
3. This section borrows from Sheth and Singh (1994)
4. Behind such optimism are the technological processes underscored in this sub-
section. “The harmonizing effect of being digital is already apparent as previously partitioned
disciplines and enterprises find themselves collaborating, not competing” (Negroponte 1995,
230).
5. Costs were as high as $200,000 per MIPS (millions of instructions per second) on
a mainframe when introduced. They were less than $100 per MIPS on a PC by 1995 and
were expected to decline to a few dollars per MIPS by 2010. Figures quoted from Sheth and
Singh (1994, 4–5). Apple computer has now released the first home computer that
processes above the supercomputer threshold of 1 billion instructions per second
(http://www.apple.com accessed November 10, 1999).
6. For an excellent introduction to the cost economics and the marketing issues fac-
ing information products, see Shapiro and Varian (1999).
7. Milner (1997), Keohane (1984), Gilpin, (1981). Gilpin’s early works (1962, 1968,
1975) are the first to write of this explicitly. Gilpin (1981) is a later example where the cost-
benefit calculations of power holders, including imperial reach, are related to the techno-
logical capabilities of states.
8. Machlup (1962) noted that the rate of growth of the information sector in the
economy was much faster than that of agriculture or industry. The implication was obvi-
ous: to produce high growth rates, the country needed to boost the information sector and
its employment. Porat’s (1977) work later developed categories of information occupations
for national income accounts.
9. Histories of Pentagon’s support for AT&T may be found in Schiller (1982) and
Horwitz (1989).
10. There were dissenters. Many objected to the supply-centric arguments. Aronson
(1992) characterized this as the “field of dreams” approach that posited a “build it and they
will come” view of the infrastructure. Krugman (1994) was a vociferous critic of what he
called the “competitiveness obsession.” Nations are not corporations, he argued, and
should stop trying to compete with each other. While correct on the economics, Krugman
overlooked politics. Nations compete not because they see themselves as corporations but
because of concerns about national power, well-known from Thucydides to Kennedy
(1987). This is not to say that competitiveness obsessions are desirable. And, as Deibert
points out in chapter 5, notions of ‘national power’ may themselves be history soon.
11. This is not to dismiss suasion altogether. Keohane and Nye (1998) note that at-
traction of actors toward mutually desired outcomes, what they term ‘soft power,’ is impor-
tant for the world in which interdependence is deepening due to information technologies.
12. Instrumental notions of technology in fact have their origins in Western liberal
thought (Meltzer et al. 1993, 1995). The idea that technology is intimately tied to empower-
ment of the less privileged epitomizes such thinking. An extreme version is the notion that
all social problems can be reduced to technological ones. For a critique, see Sarewitz (1996).
13. For an application of Coxian framework to information technologies, see Sinclair
(1999). He argues that the financial credit rating structure, sustained by a global electronic
network, regulates the behavior of organizations and individuals.
14. What liberal political thought is to instrumental notions of technology, radical po-
litical thought may be to its structural variant. Most structural variations of technology, even
the neoclassical ones, borrow from radical scholarship. (See Schumpeter, 1939; Archibugi
and Michie, 1997). Alternative structural notions embedded in realist analysis, starting with
Thucydides’s maxims about the weak suffering what they must, have not espoused much lit-
erature examining technological questions. Gilpin’s work, mentioned earlier, is an exception.
15. According to Polanyi (1944, 132), laissez-faire was more of an organizing principle
than a free for all system.
16. Also see North (1990, 1981).
17. Well-known works include Finnemore (1998), Keck and Sikkink (1998), Katzen-
stein (1996), Biersteker and Weber (1996), Ruggie (1993), Wendt (1992), Onuf (1989). Post-
modernists and gender theorists, whose work overlaps with this tradition, include Weber
(1999), Peterson (1997), Walker (1993), Enloe (1993), Der Derian and Shapiro (1989).
18. For an application to communication media, see Singh (1999).
19. Comor (chapter 7) borrows from Berger and Luckmann to point out how the cap-
italist institution of consumption gets socially constructed, or how individuals are social-
ized to consume.
INTRODUCTION 29
20. A recent The Wall Street Journal (September 12, 2000: B1) in a news story titled
“Now You, Too, Can Be Spy,” noted that spy images available only to the military earlier
are now available to everyone at low prices.
21. Fishlow (1965) provides an excellent introduction to how railways helped to
meet the demands of the antebellum U.S. economy.
22. The emergence of private authorit y in global politics is now increasingly noted.
See Cutler et al. (1999). Cutler’s (1999) view comes close to that of Comor’s here and
Comor (1994). Whereas at one time commercial interests required the state to further their
interests thus leading to ‘public law,’ increasingly the commercial interests want interna-
tional private law which places their activities outside the purview of state instruments.
23. Intellectual antecedents to Comor’s approach may also be located in Adorno
(1991), Horkeimer and Adorno (1972), Gramsci (1971), and Luke (1989).
24. Separately, I have argued (Singh 2000b) that bargaining increasingly favors
weaker actors in a multiple-issue, multiple-actor world as their alternatives become better.
25. This discussion draws from Borgatta and Borgatta (1992, 1095–1099) on legitimacy.
26. For recent examples, see Singh (2001), Keck and Sikkink (1998), Mathews
(1997), Deibert (1997, 157–164), Castells (1997), Rosenau (1990), Smith and Guarnizo
(1998), Brecher and Costello (1998), Luke (1989).
27. See Simpson (1995) for the connection bet ween technology and modernit y and
Meltzer et al. (1993) for technology and liberal democracy. Kass (1997, 22), while not
agreeing that instrumental beliefs are unproblematic, notes in the American context that
“the preservation of our liberties, no less than our general welfare, has been tied on more
than one occasion to American engineering, rational planning, and methodological so-
cial organization; I refer in particular to the Second World War.” See Ezrahi et al. (1994)
for how progress-oriented beliefs in technology are giving way to pessimism in postmod-
ern times.
28. Well-known works, apart from ones listed earlier, include Castells (1996, 1997,
1998), Sapolsky et al. (1992), Pool (1990), Beniger (1986), Pavlic and Hamelink (1985),
Rogers (1983), Nora and Minc (1980), Porat (1977), Bell (1973).
REFERENCES
Adorno, Theodor W. 1991. The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. London:
Routledge.
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
Archibugi, Daniele, and Jonathan Michie, eds. 1997. Technology, Globalization and Eco-
nomic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Arquila, John, and David Ronfeldt. 1997. In Athena’s Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the
Information Age. Rand: National Defense Research Institute.
Aronson, Jonathan D. 1992. Telecommunications Infrastructure and U.S. International

Competitiveness. In A National Information Network: Changing Our Lives in the
21st Century. Institute for Information Studies. The Aspen Institute.
Aronson, Jonathan D., and Peter F. Cowhey. 1988. When Countries Talk: International
Trade in Telecommunications Services. The American Enterprise Institute.
Bell, Daniel. 1973. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New
York: Basic Books.
———. 1980. Introduction. In Simon Nora and Alain Minc. The Computerization of Society:
A Report to the President of France. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Beniger, James R. 1986. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of Infor-
mation Society. Cambridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Trea-
tise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books.
Best, Michael H. 1990. The New Competition: Institutions of Industrial Restructuring. Cam-
bridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
Biersteker, Thomas J., and Cynthia Weber. 1996. State Sovereignty as Social Construct. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Borgatta, Edgar F., and Marie L. Borgatta, eds. 1992. Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 3. New
York: Macmillan.
Braman, Sandra. 1995. Horizons of the State: Information Policy and Power. Journal of
Communication. 45: 4–24.
Brecher, Jeremey, and Tim Costello. 1998. Global Village and Global Pillage: Economic
Reconstruction from the Bottom Up. Boston: South End Press.
Bruce, Robert R., Jeffrey P. Cunard, Mark D. Director. 1988. The Telecom Mosaic: Assem-
bling The New International Structure. Fromme, Somerset: Butterworth Scientific
for International Institute of Communications.
Castells, Manuel. 1996. The Information Age: Economy Society and Culture. Volume I. The
Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
———. 1997. The Information Age: Economy Society and Culture. Volume II. The Power of Iden-
tity. Oxford: Blackwell.
———. 1998. The Information Age: Economy Society and Culture. Volume III. End of Millenium.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Codding, George Arthur. 1972. The International Telecommunication Union: An Experiment
in International Cooperation. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Comor, Edward, ed. 1994. The Global Political Economy of Communication: Hegemony,
Telecommunication and the Information Economy. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.
INTRODUCTION 31
Cowhey, Peter F., and Jonathan D. Aronson. 1993. Managing the World Economy: The Con-
sequences of Strategic Corporate Alliances. New York: Council on Foreign Rela-
tions Press.
Cowhey, Peter F. 1990. The International telecommunications Regime: The Political
Roots of Regimes for High-Technology. International Organization. 34:
169–199.
Cox, Robert W. 1987. Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of His-
tory. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Cutler, Clare A. 1999. Locating ‘Authorit y’ in the Global Political Economy. International
Studies Quarterly. 43: 59–81.
Cutler, Clare A., Virginia Hauf ler and Tony Porter, eds. 1999. Private Authority and
International Affairs. Albany: State Universit y of New York Press.
Deibert, Ronald. 1997. Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communication and World
Order Transformation. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Der Derian, James. 1990. The (S)pace of International Relations: Simulation, Surveillance,
and Speed. International Studies Quarterly. 44: 295–310.
Der Derian, James, and Michael J. Shapiro, eds. 1989. International/Intertextual Relations.
Lexington: Lexington Books.
Duch, Raymond M. 1991. Privatizing the Economy: Telecommunications Policy in Comparative
Perspective. Ann Arbor: Universit y of Michigan Press.
Enloe, Cynthia. 1993. The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War. Berke-
ley: Universit y of California Press.
Executive Office of the President. 1997. Cybernation: The American Infrastructure in the In-
formation Age: A Technical Primer on Risks and Reliability. Office of Science and
Technology Policy.
Ezrahi, Yaron, Everett Mendelsohn, and Howard P. Segal. 1994. Technology, Pessimism, and
Postmodernism. Amherst: Universit y of Massachusetts Press.
Fine, Ben, and Laurence Harris. 1979. Rereading Capital. New York: Columbia Universit y
Press.
Finnemore, Martha. 1999. Norms, Culture and World Politics: Insights from Sociology’s
Institutionalism. International Organization. 325–348.
Fishlow, Albert. 1965. American Railroads and the Transformation of the Ante-Bellum Econ-
omy. Cambridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
Foucault, Michel. 1970. The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences. New
York: Vintage.
———. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Allen Lane.
Fuchs, Gerhard. 1993. ISDN: ‘The Telecommunications Highway for Europe after 1992?’ or ‘Paving
a Dead-End Street?’ The Politics of Pan-European Telecommunications Network Develop-
ment. Max-Planck-Institut fur Gesellschaftsforsorschung Discussion Paper 93/6.
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Gereffi, Gary. 1995. Global production systems and third world development. In Barbara
Stallings, ed. Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Context of
Development. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Gill, Stephen, and James H. Mittelman, eds. 1997. Innovation and Transformation in Inter-
national Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Gilpin, Robert. 1962. American Scientists and Nuclear Weapons Policy. Princeton: Princeton
Universit y Press.
———. 1968. France in the Age of the Scientific State. Princeton: Princeton Universit y Press.
———. 1975. U.S. Power and the Multinational Corporation. New York: Basic Books.
———. 1981. War & Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections for the Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Haas, Ernst. 1989. When Knowledge is Power. Berkeley: Universit y of California Press.
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1992/1941. On Collective Memory. Chicago: Universit y of Chicago
Press.
Hart, Jeffrey A. 1992. Rival Capitalists: International Competitiveness in the United States,
Japan, and Western Europe. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Headrick, Daniel. 1991. The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunications and International Politics,
1851–1945. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Hobsbaum, Eric J. 1968. Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day. Har-
mondsworth, England: Penguin Books.
Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor Adorno. 1972. Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York:
Herder and Herder.
Horwitz, Robert Britt. 1989. The Irony of Regulatory Reform: The Deregulation of American
Telecommunications. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Hudson, Heather E. et. al. 1979. The Role of Telecommunications in Socioeconomic Develop-
ment. Report prepared for the ITU and published by Boston: Information Gate-
keepers Inc.
Innis, Harold. 1950. Empire and Communications. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
International Telecommunications Union (ITU). 1984. The Missing Link: Report of the In-
dependent Commission for World Wide Telecommunications Development. Geneva:
International Telecommunications Union.
INTRODUCTION 33
Kass, Leon R. 1993. Introduction: The Problem of Technology. In Arthur M. Melzer, Jerry
Weinberger, and M. Richard Zimman, eds. Technology in the Western Political Tra-
dition. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Katzenstein, Peter J., editor. 1996. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in
World Politics. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Keck, Margaret E., and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks
in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Kennedy, Paul. 1987. Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic and Military Conflict from
1500 to 2000. New York: Random House.
Keohane, Robert O., and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. 1998. Power and Interdependence in the
Information Age. Foreign Affairs. (September/October) 77(5).
Keohane, Robert O. 1984. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political
Economy. Princeton: Princeton Universit y Press.
Krasner, Stephen. 1991. Global telecommunications and National Power. International
Organization. 43: 336–366.
Krasner, Stephen D. 1985. Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism.
Berkeley: Universit y of California Press.
Krugman, Paul. 1994. Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession. Foreign Affairs.
(March/April): 1–17.
Lake, David. 1983. International Economic Structures and American Foreign Economic
Policy, 1887–1934. World Politics. (July) 35(4).
Landes, David S. 1969. The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial De-
velopment in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. New York: Cambridge Uni-
versit y Press.
———. 1980. The Creation of Knowledge and Technique: Today’s Task and Yesterday’s
Experience. Daedulus.
Larson, James F. 1995. The Telecommunications Revolution in Korea. Hong Kong: Oxford
Universit y Press.
Levy, Brian, and Pablo T. Spiller, eds. 1996. Regulations, Institutions and Commitment: Com-
parative Studies of Telecommunications. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Lindblom, Charles E. 1977. States and Markets: The World’s Political-Economic Systems. New
York: Basic Books.
Litfin, Karen. 1994. Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in International Environmental
Negotiations. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Luke, Timothy. 1989. Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination and Resistance in Information
Society. Urbana: Universit y of Illinois Press.
Machlup, Fritz. 1962. The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States.
Princeton: Princeton Universit y Press.
Mathews, Jessica T. 1997. Power Shift. Foreign Affairs. (January/February) 76(1).
McDowell, Stephen D. 1997. Globalization, Liberalization and Policy Change: A Political
Economy of India’s Communication Sector. London: Macmillan Press Limited.
McLuhan, Marshall. 1964/1997. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge:
The MIT Press.
Mcluhan, Marshall, and Bruce R. Powers. 1989. The Global Village. New York: Oxford
Universit y Press.
Melody, William. 1997. Telecom reform: Principles, policies and regulatory practices. Lyngby:
Technical Universit y of Denmark.
Meltzer, Arthur M., Jerry Weinberger, and M. Richard Zinman. 1993. Technology in the
Western Political Tradition. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
———. 1995. History and the Idea of Progress. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Miliband, Ralph. 1969. The State in Capitalist Society: An Analysis of the Western System of
Power. New York: Basic Books.
Milner, Helen. 1997. Interests, Institutions, and Information: Domestic Politics and Interna-
tional Relations. Princeton: Princeton Universit y Press.
Negroponte, Nicholas. 1995. Being Digital. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Nelson, Richard R. and Gavin Wright. 1992. The Rise and Fall of American Technologi-
cal Leadership. Journal of Economic Literature. (December) 30(4).
The New York Times. 1997. For France, Sagging Self-Image and Esprit: Libert y, Equalit y,
Anxiet y (A Special Report). (February 11): A1.
Nora, Simon, and Alain Minc. 1980. The Computerization of Society: A Report to the Presi-
dent of France. Cambridge: MIT Press.
North, Douglass C. 1981. Structure and Change in Economic History. New York: W.W. Norton.
———. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge Universit y Press.
North, Douglass C., and Robert T. Thomas. 1973. The Rise of the Western World: A New
Economic History. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
NTIA. 1985. The NTIA Competition Benefits Report. U.S. Department of Commerce. Na-
tional Telecommunications and Information Administration.
———. 1988. Telecom 2000 Report. U.S. Department of Commerce. National Telecommuni-
cations and Information Administration.
———. 1991. The NTIA Infrastructure Report: Telecommunications in the Age of Information.
U.S. Department of Commerce. National Telecommunications and Information
Administration.
INTRODUCTION 35
Nye, Joseph Jr., and William A. Owens. 1996. America’s Information Edge. Foreign Affairs.
(March/April) 75: 45–61.
O’Brien, Rita Cruise, ed. 1983. Information, Economics and Power: The North-South Dimen-
sion. Boulder: Westview Press.
Odell, John. 2000. Negotiating the World Economy. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups.
Cambridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
———. 1982. The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidi-
ties. New Haven: Yale Universit y Press.
Onuf, Nicaholas. 1989. A World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and Inter-
national Relations. Columbia: Universit y of South Carolina Press.
Pacey, Arnold. 1990. Technology in World Civilization. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Pavlic, Breda, and Cees J. Hamelink. 1985. The New International Economic Order: Links Be-
tween Economics and Communications. Belgrade: United Nations Education, Sci-
ence and Cultural Organization.
Peterson, Spike V. 1997. Whose Crisis? Early and Post-Modern Masculinism. In Stephen
Gill and James H. Mittelman, eds. Innovation and Transformation in International
Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Petrazinni, Ben. 1995. The Political Economy of Telecommunications Reform in Developing
Countries: Privatization and Liberalization in Comparative Perspective. Westport,
Conn: Praeger.
Polanyi, Karl. 1944. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our
Time. Boston: Beacon Press.
Pool, Ithiel de Sola. 1990. Technologies Without Boundaries: On Telecommunications In a
Global Age. Cambridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
Porat, Marc Uri. 1977. The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement. Washington:
Office of Telecommunications, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Postman, Neil. 1985. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Busi-
ness. New York: Penguin Books.
Putnam, Robert. 1995. Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. Journal of
Democracy.
Rogers, Everett. 1983. Diffusion of Innovations. 3rd. ed. New York: The Free Press.
Rosecrance, Richard. 1986. The Rise of the Trading State: Commerce and Conquest in the
Modern World. New York: Basic Books.
———. 1996. The Rise of the Virtual State. Foreign Affairs. 75: 45–61.
Rosenau, James N. 1990. Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity.
———. 1992. Governance, Order, and Change in World Politics. In James N. Rosenau and
Ernst-Otto Czempiel. Governance Without Government: Order and Change in
World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
———. 1997. Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier: Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World.
Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1993. Territorialit y and Beyond: Problematizing Modernit y in Inter-
national Relations. International Organization. 17: 139–174.
Sabel, Charles F. 1982. Work and Politics: the Division of Labour in Industry. Cambridge:
Cambridge Universit y Press.
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
Sandholtz, Wayne. 1992. High-Tech Europe: The Politics of International Cooperation. Berke-
ley: Universit y of California Press.
Sapolsky, Harvey M. et al. eds. 1992. The Telecommunications Revolution: Past, Present and
Future. London: Routledge.
Sarewitz, Daniel. 1996. Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress.
Philadelphia: Temple Universit y Press.
Saunders, Robert J., Jeremy J. Warford, and Bjorn Wellenius. 1994, 2nd ed./1983. Telecom-
munications and Economic Development. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
Schiller, Dan. 1982. Telematics and Government. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development: An Enquiry into Profits,
Capital, Interest and the Business Cycle. Cambridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
Shapiro, Carl, and Hal R. Varian. 1999. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network
Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Schumpeter, Joseph, A. 1939. Business Cycles; a Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analy-
sis of the Capitalist Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sell, Susan. 1998. Power and Ideas: North-South Politics of Intellectual Property and Antitrust.
Albany: State Universit y of New York Press.
Sheth, Jagdish, and J.P. Singh. 1994. The Future of Telecommunications Services at the
Local Level, In Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technol-
ogy. Telecommunications Policy in Georgia. Georgia Institute of Technology.
(October).
Simpson, Lorenzo C. 1995. Technology Time and the Conversations of Modernity. London:
Routledge.
Sinclair, Timothy. 1999. Bond Rating Agencies and Coordination in the Global Political
Economy. In A. Clare Cutler, Virginia Hauf ler and Tony Porter, eds., Private
Authority and International Affairs. Albany: State Universit y of New York Press.
INTRODUCTION 37
Singh, J.P. 1994. “Faust or Frankenstein: Whose Life is it Anyway? An Essay on Langdon
Winner’s ‘Autonomous Technology’.” American Political Science Assn. New
York. (September 4)
———. 1999. Collective Memory and Colonialism: Opera and its Gendered Politics. Paper
presented at the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, Sept. 2 and at
the Third Pan-European International Relations Conference, Vienna, Austria.
(September 16–19, 1998)
———. 1999. Leapfrogging Development?: The Political Economy of Telecommunications Restruc-
turing. Albany: State Universit y of New York Press.
———. 2000a. “The institutional environment and effects of telecommunication privatiza-
tion and market liberalization in Asia.” Telecommunications Policy. 24.
———. 2000b. Weak Powers and Globalism: Impact of Pluralit y on Weak-Strong Negotia-
tions in the International Economy. International Negotiation. 5.
———. 2001. Gender-based NGO Networks and Information Technologies in India.” In Tim
Shaw, Sandra Maclean and Fahimul Quadir. eds. Ethnicities and Governance in
Asia and Africa. Ashgate Publishers.
———. forthcoming. Communications and Diplomacy: Negotiating the Global Information
Economy. Basingstoke: Macmillan/St. Martin’s (international political economy
series).
Singh J.P., and Jagdish Sheth. 1997. “Exclusion and Territorialit y in Global Telecommuni-
cations: Inf luence of Industrial Age State-Business Relations in the Information
Age.” Paper Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Conven-
tion, Toronto. March.
Sisodia, Rajendra S. 1992. Singapore Invests in the Nation-Corporation. Harvard Business
Review. (May–June).
Smith, Adam. 1976/1776. An Enquiry in to the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Indianapolis: Libert y Classics.
Smith, Michael Peter, and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, eds. 1998. Transnationalism from Below.
New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
Snow, Marcellus. 1988. Telecommunications Literature: A Critical Review of the Eco-
nomic, Technological and Public Policy Issues. Telecommunications Policy.
(June).
Spar, Debora. 1999. Foreign Investment and the Pursuit of Human Rights. Challenge.
(January–February).
Spar, Debora, and Jeffrey Bussgang. 1996. Ruling the Net. Harvard Business Review.
(May–June): 19–27.
Strange, Susan. 1988. States and Markets. London: Pinter.
———. 1991. An Eclectic Approach. In Craig N. Murphy and Roger Tooze. The New Inter-
national Political Economy. Boulder: Lynne Reinner.
Tilly, Charles. 1985. War Making and State Making as Organized Crime. In Peter Evans,
Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Scocpol, eds. Bringing the State Back In.
Tyson, Laura D’Andrea. 1992. Who’s Bashing Whom? Trade Conflict in High-Technology
Industries. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.
Tyson, Laura D’Andrea, and John Zysman, eds. 1983. American Industry in International
Competition: Government Policies and Corporate Strategies. Ithaca: Cornell Univer-
sit y Press.
Vattimo, Gianni. 1993. Postmodernit y, Technology, Ontology. In Arthur M. Melzer, Jerry
Weinberger, and M. Richard Zinman, eds. Technology in the Western Political Tra-
dition. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Viner, Jacob. 1948. Power versus Plent y as Objectives of Foreign Policy in the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries. World Politics. 1: 1–29.
Walker, .R. B. J. 1993. Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory. Cambridge:
Cambridge Universit y Press.
Waltz, Kenneth. 1979. Theories of International Politics. New York: McGraw Hill.
Weber, Cynthia. 1999. Faking It: U.S. Hegemony in a “Post-Phallic” Era. Minneapolis: Uni-
versit y of Minnesota Press.
Weber, Max. 1968. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, vol. 1–2. Guen-
ther Ross and Claus Wittich, eds. Berkeley: Universit y of California Press.
Wellenius, Bjorn, and Peter A. Stern, eds. 1994. Implementing Reforms in the Telecommuni-
cations Sector: Lessons from Experience. Washington D.C.: The World Bank.
Wendt, Alexander. 1992. Anarchy is What States Make of it: The Social Construction of
Power Politics. International Organization. (Spring) 46(2): 391–425.
Whitman, Walt. 1982. Whitman: Poetry and Prose. New York: The Library of America.
Winner, Langdon. 1977. Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Politi-
cal Thought. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Zacher, Mark W., with Brent A. Sutton. 1996. Governing Global Networks: International Regimes
for Transportation and Communications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER TWO
GLOBAL NETWORKS AND THEIR IMPACT
JONATHAN ARONSON
The spread of integrated global networks is accelerating. Vast and growing quan-
tities of information f low across these networks at ever greater speed and contin-
ually declining prices. These technologically sophisticated networks are reshaping
the landscape of politics and international relations, transforming global com-
merce, recasting societies and cultures, and altering policy formulation and im-
plementation. Many suggest that this is the dawn of a new information age or the
onset of a world information economy. Some predict bright prospects arising
from these innovations; others worry that new technologies will destroy jobs and
cause a permanent “digital divide,” a chasm separating rich and poor within and
between countries.
The scope of change is widespread, deep, and rapid. Analysts grappling with
these changes often become mired in generalities or focus on specific micro-issues,
losing touch with the bigger picture. Two approaches help put things in perspec-
tive. First, historical context of the kind provided by Mark Zacher in this volume il-
lustrate the evolution of change. Second, issues can be classified and sorted. This
second approach is taken here. Three analytical distinctions help categorize issues
related to changes prompted by the evolution of global networks. The goal of this
taxonomic exercise is to explain in accessible, but structured, shorthand the terrain
of possibilities created for policymakers, firms, and societ y by the new global net-
works while also providing a framework for theory building, not new theory.
THREE DISTINCTIONS
Three distinctions are at the core of this exercise. The first distinction divides con-
tent and conduit issues. Many issues arise from the management, pricing, and reg-
ulation of content. The proliferation of information f lowing through wireline and
wireless net works and the ease of accessing and manipulating it changes how
39
governments and firms conduct business and how individuals live. Burgeoning
information f lows affect the regulation and conduct of policy and commerce.
They keep people informed and allow them to make their support or outrage
known and thus inf luence societ y and events. As the volume of information
f lows climb, changes are accelerating. By contrast, conduit issues linked to the de-
sign, financing, construction, operation, maintenance, and integration of global
networks are just as important but receive less attention.
Second, both content and conduit issues can be classified according to what
f lows in what manner over which net works. On the content side money,
E-commerce, data, and ideas all f low across net works. Most of the world’s money
pulses through global net works. Banks exchange currencies. Stocks, bonds, and
commodities are bought and sold without currency ever changing hands.
E-commerce allows the sale or auction of goods over net works, even when physi-
cal delivery is still required. In addition, bits of information are transmitted,
viewed, analyzed, and acted upon. Telephone calls, cable and satellite television
programs, news broadcasts, price quotes, and sports’ odds and scores all are
globally available. Inherent in some information are ideas with the potential to
change governments, firms, societies, and their people.
On the conduit side, different concerns arise depending on whether the in-
formation is received as voice, data, or images (still or moving). These distinctions
are blurring with the expansion of the World Wide Web and the integration of in-
formation technologies. But, presently, different issues are raised depending on
how information is used. Direct communications among people (telephone calls,
pagers, faxes), data transmissions (databases, marketing plans, financial records,
travel reservations, electronic commerce purchases) and the broadcast of images
(video-streamed events, news, and entertainment) raise distinct issues. In addi-
tion, as technologies converge, new crosscutting issues emerge. Thus, in areas like
video conferencing, distance learning, and interactive entertainment the voice/
data/image distinctions are eroding just as the once popular FCC distinction be-
tween basic and value-added services lost its meaning.1
The third distinction identifies three arenas of policy impact: politics and pol-
icy, commerce and finance, and societ y and culture. First, new technologies and
global networks impact the domestic and foreign politics and policies of countries
and force officials to redesign regulatory approaches. Second, globalization is
transforming global commerce and finance and may impel private firms and state-
controlled entities to become regional and global players to stay competitive.
Finally, stimulated by the explosion of the Web and the proliferation of other in-
expensive forms of communications, cultures and societies are reinventing them-
selves at a breathtaking pace.2
This section looks at content issues. The following section focuses on con-
duit issues and the policy questions they raise. Several themes in these sections
GLOBAL NETWORKS AND THEIR IMPACT 41
recur throughout this volume. Communication and information technologies and

the networks they enable are distributing power more widely. The implications of
this shift in authorit y may ultimately be as great as the collapse of the Soviet
Union and the end of the Cold War. States remain powerful, but competing in-
ternational and nongovernmental organizations and institutions also are gaining
power and inf luence. As J. P. Singh notes in the introduction and James Rosenau
reprises in the conclusion, the decentralization of power changes how power is
exercised, the proliferation of global net works raises new challenges for gover-
nance, and the ubiquit y of information at low cost creates far more textured and
multilayered notions of identit y.
CONTENT ISSUES
People do not need to know how telephones, fax machines, computers, and tele-
visions work to use them. The miracle of modern technology is its simplicit y of
use. New services attract users. Falling prices spur usage. Most people believe that
the content that f lows over networks and its impact on governments, firms, soci-
et y, and people matters most. Here, four t ypes of f lows are considered: money,
E-commerce, information, and ideas.
MONEY
Most money is electronic. Currencies—bills and coins—make up a small portion

of the money supply in most industrial economies. Similarly, the percentage of
banking and credit card transactions that take place over the phone or online is
increasing rapidly. As smart cards, debit cards, and phone cards proliferate, the
physical exchange of money should decrease. This does not mean that a cashless
economy is imminent, but the trend is clear. These developments are inf luencing
politics and policy, commerce and finance, and societ y and culture. This section
and those that follow highlight the nature and importance of the changes in these
three arenas.
Politics and Policy: Control of Money. Has the explosion of electronic money enhanced
or undermined governments’ monetary control? Huge sums of money move from
country to country and currency to currency each day. A decade ago it was esti-
mated that the value of foreign exchange transactions dwarfed the value of global
trade by a factor of fift y (Spero 1988–89). By the end of the 1990s the value of for-
eign exchange trades reached about $1.2 trillion each day. Many of these transac-
tions are intra-corporate, intraday adjustments, but still the imbalance is rising.
This maelstrom of activit y raises twin challenges for monetary authorities. First,
on a day-to-day basis, can central bankers still manage national money supply
when money can be created beyond their control and can f lood or f lee a currency
in an instant? Most governments no longer make any serious attempt to impose
currency controls. Even the imposition of draconian penalties usually fails, falling
victim to the fungibilit y of money. Central bankers are beginning to grapple with
these issues, but so far they have downplayed their significance and asserted that
they are still in control. Second, do the volume and velocit y of money changing
hands make it more likely that a global financial crisis could sweep from currency
to currency causing a global financial meltdown? From the runs on sterling in the
1960s which began the slow death of the Bretton Wood system to the Asian fi-
nancial crisis in the late 1990s, central banks, finance ministries, and the Inter-
national Monetary Fund (IMF) labored to stabilize the global monetary scene.
Still, crises provoked finance ministers and political leaders from London to
Kuala Lumpur to blame foreign speculators for their woes.3 Politicians like to pass
the buck to avoid blame for their own mismanagement. Still, there is a growing
concern that the system as managed by the IMF, if not the individual speculators,
bears some responsibilit y for recurring crises.
Commerce and Finance: Global Disbursement and Payments. Who wins and who loses
when new payment possibilities allow individuals and firms to think and act globally?
Money transfers over networks make it easier to travel or stay at home. The ritual
stop at the bank for cash and traveler checks before a foreign trip is no more. Visa
and American Express are accepted worldwide and cash in any national currency
can be withdrawn from ATMs anywhere. Similarly, direct deposit of paychecks
and payments of bills are fast becoming the norm, not the exception. The location
of payer and payee is irrelevant. National borders and the t ype of currency do not
matter. The ease of money transfer and erosion of barriers also push firms, even
smaller ones, to think and act regionally and globally. The variet y of products and
services readily available through the global electronic marketplace continues to
proliferate. Governments are playing catch up, but mostly are staying out of the
way and allowing firms to push economic globalization forward. Although glob-
alization probably will proceed despite efforts to turn back the clock, much more
work is needed to understand why certain firms and sectors prosper while others
lag. (Friedman 1999a)
Society and Culture: Global Currency. Will integrated electronic markets with common
currencies unite or divide peoples? As the millennium dawns there are two and a half
currencies that matter. The dollar is solid. There even is talk, from Quebec to Ar-
gentina, that the dollar should be adopted as a single currency for the entire hemi-
sphere. The Euro debuted on January 1, 1999, and despite birthing pains,
promises to promote predictabilit y and growth across a large region. The yen
limps along as Japan marks nearly a decade of economic stagnation punctuated by
unsuccessful stimulus packages. Its prospects faded when the Asian tigers stum-
bled, but it should endure in Asia. Most electronic purchases will be denominated
in one of these currencies. Price arbitrage for similar products and services will
occur. Consumers and firms will buy and sell products and services according to
their qualit y and price and not the location of buyer or seller. Inevitably, national
preferences and global tastes will collide creating cultures and societies torn be-
t ween national and global preferences and further exacerbating the Jihad vs
McWorld split. (Barber 1995). It is less clear, but equally important, how and to
what extent global markets will impact to reinforce or erode national and ethnic
identities. What does seem certain is that identit y for most people and groups will
be multifaceted, interlacing elements of the global and the local.
E-COMMERCE
People, money, things, information, and ideas f low across national borders.
Global net works may substitute for international travel and facilitate the sale of
things. Catalogue sale venders using 800 numbers are proliferating. More sig-
nificantly, the emergence of the Internet and the Web set the stage for the
E-commerce phenomenon. Internet users exploded from three million in 1994
to 200 million by the start of 2000 and Internet traffic was doubling every 100
days in early 2000. The speed of delivery over the Internet backbone net work is
increasing even more rapidly and is projected to reach 4,800 Megabits per sec-
ond in 2000. Annual infrastructure investment has nearly doubled bet ween
1996 and early 2000. Bet ween 1995 and 1999 the average online usage per user
more than doubled and could double again by 2002. E-commerce experienced a
similar trajectory before slowing after March 2000. E-commerce as a percentage
of U.S. GDP was essentially zero in 1995, reached 1 percent in 1999, and con-
tinues to climb (Pepper 1999). Sales of securities over the Internet exceeded
$100 billion a day by early 1999 (Freedman 1999). In short, E-commerce is
transforming political and policy possibilities, firms and business sectors, and
the way people live and interact (Magaziner Report, 1998).
Politics and Policy: Regulatory Responsibility. How should regulators and legislators
respond to the rapid expansion of electronic commerce? The Federal Communica-
tions Commission has refrained from regulating the Internet but is watching
closely (Werbach 1997). The Clinton administration offered a framework for
global E-Commerce in July 1997, proposing that the private sector should lead
and governments should avoid undue restrictions on E-commerce. To the extent
government involvement is necessary, it should enforce a predictable, minimal-

ist, consistent, and simple legal environment for E-commerce (Clinton 1997;
Clinton and Gore 1997). Regulators believe that they should pursue greater
competition and interoperabilit y and that there needs to be greater agreement
on how and to what extent to protect intellectual propert y rights. Regulators
are more hesitant to regulate content.
The Web and E-commerce also present regulators with a different set of chal-
lenges related to consumer protection because fraud is rampant and growing.
Concerns about privacy and data securit y, particularly for credit cards, also are
widespread. Competition for eyeballs and competition bet ween E-commerce
providers and more established retailers is white hot. E-commerce providers con-
tend that self-regulation is the best course. Lawmakers and regulators are not so
sure. They are struggling to figure out whether and how they should intervene to
ensure that the competition is fair and robust and that everybody is connected to
everybody else. The challenges to governments are global as well as national. In-
deed, any serious trade future trade negotiations will need to reach agreements
that promote rather than retard the booming global E-commerce sector.
Commerce and Finance: Global Competition. Who will win and lose as the rapid
rise of E-commerce alters the competitive situation of individual firms and of indus-
trial and business sectors? Global net works erode borders, making it possible for
savvy firms to produce goods and services and compete globally. Business-to-
business E-commerce is projected to increase far faster than business-to-
consumer E-commerce. In 1999 business-to-business E-commerce reached about
$100 billion, about four times the volume of business-to-consumer E-commerce.
A quarter of American households made at least one purchase online in 1999.
By 2004 the volume of business-to-business E-commerce could dwarf the volume
of business-to-consumer E-commerce by a factor of ten to one (Pepper 1999).
The way people bank and shop is in f lux. If individuals and firms do not need
to visit a bank to do business, it may not matter where the bank is located. The
death of distance that is transforming communications and commerce has
spilled over to finance and is changing the way people live.
E-commerce empowers buyers by providing them with more information
about their alternatives. Malls may suffer because it is easier to shop online.
Newspapers could suffer if they lose readers and advertisers, although advertis-
ing by many now bankrupt Web firms helped push up revenues in 1999. The
Web also could change the way goods and services are sold internationally.
American children rushed to buy the British copies of the Harry Potter series on-
line before they were available in America. Future volumes of the series will be
released simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic. German citizens may not
legally purchase Hitler’s Mein Kampf in a German bookstore, but it is a top-sell-
ing item in Germany through AOL (Friedman 1999b). Moreover, as national

boundaries become more porous, tax, trade, and intellectual propert y questions
related to E-commerce are rising. This activit y reinforces the growth of cross-na-
tional production net works that are altering the terms of competition in global
markets and are transforming the structure of many industries (Kim and Hart in
this volume; Borrus and Zysman 1997).
Among those who are connected, the gap bet ween information haves and
have nots is closing. Individuals and institutions have access to the same informa-
tion as their brokers and merchants. Moreover, the way that more and more peo-
ple are buying and selling is changing as people f lock to eBay and other online
auction sites. One consequence is that, unless they provide real value as infome-
diaries, brokers and middlemen will be squeezed out. Thus, full service stock bro-
kers are losing market share to discount brokers like Charles Schwab and online
Internet brokers like E*trade. Even the full service brokers are using the online
traders to execute their trades. Customers will pay for advice but their tolerance
for high transaction fees is gone. Even stock exchanges are restructuring in the
face of competition from online electronic communication net works like Island
which by early 1999 controlled 21.6 percent of Nasdaq shares and almost a third
of Nasdaq trades (Vogelstein 1999). Similarly, computer programs like Turbotax
and online tax filing are squeezing accountants; and airlines and discount online
ticket providers such as Priceline.com allow customers to bypass and undercut
travel agents by booking tickets online.
Society and Culture: Global Branding. Will tastes and cultures converge or remain
distinct as E-commerce promotes new forms of global branding? Products like Coca
Cola, Levis, and Walkman gained global acceptance long before the rise of
E-commerce. In the early 1990s concern increased that as product cycles short-
ened only large firms with the money to mount international marketing cam-
paigns to introduce new products would prevail across borders. E-commerce
could reverse the equation by allowing customers to spread across the globe to
find what they need instead of advertisers selling what they choose. (A darker
view is provided by Edward Comor in this volume.) Small firms with good
ideas and products, access to a large bank of computing power, and excellent
international Internet connections might compete anywhere regardless of their
country of origin. As trade and communications barriers fall, E-commerce pro-
vides a new, affordable way for firms to supplement their efforts to gain interna-
tional recognition for their products. However, the huge expense of establishing
and marketing a visible site and the advantages enjoyed by first movers, may
work against innovators. In short, global branding may or may not reinforce
trends already in progress and the Internet and E-commerce may play an im-
portant role in ongoing globalization.
INFORMATION
Soon almost everybody, at least in the industrial world, will be connected with
everybody else in real time. The numbers are startling. In just ten years, since the
first commercial Internet providers began operation in 1989, more than 200 mil-
lion users are connected, including 100 million in the United States. By 1999 al-
most 40 percent of U.S. households were connected; 20 percent in the European
Union, and 10 percent in Japan. Affordable voice, data, and video connections be-
t ween people and machines are now the norm, not the exception. Any govern-
ment, firm, or individual has access to more information than exists in the world’s
great libraries. Encyclopedia Britannica is accessible online for free. Interactive 900
telephone numbers, computer chat rooms, and interactive computer games now
occupy so much time in America that television viewership is declining. The links
are international, not just national. The Internet, Email, exploding capacit y, and
falling international phone rates all make it easier for governments, firms, and
people to stay in touch. The implications of information abundance extend far be-
yond the drop in letter writing and reading.
Politics and Policy: Intelligence and Planning. Does more intelligence information trans-
late into better policy? Governments always want to collect and analyze information
that will inform their decisions. Intelligence communities want to collect as much
information as possible. The information collection capabilities of modern intel-
ligence services was demonstrated after the downing of Korean Airlines 007.
Within hours, President Reagan released the conversations bet ween the Soviet
pilot who shot down the plane and his ground base. Even though the information
exists, finding it in the databases and archives can be challenging. Developing ef-
ficient search routines therefore becomes imperative. However, the glut of infor-
mation f lows may clog the system and may not lead to better policy. There may be
less room for intuition, trust, and secret understandings that were traditional in-
struments of the process. In short, more information may be a blessing when bu-
reaucrats and political leaders can manage, analyze, and synthesize the data. It can
be a curse when abundant information overloads or dehumanizes the decision-
making process to the detriment of creativit y and f lexibilit y. Understanding how
and when more information leads to better policy could become a more impor-
tant area of study.
Commerce and Finance: Global Production and Marketing. Will firms be more com-
petitive if they produce and market globally for global markets? Firms depend more
than ever on information and communications to ensure their global competitive
positions and long-term viabilit y. Business strategists show that to remain dy-
namic firms need information to produce goods and services globally, track their
operations and inventory, and market them to customers wherever they may
reside. The demand for global production and marketing means that managers
focus on doing business without regard to national borders specifically in the
areas of trade and investment. Large firms often use information more success-
fully than politicians. Still, the reasons certain firms and industries adopt new
communications technologies more rapidly and successfully than others and com-
pete more effectively in global markets remains unclear. In addition, data com-
munication networks, electronic data interchange, and improved management of
information unleash new competitive possibilities for firms. Simultaneously,
firms can use new technologies to meet demands at the local level. In short, a “glo-
cal” production strategy based on ever-improving internal and external informa-
tion f lows can make firms more competitive. The question is, which firms and
industries will benefit from such a strategy and which will falter?
Society and Culture: Instant News. How does the “CNN effect” change the way peo-
ple respond to breaking events and ultimately influence the events themselves? Infor-
mation is power. New technologies empower people and always threaten the
establishment. This was true for the printing press which spread literacy and un-
dermined the authorit y of secular and religious rules. Newspapers, telephones,
television, and computers all spread information worldwide with great speed.
Over time the easy access to information created a “revolution of rising expecta-
tions” but also shone light on the activities of governments and firms every-
where. Copiers and fax machines ensure that most sensitive information will
leak. Leaders may not like it, but their words and actions will immediately be
graded in the court of public opinion. CNN, BBC, Email, the Web, radios and
telephones all spread the news worldwide in moments. Russian and Chinese
leaders often learn more about what is happening during their own crises from
foreign news sources and email than from their colleagues. Bill Clinton and
some other leaders took the next step. They continually update policy priorities
on the basis of instant polling results.
IDEAS
Ideas are not the same as information. Information provides the answers, but
ideas provide the questions, dreams, and insights that reshape the world. The
spread of ideas from person to person and place to place is at the core of mod-
ernization and innovation. Geography, biodiversit y, and climate set the parame-
ters. After that the speed at which ideas are transmitted and innovations are
adopted is accelerated by ever-improving transportation and communication
systems. The spread of new ideas is more difficult to measure than the f low of
people, money, goods, or information, but their impact can be even more dra-
matic.
Politics and Policy: Innovation Process. Will the rapid spread of new ideas across na-
tional borders lead to meaningful policy innovation and harmonization? New tech-
nologies speed the transmission of information and the spread of ideas. But, not
all new ideas are an improvement on established ones. Economists have learned a
great deal about microeconomics since the 1930s, which diminishes the likeli-
hood that the mistakes that resulted in global depression will be repeated. But,
those lessons have not helped Japan break out of its malaise. Ideas for managing
national economies have converged since the fall of the Soviet Union, but a cho-
rus of criticism of the “democratic deficit” in the IMF and other international in-
stitutions persists. In the realm of communications, certain fundamental ideas
favoring privatization, regulatory liberalization, and competition were rapidly
adopted by many countries. Although no two regulatory authorities adopted the
same approach, ideas that worked spread and found receptive officials willing to
experiment with new ideas (Levy and Spiller 1996). Enough convergence and
learning took place to allow the European Union to move further toward policy
harmonization and to launch a common currency, something nobody predicted
as recently as the 1980s.
Commerce and Finance: Self-Regulation. Will the rapid spread of new ideas change the
way governments regulate and will firms effectively regulate themselves? Government
recognition of the failure of micromanagement does not mean that regulators will
whither away. Much will depend on how firms and individuals react to looser reg-
ulatory shackles. A balancing act is underway. Most governments now prefer
markets, not regulation, to dominate, but want to ensure that privacy is main-
tained. Governments claim they do not want to manage content, but Congress
then passed the Decency Act to try to manage access to pornography and hate
sites. China stands ready to unplug broadcasters providing content unacceptable
to the government. Some critics argue that ritual worship of markets is self-serv-
ing. Companies and rich individuals want fewer restrictions and taxes on their
earnings. Will greed triumph, or will firms practice self-censorship and self-regu-
lation? The answer will be mixed. Broadcasters in Asia practice self-censorship to
create culturally appropriate content on a country-by-country basis. Internet por-
tals are trying to curb spammers, but pornography and hate sites f lourish. Are
firms acting responsibly or are they merely wary of reregulation? Clearly, foreign
firms were better corporate citizens in developing countries after the early 1970s
because they learned through experience that rapacious profiteering could be haz-
ardous to their continued operations. What kinds of carrots and sticks will induce
firms to compete and self-regulate?
Society and Culture: Democracy. Does the rapid spread of information promote free-
dom, democracy and market economics? In the early 1980s Ithiel Pool explored the
implications of new electronic technologies for democracy and personal freedom.
As Pool predicted, new technologies and the convergence of communications
technologies placed new strains on freedom of speech and democracy (1983).
Today, more information is available to voters on issues and candidates but the
same technologies skew elections in favor of incumbents with money, name recog-
nition, and sophisticated media strategies. The ideas that candidates espouse are
only now beginning to get across. A decade ago Francis Fukuyama gained fame
and ridicule when he declared that the victory of capitalism and democracy in the
wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union meant the “end of history” (1989). The
f low of ideas from the West suggested new possibilities and made clear what peo-
ple in Communist and developing countries were missing. State suppression of
ideas became more difficult. Television and movies reinforced the idea that Amer-
ica was the land of excitement and opportunit y. Democracy and freedom are put
in a spotlight, but, as Fukuyama recognized, the transition to democracy and mar-
ket economics is not foreordained. Similarly, information and communications
technologies in developing countries could become a means for urban elites to
further distance themselves from the people or could become an important agent
for societal change. It may be that the development potential of new communica-
tion and information technologies is undervalued and that, as these technologies
becomes more affordable and more diverse, inequalit y could decline. Researchers
need to go beyond slogans and consider whether and to what extent the global
spread of the ideal of democracy and freedom in fact promotes democracy and
freedom. Indeed, the perceived arrogance of the United States in many parts of
the world and the failures to promote democracy in place of t yranny and corrup-
tion may undermine confidence in the message. Table 2.1 summarizes the pre-
ceding discussion about content issues likely to arise in today’s net worked
economy. These issues are representative and suggestive, not all-inclusive. Still,
their variet y demonstrates that much work remains to be done.
CONDUIT ISSUES
Before telegraph and telephones, people carried news and letters between distant
points. Fax machines, mobile phones, and computers all made it easier for peo-
ple or machines to share information over great distances and among many indi-
viduals. The build-out of the infrastructure connecting these devices represents a
vast investment comparable to the funds required to build the road and rail
transportation systems. Although most communications specialists concentrate
on the impact of information f lows on various aspects of societ y, fewer examine
TABLE 2.1
CONTENT ISSUES
ARENAS/FLOWS POLITICS COMMERCE AND SOCIETY AND

POLICY FINANCE CULTURE
Money Control Global Payments Global Money
of Money
E-Commerce Regulatory Global Competition Global Branding

Responsibilit y
Information Intelligence and Global Production Instant News

Planning
Ideas Innovation Self-Regulation Democracy

Process
the issues related to the financing, construction, operation, and maintenance of

a robust, competitive infrastructure. Until the breakup of AT&T in 1984, regu-
lated national monopolies, some private but mostly public, provided telephone
service. AT&T was not permitted to provide value-added services until after the
breakup. Since then technological innovation, the fragmentation of the public
networks, greater competition, and regulatory liberalization unleashed unrivaled
changes in communications and information technologies (Cowhey and Aron-
son 1993).
VOICE
Traditionally a series of cross-subsidies existed in the pricing of telecommunications.

Telecommunications services subsidized postal services. Businesses subsidized indi-
viduals. Urban callers subsidized rural users. Most strikingly, international services
subsidized domestic long-distance services, which in turn subsidized local service.
New competitors, technologies, and regulatory approaches combined to turn the
voice communications markets on its head. Today, market competition is imperfect,
but choice is growing and prices, especially for long-distance service and interna-
tional long-distance calls, continue to decline toward the cost of providing services.
Rate rebalancing was accelerated by the growing competitive possibilities provided
by cable, satellite and Internet voice alternatives. (But, fancy technology does not
guarantee successful implementation as the collapse of the Iridium satellite system
demonstrates.)
Politics and Policy: Centralization of Decision-Making? How will the expansion of global
communication networks change who makes the decisions and how they decide? Other
chapters in this book explore how the information age is impacting government
policy making. Here, it is enough to ask: Whatever happened to the plenipoten-
tiary ambassador? Centuries ago a Renaissance ambassador upheld “his master’s
honour at a foreign court, aided by no more than his wit, courage, and eloquence”
(Mattingly 1971, 211). Global networks allowed governments to centralize their
decision-making apparatus, giving more inf luence to a narrow range of top-level
leaders. The role of ambassadors is more social and representational than ever be-
fore. The centralization of political decision-making authorit y does not automati-
cally translate into sound, efficient choices emanating from capitals. However,
global networks defy easy national regulation and undermine national authorit y.
Here the trend seems toward decentralization. Many business firms are decentral-
izing their decision-making process at the same time governments are moving in
the opposite direction. Fortunately for good economic and commercial policy, as
national and global networks proliferate, many government regulators are promot-
ing competition instead of trying to set prices and define and defend the public in-
terest. The problem remains, however, of how to manage or regulate global
networks. Competition alone may not ensure fair, sound, and efficient service pro-
vision. For example, global satellite networks and global strategic alliances with
partners in several countries may require governments to cede some authorit y to
international institutions trying to create international rules of the road. The solu-
tion for governments may be glocal. To effectively oversee global networks may re-
quire regional or international institutions supported by national governments.
Commerce and Finance: Telemarketing. As the expansion of global communications

networks allows buyers to shop anywhere, nationally or internationally, what does that
change? Telephones provide opportunities for selling, buying, and soliciting con-
tributions, as do telemarketing and Internet marketing by people and computers.
Telephone and Internet marketing of goods and services is expanding. (Junk mail,
faxes, and email also are proliferating.) So is home shopping. Indeed, the home
shopping networks were among the first to recognize that they could show prod-
ucts on the air and people would call in to buy them. It now is routine to call, fax,
or email in orders for everything from goods ranging from take-out food to
clothes and services as diverse as airline tickets and phone sex. If prices are com-
petitive and shopping by phone is simple, busy people will try to save time and
energy by calling in their orders.
Society and Culture: Citizenship and Identity. As global communications networks

evolve, how will people, particularly immigrants, define their own citizenship and iden-
tity? Until recently immigrants to the United States joined America’s melting pot
within a generation or so. Language, culture, and family of the old country
slipped away because of the difficult y of staying in touch. Slow letters on slow
boats often were sent back to uncertain destinations. People lost touch with their
roots. By contrast, present day refugees and immigrants can, economically, call
home or stay in touch by email and without any time lag. Communities are more
likely to retain their identit y and history even when they choose or are forced to
leave their birthplaces. In addition, immigrants everywhere are using new tech-
nologies to reconnect to their cultures and roots. Genealogy research on the Web
is popular. Heritage students are, in increasing numbers, learning the languages
of their grandparents and great grandparents. There even is a move afoot for im-
migrants to retain the right to vote and participate in the political processes of
their birth country even after they have emigrated. The move beyond the melting
pot may stimulate the retention of ethnic and religious identities, but also may fos-
ter greater clashes among civilizations.
DATA/TEXT
The capacit y, speed, and reach of data networks are expanding rapidly. Public and
private data net works are now at the core of the operations of government and
business and many individuals rely on them at work and at home. Similarly, the
amount of text available online is expanding exponentially, complementing and
substituting for newspapers, books, files, and libraries. The Y2K millennial scare
and the ongoing specter of computer viruses are linked to the fear that they might
cripple or shut down critical data networks.
Politics and Policy: Data Analysis and Speed of Response. Will global data communi-
cation networks and new information technologies allow policymakers to respond to na-
tional security situations more rapidly and efficiently? The role of information in the
waging of war is changing. How different are wars in the information age? The
U.S. military adapted to new realities quickly and creatively. All modern military
groups are investing heavily in information and communications technologies.
Their dependence on communications continues to rise. Alvin and Heidi Toff ler
assert that knowledge “is now the central resource of destructivit y, just as it is the
central source of productivit y.” They envision a day in the near future when
“more soldiers carry computers than carry guns.” They note that, in 1993, the
U.S. Air Force contracted to buy up to 300,000 personal computers for its forces
(Toff ler and Toff ler 1993, 71). The potential power of information weapons was
dramatically demonstrated during the Gulf War. The military was bolstered by
AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) which scanned the heavens for
enemy aircraft and missiles and sent targeting data to allied forces from modified
Boeing 707s. In parallel, J-STARS (the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Sys-
tem) helped detect, disrupt, and destroy Iraqi ground forces during Desert Storm
with remarkable speed and precision. But there also is danger of relying too much
on new information technology. Smart networks, smart planes, and smart bombs
may not substitute for soldiers on the ground.
Commerce and Finance: Telecommuting. As global data communication networks change

the nature of business will the way people work change fundamentally? Global networks
provide new possibilities for commerce and work. On the commercial side the whole
explosion of Internet companies on the equity markets represents a bet that some of
these companies will be the Microsofts, Ciscos, and Amazon.coms of the next
decade. Many of these companies failed when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Still
more will fail, but the ones that get there first could reap huge benefits. The sale of
stocks, books, and airline tickets already are well advanced. The music business and
real estate are in transition. The whole advertising industry is rethinking its position
and newspapers and magazines must adapt or lose readers and ultimately advertising
revenues. Obviously, computers and computer networks are changing the nature of
work as well. It is easier and easier for people to work at home or far from the office.
Mothers with young children, avid skiers, stock brokers tired of Wall Street and oth-
ers often can live anywhere, even abroad, and continue on the job. Firms too can
f lee the urban center to the suburbs or beyond. More broadly, the networking of the
world and proliferating f lows of information have profound implications for the in-
ternational division of labor.
Society and Culture: Education. Will global data communication networks that pro-
mote distance learning change the way we learn in the future? Can the education es-
tablishment survive the information f lood? New computer technologies already
have transformed the teaching and research of fields as diverse as music and clas-
sics. The new Internet technology may represent a profound challenge to educa-
tion as we have known it for centuries. The explosion of new knowledge is
impressive, but its distribution online may prove revolutionary. The architecture
of innovation also will force changes in the structure of schools and universities.
Universities will need to choose priorities and niches, and depend on intercon-
nection to fill out their offerings. Libraries are becoming digital and global and
electronic scholarly communities are emerging. Even teaching itself is beginning
to change (Noam 1995, 247).4 Distance learning is available over broadcast, cable,
online, and satellite links. The Universit y of Phoenix, highly dependent on dis-
tance and online instruction already, has the largest enrollment of any universit y
in the United States. The transformation of educational institutions (and of pub-

lishers) will take time. Nonetheless new technologies will challenge schools and
universities to reinvent themselves or risk falling victim to new, online upstarts.
IMAGE/V IDEO
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then millions of images available through

the Web are valuable indeed. More spectacular still, as images move and become
video a world of streaming video and countless channels of programming
stretches television and movies in new directions. It is not an accident that Bill
Gates is buying major photographic archives or that the value of movie libraries is
soaring. Networks provide an almost limitless opportunit y to deliver information
to people, but the images and even more the video content needed to fill all those
channels is lagging. The infrastructure required to provide those images/video
on demand are vast, sophisticated, and expensive to build. The building and op-
eration of the broadcast network raises important issues.
Politics and Policy: Credibility and Visibility. As global broadcast facilities make gov-
ernment actions more transparent will this encourage trust and discourage corruption?
CNN, BBC, and other global broadcasters make breaking stories real. Some-
times the news providers get it wrong. Sometimes reporters are so eager to un-
cover wrongdoing and make their careers that they are sloppy or misleading.
Still, images and video convey a credible realit y that is easier for most people to
grasp than spoken word (voice), print (text), or tables and graphs (data). Despite
the public’s revulsion to and cynicism about negative, distorted, often mislead-
ing political attack ads, they continue to be used because they work. All major
politicians now have media relations experts, handlers, pollsters, and spin-meis-
ters who try to get news skewed favorably to their politician or policies. Televi-
sion is more important than retail politics in all but a few political venues.
Ironically, the f lood of images makes it more difficult for viewers to differenti-
ate bet ween realit y and fiction. Historically, as Stalin demonstrated, the tech-
nology can make and alter realit y and rewrite history by literally taking someone
out of the picture. New computer technologies make it simple to alter, distort, or
recreate the record. Conspiracy theories and “wag the dog” explanations of pol-
icy are unlikely to recede anytime soon.
Commerce and Finance: Teleconferencing and Videoconferencing. Will the spread of

picturephones and videoconferencing facilities reduce the need for executive commuting
and business travel? New technologies do not lead at once to expected changes. A
productivit y paradox arose because the introduction of computers in the work-
place did not quickly translate into productivit y gains. Only after massive equip-
ment and training expenditures take hold, does labor productivit y improve
markedly. Evidence that the provision of advanced communications and informa-
tion technology resulted in productivit y gains was slow in coming. It is difficult to
determine when the critical threshold is reached, but the last 10 percent of the in-
vestment apparently produces most of the productivit y benefits. Similarly, despite
the geometric increase in computer speed and power, the paperless office is
nowhere in sight and more trees than ever are sacrificed to the printed word. Al-
though some firms now regularly employ teleconferencing to link key executives
who know each other already, business travel seems to be climbing not falling.
Partners in law firms or investment banks spread around the planet may save time
and effort through teleconferencing, but meetings between companies and their
clients still demand the personal touch. Over time this could change. ATMs, after
all, were rejected by most consumers when they first were introduced. People com-
plained they were too impersonal. The second time around, of course, people
started to prefer machines and their convenience to waiting in line for tellers.
Society and Culture: Common Symbols. Will global broadcast facilities foster common
symbols that span the globe? Images are powerful. The right picture at the right time
can catapult an individual into the limelight. Most people gain their fifteen minutes
of fame and then recede into anonymit y. Each culture recognizes its own heroes.
Flags can unite a people. Even license plates may serve the purpose. In Bosnia, for
instance, one important U.S. initiative was to introduce a single license plate design
so that people in cars were not immediately identifiable as coming from one ethnic
communit y or another. Similarly, global broadcast networks create common global
images and symbols that spread across borders and peoples. Tragedy and triumph,
drama and soap opera, can capture the imagination or stir the emotions of people
on a level never before possible. The Gulf War, the O.J. Simpson trial, the death of
Lady Diana, or mayhem in a high school in Colorado may fascinate and appall the
entire world. Similarly the Olympics or earthquakes, famines, and other natural
disasters can generate pride or provoke generosit y and empathy. The challenge is to
determine whether common symbols and images will play a positive role in trans-
forming how people think toward each other or whether they too will get their fif-
teen minutes of attention and then fade away again.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The rapid expansion of the World Wide Web is more fundamental than the
frenzy of speculation in Internet stocks. The Web is at the locus of voice,
data/text, and image/video. All of the issues raised above come together with the
Web. Other issues arise because of the overlap and ongoing integration of infor-
mation infrastructures.
Politics and Policy: Information Overload and Infosecurity. Will the rise of the Web re-
sult in information overload and the loss of privacy? When is enough information
enough? Three distinct but interrelated policy issues are among those that bedevil
the modern information economy. First, the superabundance of information
means that some Web surfers and serious researchers spend more and more time
on their computers. In addition many are watching television while online and re-
acting and interacting to what they are watching. Information overload is a dis-
tinct prospect and competition for “eyeballs” is intense. Second, the gold-to-junk
ratio of information online is declining. When the volume of information avail-
able online is counted in terabytes, those with the most efficient search engines
and search strategies are the most productive.5 There also is a possibilit y that the
abundance and structure of data on the Web may camouf lage important infor-
mation and create blind spots. Third, the protection of individual privacy is grow-
ing more difficult when everyone’s spending habits, credit history, calling
patterns, and communication contacts are transparent.6 For example, technologi-
cally sophisticated “psychics” can pick up a call, see what number it comes from,
identify the caller, and check their recent spending patterns in a matter of sec-
onds. Nobody should be surprised when these “psychics” provide remarkably pre-
scient insights into a person’s life.7 Similarly, retailers and phone operators
sometimes startle callers by greeting them by name. In addition, privacy has resur-
faced as a key issue in Europe and the United States, although they disagree about
how it should be handled. How is it possible to balance the demands of an open
transparent societ y necessary to guarantee freedom and still maintain a modicum
of privacy? What can and should governments and other groups do to promote
data securit y and protect privacy, or is it too late (Brin 1998)?8 Does the partial
displacement of established hierarchies by crisscrossing networks of control (as de-
scribed in Ronald Diebert’s chapter), mean that solutions will prove elusive?
Commerce and Finance: Intellectual Property and Standards. As the Web increases the
importance of information as a strategic tool of business will instinct and intuition still
be useful? Two recent books trumpet the importance of integrated information
networks for business success in the future. Bill Gates focuses on the opportuni-
ties presented by online commerce and stresses that firms must use digital net-
works to manage their own operations (Gates 1999). By contrast, in Information
Rules, Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian concentrate on how firms can use new digital
networks as strategic tools to lock in customers and thrash competitors (1999). As
Kim and Hart note later in this volume, the rise of integrated digital net works
caused forward-looking firms to place renewed emphasis on protecting and man-
aging their intellectual propert y. Although large questions remain about how best
to protect intellectual propert y on the Web, in recent years the balance has tilted
to favor creators of intellectual propert y at the expense of users of intellectual
propert y. At both the national and international levels, large firms are increasing
their efforts to protect their intellectual propert y so that it can be used as a com-
petitive advantage (Lessig 1999; Samuelson 1997). During the next trade round,
trade negotiators should concentrate on creating new trade rules and principles
appropriate to a global information economy. They should strive to strengthen
and extend the TRIPs agreement negotiated during the Uruguay Round (Barshef-
sky 1999).
An example of the fight to preserve dominance is the struggle by AT&T to
prevent America Online and other Internet Service Providers (ISP) “open access”
to AT&T cable net works to homes served by TCI and MediaOne. AT&T argues
that the only way to recoup its huge investment to buy these subsidiaries is by
maintaining control over the access. Oregon, backed by the ISPs, argued that this
would stif le competition and innovation and raise prices to consumers (Bar et al.
1999). Similarly, new technological breakthroughs that make possible the new dig-
ital infrastructure provide ample opportunit y for firms to use standards to in-
crease their advantage over their competitors. Standards wars like those over third
generation wireless standards bet ween Qualcomm and Ericsson/Nokia and the
fight over Java bet ween Sun and Microsoft are likely to proliferate (Lemley and
McGowan 1998).9
Society and Culture: Entertainment. How will the Web change entertainment and the
way we play? Technology provides new opportunities for entertainment. Tele-
phones, radios, televisions, video games, MP3, and computers all provide oppor-
tunities for distraction. Vast, integrated information net works are changing the
nature of leisure and culture. The workings of the entertainment industry and the
impact of its output on people, societ y, and cultures are just beginning to be ap-
preciated. Networks of people now regularly watch, comment, obsess, and gamble
about the outcome of sporting events. Chat groups, list servers, and Web sites
stimulate conversations but also shape opinion about issues. Marketers regularly
invade chat rooms to plant rave reviews of their products. In addition, horizontal
marketing of hot entertainment products from Star Wars to Pokemon is remark-
ably effective and winning children’s devotion. Canada and France continue to
warn of U.S. cultural imperialism. France even held up the last trade round over
media and cultural issues. Serious efforts by political scientists and economists to
consider the economic importance and impact of the entertainment industry
nationally and internationally, is however, in its early stages.
As Table 2.2 shows conduit issues are as diverse and vexing as content issues,
but may not get quite as much attention.
TABLE 2.2
CONDUIT ISSUES
Arenas/Flows Politics and Commerce and Societ y and

Policy Finance Culture
Voice Decentralization Telemarketing Identit y
of Decision
Making
Data Data Analysis Telecommuting Education

& Speed of
Response
Image Credibilit y and Teleconferencing Common

Visibilit y Symbols
Web Information Intellectual Entertainment

Overload and Propert y and
Infosecurit y Stardards
THE FORMULATION, NEGOTIATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICY
This chapter provides a wide-ranging survey of issues and questions, not a thick
description of their complexities and subtleties. Still, it is worth brief ly noting
that the consequences of the spread of global net works unfold in stages and not
all at once. Global net works are altering policy formulation, negotiations among
countries, and the implementation of policy. Separating the formulation, nego-
tiation, and implementation of policy is important because information pro-
vided by net works takes on different functions at different stages of the policy
process.
Thus, several chapters in this volume stress that the emergence of global net-
works and their abilit y to manage vast amounts of data makes it possible for gov-
ernments, firms, groups, organizations, and individuals to dream of projects and
consider alternative policies in new ways. Just as computers and supercomputers
allowed mathematicians and scientists to attack previously impossible problems,
global networks allow people to master information and use it to formulate ambi-
tious projects. For example, net worked collectors and computers now provide
more data and the abilit y to analyze it about pollution, weather, and climate pat-
terns than ever before. Strong data on the ozone depletion allowed countries to
agree to limit certain emissions. At the same time access to global networks pro-
vides firms, nongovernmental organizations, and even individuals the possibilit y
to compete with governments to shape or disrupt policy. For example, at the Seat-
tle WTO Summit in late 1999, environmental and labor groups, along with dis-
satisfied developing countries, made it impossible for large industrial country
governments to reach a compromise to launch a new round of trade negotiations.
Similarly, although the vast majorit y of scientists now believe that global warming
is occurring, a few well-funded dissenters using media net works have effectively
delayed the emergence of consensus and slowed action.
Once policies and programs are formulated, global networks make it possible
to implement new policies and practices on a scale and on a schedule never before
possible. Firms and governments alike are spending heavily on new technologies
so that they can proactively embrace change and for fear that if others get there
first that they could lose out. Once the politics of national policy making are re-
solved and a policy is promulgated or law is passed, global networks allow for their
rapid dissemination and implementation. Similarly, the introduction of new wire-
less networks promises cheap and rapid notification of customers as necessary. For
example, if Boeing needs to update its notifications and servicing recommenda-
tions to airplane owners or Microsoft needs to update users’ programs and manu-
als, the information can be broadcast quickly and efficiently directly to users’
computers.
The undertaking of international negotiations is an example of a somewhat
murky middle ground between formulation and implementation. Sometimes the
policy process jumps directly from formulation to implementation. But, when
governments or firms negotiate with other governments and firms, global net-
works may provide negotiators with an edge, a better understanding of the impli-
cations of various approaches than their counterparts. The abilit y to instantly
access and analyze relevant information can provide a valuable advantage to nego-
tiators. In this vein, J.P. Singh’s chapter on negotiating regime change usefully
points out that developing countries were more successful in the last round of
WTO negotiations than generally is assumed because they agreed to adopt policies
in high technology areas that they already concluded were in their interest. In re-
turn they received valuable breakthroughs from industrial countries on textiles
and other traditional sectors. Similarly, U.S. negotiators were able to achieve sig-
nificant success in negotiations on orbital slots because technical calculations
showing the results of various approaches could be produced rapidly and shared
with other negotiators. In addition, negotiators may increasingly undertake at least
some sessions in ongoing negotiations, especially bilateral negotiations, via tele-
conferencing.
The other authors provide textured, complex, often subtle arguments that f lesh
out the issues raised in this overview piece. The goal here was narrower: to raise is-
sues and questions that need to be answered. These are not the only issues; others
may be equally or more important. However, the questions raised here are represen-
tative of the kinds of issues that public and private, national and international poli-
cymakers will need to address. Otherwise, the technology will drive the policy
without regard to what needs to be accomplished to help people learn and prosper.
NOTES
1. The FCC stressed the basic versus enhanced distinction in its 1980 Computer In-
quiry II, arguing that basic services should be regulated and enhanced services unregu-
lated. By 1986, after the AT&T breakup, the FCC acknowledged in its Computer Inquiry
III that the line bet ween basic and enhanced services was eroding and that competition
should be encouraged in the provision of all services.
2. Another possible distinction contrasts the formulation, negotiation, and imple-
mentation of policy. The information provided by networks takes on different functions at
different stages of the policy process.
3. Coombs, (1976) described how central bankers organized to repel speculative
attacks on sterling from 1964 to 1967. Again, in late 1997, Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir publicly blamed George Soros and other foreign money speculators for the onset
of the Asian economic crisis.
4. Christensen (1997) argues that cheap new technologies that are not immediately
attractive to established customers can undermine the best run companies and advocates
setting up separate subsidiaries using the new technologies to compete with the parent
companies. He mentions the Internet in passing and never touches on education, but sen-
ior universit y administrators are worried that online education could divert revenue and
force them to alter their mission and teaching methods.
5. Why would leaders commit important information to paper? Phones are easier
than letters and the possibilit y of leaks declines if nothing is written.
6. Government securit y and individual privacy clash as the Clinton Administration
learned during the clipper chip controversy. The government was caught in a no-win situa-
tion. If it can snoop on individuals it is invading their privacy. But, if it fails to gather criti-
cal intelligence and a terrorist assault succeeds, the government loses as well.
7. James Randi, the noted debunker of the paranormal, uses this example.
8. Brin (1998) concludes that somebody has to watch the watchers and hold them
accountable. Karen Litfin’s contribution to this volume suggests that as global satellite
imagery becomes easily available to NGOs, this kind of globalization of transparency is tak-
ing place.
9. An Ericsson-led European consortia persuaded the EU to adopt a new standard

that was not backward compatible with second-generation Qualcomm standards, and thus
threatened the long-run viabilit y of Qualcomm. After much high-level controversy, Erics-
son bought Qualcomm’s net work business and an agreement was struck to support t wo
standards. Qualcomm stock promptly soared.
REFERENCES
Bar, Francois, Stephen Cohen, Peter Cowhey, Brad De Long, Michael Kleeman, John Zys-
man. 1999. Defending the Internet Revolution in the Broadband Era: When
Doing Nothing is Doing Harm. E-conomy Working Paper 12. Berkeley, BRIE,
mimeo. (August)
Barber, Benjamin. 1995. Jihad versus McWorld. New York: Times Books.
Barshefsky, Ambassador Charlene. 1999. Electronic Commerce: Trade Policy in a Borderless
World. Address at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C. (July 29).
Borrus, Michael, and John Zysman. 1997. Globalization with Borders: The Rise of
Wintelism as the Future of Global Competition. Industry and Innovation (De-
cember) 4: 2.
Brin, David. 1998. The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between
Privacy and Freedom? Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Clinton, William J. 1997. Presidential Directive on Electronic Commerce. Memorandum
for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. (July 1)
Clinton, William J., and Albert Gore, Jr. 1997. Framework for Global Electronic Commerce.
(July 1)
Christensen, Clayton M. 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause
Great Firms to Fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Coombs, Charles. 1976. Arena of International Finance. New York: John Wiley.
Cowhey, Peter F., and Jonathan D. Aronson. 1993. Managing the World Economy: The Con-
sequences of Corporate Alliances. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 164-78.
Freedman, Stuart. 1999. Remarks by Director, IBM Institute for Advanced Commerce at a
Conference on The Legal and Policy Framework for Global Electronic Com-
merce. Universit y of California, Berkeley. (March 5)
Friedman, Thomas L. 1999a. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization.
New York: Farrar Strauss Giroux.
———. 1999b. Next, It’s E-ducation. Op-Ed, New York Times. (November 17).
Fukuyama, Francis. 1989. The End of History? The National Interest. (Summer) 3–18.
Gates, Bill. 1999. Business @ the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System. New
York: Warner Books.
Lemley, Mark, and David McGowan, 1998. Could Java change everything? The competi-
tive propriet y of a proprietary standard. The Antitrust Bulletin. (Fall/Winter):
715–73.
Lessig, Lawrence. 1999. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.
Levy, Brian, and Pablo T. Spiller, eds. 1996. Regulations, Institutions, and Commitment: Com-
parative Studies of Telecommunications. New York: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Magaziner Report. 1998. First Annual Report of the U.S. Government Working Group on
Electronic Commerce. Washington, D.C.: USG. (November)
Mattingly, Garrett. 1971. Renaissance Diplomacy. Boston: Houghton Miff lin.
Noam, Eli M. 1995. Electronics and the Dim Future of the Universit y. Science. (270)
(October 13).
Pepper, Robert. 1999. Global Implications of the Internet, E-Commerce and the Digital
Economy, presentation by Chief, Office of Plans and Policy, FCC, to the Associa-
tion of Professional Schools of International Affairs.Washington, D.C. (Novem-
ber 3)
Pool, Ithiel de Sola. 1983. The Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge: Harvard Universit y
Press.
Samuelson, Pamela. 1997. The U.S. Digital Agenda at WIPO. Virginia Journal of Interna-
tional Law. (Winter) 37:2: 369–439.
Shapiro, Carl, and Hal R. Varian. 1999. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Net-
worked Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Spero, Joan. 1988–89. Guiding Global Finance. Foreign Policy. 73: 114–135.
Toff ler, Alvin, and Heidi Toff ler. 1993. War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st
Century. Boston: Little, Brown.
Vogelstein, Fred. 1999. A virtual stock market: Are the nation’s two big stock exchanges
obsolete? US News & World Report. 47. (April 26).
Werbach, Kevin. 1997. Digital Tornado: The Internet and Telecommunications Policy, OPP
Working Paper Series 29. Washington, D.C.: FCC. (March)
World Trade Organization. 1998. Electronic Commerce and the WTO. Special Studies 2.
Geneva.
PART I

CHAPTER THREE
PUBLIC EYES: SATELLITE IMAGERY,

THE GLOBALIZATION OF TR ANSPARENCY,
AND NEW NETWORKS OF SURVEILLANCE
KAREN T. LITFIN
TECHNOLOGY, POWER, AND WORLD POLITICS
The impact of technological change on international politics occurs in t wo ana-

lytically distinct ways. From an instrumental perspective, new technologies can
empower or disempower social actors—states, groups, classes, and institutions.
On a more fundamental, but perhaps less visible level, technologies can inf lu-
ence the self-understandings and identities of social actors and perhaps even the
very nature of power itself. Both sorts of arguments, instrumental and consti-
tutive, have been made in a generalized fashion with respect to information
technologies. James Rosenau’s Turbulence in World Politics, claiming that the dif-
fusion of information technologies has enhanced the competence of citizens and
undercut the authorit y of states, is perhaps the most articulate example of the
former sort of argument. The familiar claim that emerging forms of information-
based power are supplanting material forms of power is an example of the sec-
ond sort of argument (Poster 1984). In the field of international relations, the
second kind of argument is most commonly grafted onto the first. For instance,
the allegedly horizontal nature of information-based power has been cited as a
driving force that undercut the authorit y of Soviet Union’s centralized state ap-
paratus (Robinson 1995). In a similar vein, Ronald Deibert (1997) argues that
the diffusion of hypermedia, or new digital communications technologies, fos-
ters a social epistemology favoring nonterritorial institutions and fragmented
identities over the nation-state. Similarly, Deibert’s essay in this volume demon-
strates some of the ways in which the Internet is precipitating a conceptual shift
regarding securit y.
65
This chapter combines both of these approaches in order to make four inter-
related arguments with respect to satellite imagery and the globalization of trans-
parency. First, nonstate actors (firms, IOs and NGOs) are increasingly important
as both suppliers and users of satellite imagery. This finding is significant in light
of the fact that satellite remote sensing technologies are perhaps the most state-
centric information technologies, being firmly rooted in the military and space
agencies of the former superpowers. Second, the social and political impact of im-
aging satellites can occur through the operation of disciplinary power. In other
words, an awareness that one’s actions can be observed leads to the internalization
of the gaze of the other. Third, the circulation of disciplinary power can open up
new possibilities for perceptions of common securit y and even some elements of
collective identit y formation—the ironic outcome with respect to space espionage
during the Cold War. Whether this is a likely consequence of the global diffusion
of commercial spy-qualit y satellite data is explored in the third section of this
paper. Finally, when mapped onto the first argument, the second and third argu-
ments suggest that the empowerment of NGOs by information technologies may
simultaneously open up new channels for collective identit y formation even as it
reinforces the circulation of disciplinary power. This line of thinking is explored
in the final section of the paper not only with respect to military issues, but also
to environmental and humanitarian applications of satellite imagery. Consistent
with J. P. Singh’s introduction to this book, the diffusion of remote sensing satel-
lite technologies has generated important shifts in two dimensions of power: in-
strumental and constitutive (or meta-power, as he calls it).
Imaging satellites offer an excellent case for studying some of the sociopoliti-
cal dynamics associated with the so-called information revolution. Like a number
of other information technologies, most obviously computers and the Internet,
imaging satellites were originally developed for military purposes and eventually
deployed for civilian purposes by civilian agencies and, more recently, by the pri-
vate commercial sector. Contemporary applications include the monitoring of
such diverse processes as agricultural productivit y, refugee migration and settle-
ment, environmental degradation, weapons testing and troop deployments, and
the spread of vector-borne diseases. Unlike information technologies which lend
themselves to decentralization (i.e., personal computers, fax machines, video cam-
eras, and the Internet), remote-sensing satellites offer a less likely case for testing
the proposition that information technologies tend to empower nonstate actors.
Not only does it require enormous capital investment to launch and operate an
imaging satellite, but those states which have traditionally operated spy satellites
have been highly protective of their privileged access to “national technical
means.” This chapter argues that the political history of remote-sensing satellites
elucidates both of the ways in which technological change can alter international
realit y: instrumentally and constitutively.
PUBLIC EYES 67
The foremost political consequence of remote-sensing satellites, trans-

parency, appears to be a straightforward physical effect. Yet, as I argue below,
the social meaning of transparency differs widely according to the political con-
text in which satellites operate and imagery is interpreted. Transparency is
never absolute for t wo reasons. First, photo interpretation is as much art as sci-
ence, and, second, because even when there is consensus on what an image
shows, what it means is often highly contentious. While remotely sensed images
furnish a certain degree of physical transparency, they cannot render human in-
tentionalit y and social context transparent. As the experience of the Cold War
indicates, the transparency provided by satellites is most likely to move adver-
saries in the direction of common securit y arrangements when it is mutual. Re-
cent developments in the diffusion of remote-sensing satellite technologies raise
the possibilit y that this dynamic may be replicated elsewhere and even in other
issue areas. Besides the unintended impact upon the relative power and per-
ceived interests of state and nonstate actors, satellite imagery can also facilitate
shifts in actors’ identities and, consequently, in such purportedly stable features
of the international system as anarchy and the securit y dilemma. Yet new net-
works of control associated with the diffusion of satellite imagery can still be
placed within a larger context of a social episteme rooted in disciplinary power.
The abilit y of nonstate actors to move into what was once the purview of the na-
tional securit y state may not signify a fundamental shift in the nature of power
in the international system, even if it does suggest the obsolescence of a state-
centric view of world politics. Rather, a host of nonstate actors and new states is
being enlisted in the global diffusion of net works of surveillance associated with
imaging satellites. This chapter traces the global diffusion of satellite imagery
from its early roots in military reconnaissance to the plethora of nonstate uses,
ranging from the commercialization of spy data to applications by humanitarian
and environmental NGOs.
Foucault concretizes his notion of disciplinary power in his famous discus-
sion of the Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s design for a model prison. Each inmate
is constantly visible from the tower but isolated from other inmates, inducing in
the inmate “a state of conscious and permanent visibilit y that assures the auto-
matic functioning of power” (Foucault 1979, 201). The effects of power are
thereby internalized, yielding a form of contingent subjectivit y. For a number of
reasons, Foucault’s work is germane to a sociopolitical understanding of imaging
satellites. First, the disciplinary gaze has obvious relevance to a study of remote-
sensing technologies, which are inherently oriented towards promoting control
through surveillance. Second, Foucault’s work shows how technologies of power
are not simply exercised by and upon autonomous, preconstituted individuals.
Rather, he moves us beyond a purely instrumental conception of power, towards
an understanding of how subjectivit y itself is shaped by technologies of power. In
other words, new technologies can be understood as not only changing the rela-
tive power of preexisting social actors, but as helping to constitute those actors by
modifying their own self-understandings. Third, disciplinary power, concentrated
in the state’s administrative apparatus, is emblematic for Foucault of modernit y:
prisons, the military, schools, insane asylums, and such. Yet, as I argue below, the
diffusion of satellite imagery among non-state actors represents a real shift in the
institutional locus of disciplinary power.
Ever since Foucault’s graphic account of the Panopticon, disciplinary power
has taken on a rather nefarious connotation. Yet, as this essay suggests, the disci-
plinary power associated with remote-sensing satellites can also open up new pos-
sibilities for common securit y arrangements and collective identit y formation.
The following section argues that this was the somewhat ironic result in the Cold
War, during which the primary purpose of remote-sensing satellites shifted from
the prevention of surprise nuclear attack to the verification of arms control agree-
ments and the stabilization of nuclear deterrence.
THE BIRTH, LEGITIMATION, AND RECASTING

OF SPACE ESPIONAGE
In the minds of most Americans, the space age and, more specifically, the satellite
age began dramatically with the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in October
1957 (Oberg 1981). Yet that orbiting ball which aroused such trepidation in the
West, carrying only a beeping signal designed to advertise Soviet technological
prowess, was not equipped with sensors. The real significance of Sputnik was the
large boosters required to launch it, signaling that the Soviets could hurl nuclear
warheads across the globe. The United States, not the Soviet Union, was the pio-
neer in space espionage, and has maintained its position of global leadership in
satellite-based remote-sensing into the post-Cold War era.
The satellite age was conceptualized in a 1946 Army Air Force report enti-
tled, “Preliminary Design of a World-Circling Spaceship” (Douglas Aircraft
Company 1946). The study predicted that the successful orbiting of a U.S. satel-
lite “would probably produce repercussions in the world comparable to the ex-
plosion of the atomic bomb,” but the exotic project was shelved in the face of
post war budget cuts (Burrows 1986, 59). Once the Soviets tested atomic and
thermonuclear weapons, however, the need for surveillance of the Soviet mili-
tary machine in order to avert a surprise attack took on a sense of heightened ur-
gency. The closed nature of the Soviet political system, however, presented a
major obstacle. In Walter MacDougall’s words, “First, and foremost, space was
about spying, not because the U.S. was aggressive, but because the USSR was se-
cretive” (MacDougall 1985, 194).
PUBLIC EYES 69
The Killian Report, “Meeting the Threat of Surprise Attack,” was submit-
ted to the White House in February of 1955, recommending development of an
integrated reconnaissance system which included high-f lying aircraft (eventually
the U-2 plane) and, most importantly, reconnaissance satellites. Coincidentally,
on the same day that this was released, the U.S. National Committee for the In-
ternational Geophysical Year (IGY) recommended to the National Science Foun-
dation that a scientific satellite be launched as part of the IGY (Day 1996, 240).
This convergence of interests led to a top-level policy document known as NSC
5520, calling for the development of a small “scientific” satellite by 1957 as “a
test of the principle of ‘Freedom of Space.’” (NSC 5520, 6). For if the United
States wished to count on the survivabilit y of its spy satellites, as opposed to spy
planes which could be shot down over enemy airspace, it needed to establish
this principle as an international norm. As M. J. Peterson has compellingly
demonstrated, the U.S. accomplished this by successful deployment of analogy,
arguing that outer space was more analogous to the open seas than to territorial
airspace (Peterson 1997). Thus, from the beginning, remote-sensing satellites
required legitimation according to international norms, and therefore some de-
gree of interaction bet ween t wo rather distinct technological cultures—scientific
and military.
While the earliest satellites used television cameras, the prior use of infrared
detectors in World War II had disclosed the possibilit y of using remote sensing to
detect different spectral signatures from a given terrain. In other words, because
the visible spectrum represents only a tiny range of possible observation, infor-
mation could also be gathered through the use of spectrometers in the infrared,
microwave, x-ray, and gamma ray ranges. The dizzying quantit y of potential infor-
mation made these technologies desirable not just to the military, but to a host of
agricultural and forestry experts, geologists, hydrologists, land-use planners, and
cartographers. Yet from the beginning, the U.S. military jealously guarded its priv-
ileged access to high-resolution remote-sensing satellites.
Meteorological satellites, launched first by the United States in 1960, were
under civilian control, yet they also served as legitimators for space espionage by
virtue of their apparent innocuousness and their universal utilit y. In 1960, the
Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-1) began systematic meteoro-
logical coverage. The TIROS series later became the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration (NOA A) weather satellite system (KPMG 1996, 3).
One key element in the United States attempt to legitimize and gain interna-
tional support for remote-sensing satellites was the Kennedy administration’s ini-
tiative offering “the free world” open access to meteorological data. TIROS data
proved to be an excellent and relatively uncontroversial diplomatic tool. Because
its resolution was very low and it primarily monitored cloud cover and weather
systems (not land cover), it had little military value. Foreign governments did not
object to the imaging of weather systems over their territories since they gained
the benefit of free data, thereby adding legitimacy to the norm of “freedom of
space.”
There has been a common assumption, among policy makers and scholars
alike, that greater transparency entails greater international stabilit y. In many
cases, this is a valid assumption. Yet, since transparency means that an enemy’s
targets can be located, satellite data also facilitate a first strike capabilit y. Thus,
General Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command, believed that the
United States should be able to destroy Soviet nuclear forces on the ground, an
objective which required huge amounts of detailed photomapping. This more
menacing aspect of remote-sensing satellites was not lost on the Soviets. One
Soviet official issued the following condemnation of the United States satellite
program:
The main purpose of space espionage is to increase the efficiency of

surprise attack, making it possible to knock out enemy missile bases at
the very start and thereby avoid a retaliatory blow (cited in Burrows
1986, 135).
Again, the meaning of transparency varies with the social context. Even if the U.S.
military command had no intention of launching a surprise attack, the very belief
in the minds of Soviet leaders that satellite data might be so used could be desta-
bilizing. Since the f lip side of transparency is nakedness, both of the superpowers
pursued the development of antisatellite weapons (ASATs).
Nonetheless, as both sides developed pervasive systems for photorecon-
naissance, mutual nakedness turned out to be a generally stabilizing force dur-
ing the Cold War. For one thing, satellites could reveal the falsehood of
exaggerated claims, as did the CIA’s Corona satellites in the case of the alleged
missile gap. Yet the real potential for spy satellites to contribute to stabilit y was
not apparent until both sides had them. Indeed, without mutually assured dis-
cernibilit y, the precarious dynamics of mutually assured destruction might eas-
ily have ignited a hot war. Perhaps the best example of satellites’ abilit y to
contribute to crisis stabilit y came during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although it
was a U-2 spy plane that confirmed the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba,
satellites also played an important, though not so widely acknowledged, role.
First, they gave United States leaders a mountain of background information on
the Soviets’ overall war-fighting readiness and capabilities, diminishing the like-
lihood of overreaction. Second, the United States was able to communicate its
resolve to the Soviets via the latter’s own Cosmos satellites, which could photo-
graph hundreds of readied aircraft bombers en route to the southern United
States. Satellites thereby became a crucial element in nuclear deterrence, since
PUBLIC EYES 71
they enabled each side to communicate the existence of a credible deterrent

force to the other (Klass 1971). Each superpower could thus use the other’s spy
satellites in order to substantiate its own retaliatory capabilit y. While satellite
remote-sensing was born of the need to prevent a surprise attack, the technical
abilit y to render the invisible visible in a social context of mutual distrust pro-
vided an unintended cornerstone for mutual deterrence. Today, with the glob-
alization of transparency, it is important to note that stabilit y is more likely to be
enhanced when transparency is mutual rather than one-sided. Otherwise, the
same sorts of fears as those articulated above by the Soviet general are likely to
plague sensed states.
Satellites became part of the architecture of mutual deterrence in another
way—through their capacit y to contribute to the verification of arms control
agreements. Such nuclear arms control treaties as the Limited Test Ban Agree-
ment and the SALT treaties would probably not have been negotiated in the ab-
sence of extensive national technical means, as the photoreconnaissance systems
came to be known (Office of Technology Assessment 1985). Similarly, more far-
reaching arms control proposals, like the popular bilateral nuclear weapons
freeze proposal of the 1980s, were premised upon the abilit y of satellite-based
sensors to verify them (Stoertz 1984). Indeed, one of the core principles of arms
control, first articulated in SALT I, was that neither side should interfere with the
national technical means of the other side. Thus, the exigencies of containing nu-
clear competition came to legitimate space espionage. More importantly, space
espionage was implicated in arrangements bearing some characteristics of a com-
mon securit y regime; even as the superpowers competed fiercely, they were
united in their shared aversion to nuclear war. The “nakedness” that was once
unacceptable to some U.S. military leaders eventually became not only a way of
communicating resolve, but also of making arms control agreements possible. As
each side internalized the disciplinary gaze of the other, the superpowers para-
doxically fabricated a rudimentary common securit y regime based upon a mu-
tual interest in preventing nuclear war.
The existence of remote-sensing satellites thereby altered the dynamics of
the anarchic international system and the consequent securit y dilemma by mak-
ing the actions of each side relatively transparent. The supposed inevitabilit y of
a securit y dilemma in an anarchic world, driving states to arm themselves even
when they might prefer not to, is premised upon the inabilit y of states to know
their adversaries’ actions. The possibilit y of knowing with a fair degree of accu-
racy the nature and readiness of an opponent’s forces means that one’s own ac-
tions need not be based upon worst-case scenarios, contrary to the more
pessimistic realist readings of the quest for securit y in an anarchic world. This
suggests a new spin on the constructivist claim that the meaning of anarchy
changes according to the signaling and intersubjective understandings among the
actors. If anarchy is “what states make of it,” then technological systems can mod-
ify what states make of it (Wendt 1992).
That gaze also entailed institutional arrangements that effectively excluded
the citizenry of each of the countries in question. The system was highly secretive
and only known in any detail to a small handful of elite officers and political lead-
ers. Yet, as we shall see below, the end of the Cold War opened the door to the dif-
fusion of high-resolution remote sensing across an astonishing range of domains.
But even before the end of the Cold War, the basis for that diffusion was being
laid by the deployment of t wo civilian satellite systems: NASA’s Landsat in the
1970s and the French SPOT in the 1980s.
NEW ACTORS: CIVILIAN AND COMMERCIAL

EARTH OBSERVING SATELLITES
A number of important developments enabled remote-sensing satellites to expand

far beyond their original roots in space espionage: 1) the growth of environmental
awareness in the 1970s, which highlighted the need for information on land use
and environmental problems; 2) the perception that moderate resolution data
could appeal to a host of markets; 3) the development of computer-related tech-
nologies, especially PC’s, GIS, and the Internet, which made satellite data useable
in a variet y of contexts; 4) the new perception in the 1990s that certain global en-
vironmental problems, particularly climate change, can only be understood
through the use of large-scale computer modeling based upon enormous quanti-
ties of satellite data; and 5) the end of the Cold War, which sent the world’s largest
military and intelligence establishments in search of alternative missions. The cu-
mulative effect of these factors has been that more and more information has
come into the hands of nonstate actors, thereby facilitating the growth of new net-
works of knowledge and control. As James Rosenau argues in this volume, infor-
mation technologies, at least as currently deployed, appear to foster a movement
away from an hierarchical international system toward the decentralization of
power and authorit y.
The first Landsat acquired low-resolution images (80 meter GSD); Landsat-4
and -5 each generated somewhat better resolution images of 30 meters, but still
nothing approaching the accuracy of spy satellites. Nonetheless, their abilit y to
render territory effectively naked was made abundantly clear when the first ERTS
images were returned to earth. One image, for instance, revealed a streak of white
acid off the coast of New York, indicating that an industrial barge had illegally
dumped thousands of gallons of acid iron waste into the Atlantic Ocean only days
before (Hall 1992, 52–53). While this incident essentially involved the U.S. “spy-
ing” on itself, it dramatically demonstrated the potential for applying satellite-
PUBLIC EYES 73
based remote sensing to environmental monitoring and perhaps even industrial

espionage.
Although Landsat’s resolution was low, its launch sparked international con-
troversy. Countries without access to satellite technology feared that an open-skies
policy with respect to civilian remote-sensing satellites would violate their territo-
rial sovereignt y. Although they may have harbored such fears earlier regarding
military reconnaissance satellites, the fact that superpower images were not avail-
able on commercial markets was some source of comfort. NASA’s response had
the effect of both legitimating civilian remote-sensing satellites and expanding the
market for satellite data. First, it argued from international law that there were no
legal restrictions on the use of remote-sensing for peaceful purposes. Later, the
U.S. took the lead in formulating the United Nations Principles on Remote Sens-
ing, which formalized this principle while granting that sensed states should be
given access to data gathered from their territories by civilian satellite systems.
(Note, however, that this stipulation does not apply to military and commercial
systems.) Second, and most effectively, NASA held out the promise to developing
countries that the open dissemination of satellite data would extend, not reduce,
their abilit y to control the development of their resources. To add credence to that
promise, NASA established remote-sensing training programs in developing coun-
tries and assisted numerous countries in establishing ground stations to receive
Landsat data (Lindgren 1988, 34). Within the first decade of Landsat, many coun-
tries concluded that transparency and the global diffusion of data were actually in
their national interests. By 1980, ten countries had built ground stations and were
committed to paying NASA an annual fee of $200,000 for data transmission;
dozens more were purchasing Landsat images and data tapes for a host of pur-
poses, including mapping, resource exploration, and environmental monitoring.
By the early 1980s, the primary concern of developing countries was the
preservation of open and nondiscriminatory distribution of Landsat data, which
they felt was threatened by the Reagan administration’s proposal to privatize
Landsat (Mack 1990, 188). Many observers believed that Landsat data should re-
main a public service, analogous to census, cartographic, and meteorological data,
and several studies concluded that Landsat could not be successfully commercial-
ized. Despite the objections, the Land Remote Sensing Commercialization Act of
1984 transferred control over Landsat’s data to EOSAT, a joint venture of Hughes
Aircraft and General Electric, which was later acquired by Lockheed and recently
transferred to a Lockheed spinoff, Space Imaging Corporation (Aviation Week
and Space Technology 1983, 18). One of EOSAT’s first acts, greatly resented by
Landsat’s user communit y, was to quadruple the price of Landsat images, causing
data sales to drop sharply (Marshall 1989, 24).
The French SPOT, a government-funded commercial system launched in
1986, soon provided an alternative source of satellite data. Because its downlink
frequencies were designed to be compatible with Landsat’s characteristics, exist-

ing Landsat ground stations were able to take advantage of the new source of data
(Williamson 1997, 880). The original SPOT returned color images with 20-meter
resolution and black-and-white images with 10-meter resolution, nearly crossing
the line to resolutions characteristic of military satellites. Since 1978, when Presi-
dent Carter upheld the Pentagon’s interests over NASA’s by signing a presidential
directive 10 meters had been the resolution limit for nonmilitary remote sensing
in the United States (Zimmerman 1988, 48). SPOT not only became Landsat’s
first competitor, but also demonstrated the technological creep towards the glob-
alization of ever higher resolution imagery. While SPOT’s top customer, ironically,
has become the U.S. military, markets for SPOT imagery include agricultural and
forestry applications, mining and petroleum geology, hydrology, and land-use
planning. With the launch of SPOT, the United States no longer enjoyed a mo-
nopoly on commercial Earth-scanning satellites. Yet, despite concerns by Landsat
supporters that SPOT’s data sales would undercut Landsat, SPOT on the contrary
expanded the overall imagery market by demonstrating new data applications
(Williamson 1997, 880).1
As the Cold War drew to a close, the Soviets decided that their satellites’
commercial value out weighed their espionage value. In 1989, a Soviet system
using conventional camera film began marketing images with resolution between
2 and 5 meters, substantially lowering the threshold between military and civilian
space data.2 However, they cannot be properly called spy data because of the time
lag in retrieving them (Spector 1989, 16). United States policy under the Reagan
and Bush administrations, which put licensing authorit y in the hands of the De-
partments of Defense and State, effectively obstructed the entry of U.S. commer-
cial satellite operators with high-resolution products into the global marketplace.
Consequently, the Clinton administration amended the Reagan rule so that li-
censing applications for remote-sensing satellite systems with capabilities already
available or in the planning stages would be favorably considered (The White
House 1994, 243–244).3
Soon thereafter, U.S. military and intelligence firms concerned about the fu-
ture of contracts in the post-Cold War era and encouraged by the declining cost of
launching imaging satellites, entered the marketplace. Despite the enormous in-
vestment, ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars, entailed in building and
launching high-resolution satellites, these firms’ optimism was fueled by the
growth of a supportive technological infrastructure: inexpensive personal com-
puters and soft ware packages powerful enough to process satellite images,
CD-ROM disks capable of storing massive quantities of digital data, and wide-
spread Internet access for searching and transferring large data files (Williamson
1997, 883). Beginning in 1993, a number of companies obtained licenses to oper-
ate high-resolution satellite systems, including Orbital Imaging, Worldview (later
PUBLIC EYES 75
Earthwatch), and Space Imaging. The first of the new generation of commercial
high-resolution satellites, Space Imaging’s IKONOS, began returning images in
1999. Within the next five years, approximately twent y commercial satellites ca-
pable of returning images with better than ten-meter resolution are due to be
launched—the majorit y by U.S. firms. Thus, high-resolution satellite imagery is
migrating from the “deep black” of military espionage into a host of civilian and
commercial applications—including the agricultural sector, mineral exploration,
the real estate industry, municipal utilities, and environmental monitoring.
Before examining these new networks of control, however, let us look at the
one ready-made market for spy-qualit y satellite data—the militaries of states that do
not possess space espionage capabilities. The argument was made above that the
disciplinary gaze of spy satellites during the Cold War had the unforeseen effect of
drawing the superpowers into some elements of a common securit y arrangement
premised upon mutual transparency and a shared aversion to nuclear war. Is open
access to commercial high-resolution satellite imagery likely to have an analogous
impact on regional tensions around the world?
SPY IMAGES EVERYWHERE
Within a few years, the commercialization of high-resolution satellite data could

foster mutual transparency in situations of potential conf lict around the world,
particularly in instances where only one state has an indigenous remote sensing ca-
pabilit y. More interesting in terms of agency in world politics would be the exten-
sion of the disciplinary gaze of space espionage to international public opinion
and domestic civil societ y, suggesting the possibilit y of involving NGOs in a game
that heretofore was played almost solely by national governments.
Consider, for instance, the nuclear weapons test by India in May 1998 in a
context in which India had an indigenous remote-sensing capabilit y while Pakistan
did not. In fact, India’s IRS-1C satellite, with a resolution of less than six meters,
was returning some of the highest resolution images then available on commercial
markets. The U.S. intelligence communit y, with access to satellite images with res-
olutions of perhaps six inches and upwards of two thousand photo analysts at its
disposal, was apparently taken by surprise by India’s actions, perhaps because mon-
itoring the Indian test site was not a top priorit y for the U.S. While Pakistan could
have purchased low and moderate resolution on commercial markets, these may
not have been sufficient to confirm India’s preparations for nuclear weapons test-
ing. But what if a dozen commercial high-resolution satellites had been in orbit, as
will most likely be the case in five years? Monitoring the Indian test site would cer-
tainly have been a high priorit y for the Pakistani government. Had Pakistan de-
tected preparations for a nuclear test, it may not necessarily have been able to
prevent India from following through with its plans, but it could have brought the
evidence to the international communit y and perhaps even used it to spark do-
mestic debate within India itself. Indeed, users of commercial satellite data would
not be nearly so limited in publicizing images as users of national intelligence data
because the veil of secrecy surrounding sources and methods for national technical
means would not exist for commercial satellites. On the contrary, commercial satel-
lite operators would probably be glad for the publicit y.
Of course, any state intent upon pursuing a specific course of action could re-
sort to what intelligence officers call CCD: camouf lage, concealment and decep-
tion. As Foucault observes, wherever power operates, there is resistance. Activities
can be concealed with nets, canvas, roofs or vegetation, or they might be per-
formed at night or under cloud cover. The point, however, is that the proliferation
of observation satellites passing over at various times decreases the likelihood that
such efforts at resistance will succeed. Moreover, some of those satellites may be
equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors capable of imaging at
night or under cloud cover. For instance, Canada’s R ADARSAT, launched in
1995, is equipped with such a sensor. While R ADARSAT currently generates im-
ages with only 8-meter resolution, Canada hopes to launch a new radar satellite
with a resolution of three to five meters. Transparency may never be absolute, but
as it increases, the possibilities for concealment are narrowed.
Up to this point, this paper has only discussed the impact of satellite imagery
on international conf lict in the context of bilateral relations. Yet, given the nature
of international conf lict since the end of the Cold War, it is worth looking at the
potential impact of satellite imagery on a multilateral conf lict situation. Indeed, a
key factor in U.S. policy decisions to return the Landsat system to government op-
eration and to license U.S. companies to launch high-resolution satellites in the
1990s was the utilit y of Landsat and SPOT data during the 1991 Persian Gulf
Conf lict. Despite both the costs of building Landsat 7 during a period of budget
tightening and the dangers inherent in allowing commercial firms to build the
equivalent of spy satellites, U.S. officials felt that the alternative of leaving the mar-
ket to foreign firms was worse (Williamson 1997, 881; Gordon 1993). Prior to
and during Operation Desert Storm, maps created from Landsat and SPOT data
had one clear advantage over images generated by reconnaissance satellites: they
could be shared openly with allies. Since the military value of high-resolution data
will be substantially greater, the benefits of openness in multilateral conf lict situ-
ations will be that much greater. If, as some have argued, multilateralism is the
wave of the future in international relations—whether in situations of conf lict or
cooperation—then the overall utilit y of commercial and civilian satellites is likely
to exceed that of national spy satellites simply because the range of situations in
which the latter can be used is limited. With spy-qualit y images available on com-
mercial markets in the coming years, many states will be able to partake in the dis-
PUBLIC EYES 77
ciplinary gaze of remote-sensing satellites for a range of purposes, including treat y

verification, U.N. peacekeeping operations, threat assessment, signaling, or (more
ominously, and in conjunction with GPS) targeting.
The possibilit y that commercial satellite data could be used for offensive pur-
poses by an adversary was another factor driving the U.S. decision to license high-
resolution imagery vendors. American companies, unlike foreign ones, can be
controlled by the U.S. government during a crisis. For example, had Iraq been
able to acquire Landsat and SPOT images prior to the allied invasion, it could have
detected the famous “Left Hook” strategy in which allied forces massed in Saudi
Arabia rather than attacking solely by sea. Purchasing only two SPOT scenes of the
area some time later, photo analyst Vipin Gupta has demonstrated that the Left
Hook maneuver was easily detectable using commercial moderate-resolution im-
ages (Gupta 1998). Although SPOT was effectively requisitioned by the U.S. gov-
ernment (in consultation with France) during the Gulf conf lict, such cooperation
is not always guaranteed. Thus, in the face of the globalization of transparency,
states may wish to exercise control over commercial satellite operators and, in-
deed, they still retain a substantial abilit y to do so.
While commercialization entails the migration of satellites’ disciplinary gaze
beyond the exclusive purview of the state, the critical functions of licensing and
regulation remain in the hands of the state. The government will retain at a min-
imum the right to stop transmission of data during wartime. Yet satellite operators
fear that less urgent foreign policy and national securit y considerations could lead
to burdensome restrictions on their abilit y to sell their wares. The 1996 Binga-
man-Kyl Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, prohibiting
U.S. firms from collecting or selling high-resolution satellite data of Israeli terri-
tory, fueled their concerns and highlighted the extent to which the state—or at
least one particular state—continues to exert its inf luence in this arena (Baker
1997, 8). As Jonathan Aronson argues earlier in this volume, governmental regu-
lations have a substantial impact upon what satellite operators can and cannot do.4
The diffusion of imaging technologies may foster decentralization and the prolif-
eration of networks beyond the state, but the state is not thereby rendered power-
less or anachronistic.
Nonetheless, the profusion of civilian and commercial satellite imagery
opens up new opportunities for nonstate actors to be involved in traditional na-
tional securit y issues. Even at $5,000 per scene (the price of one R ADARSAT
image), the cost of purchasing imagery is small compared to the cost of launch-
ing a satellite. A much smaller, but politically significant, market would be non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media. A handful of NGOs has
used satellite images to advocate for peace and disarmament or to assist in the
verification of arms control agreements. The U.K.-based VERTIC, Verification
Technology and Information Center, has used imagery to compile its yearly Ver-
ification Report on arms control and environmental treat y compliance. Vipin

Gupta, who worked with VERTIC on some of his early photo interpretation
projects, has demonstrated the utilit y of publicly accessible satellite imagery in
monitoring the nuclear activities of China, India, and Algeria (Gupta 1992;
Gupta and McNab 1993; Gupta 1995; Gupta 1997). The U.S.-based “Public Eye
Project,” sponsored by the Federation of American Scientists, has posted de-
classified images from the CIA’s Corona satellites on the Internet. John Pike,
director of the project, hopes to obtain funding to purchase new commercial
high-resolution images that will enable citizens to monitor military develop-
ments around the world (See http://www.fas.org). While the incorporation of
the disciplinary gaze of imaging satellites into domestic and global civil societ y
is admittedly embryonic, these instances reveal the potential for commercial
high-resolution satellites to open up the relatively closed world of national secu-
rit y politics to the scrutiny of nonstate actors. Although few NGOs possess the
resources necessary to purchase and utilize satellite imagery, the possibilit y
remains that the combination of a plethora of competing commercial satellites
along with the availabilit y of cheap PC-based soft ware for manipulating images
could bring down the cost sufficiently for them do so.
Another set of nonstate actors, however, is less likely to be deterred by cost
from using pictures from orbit to bring military issues before the public—the news
media. United States news organizations have used satellite imagery since 1986
when ABC, followed by NBC, CBS and The New York Times, used SPOT photos
to report on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (Blumberg 1991). The potentially dra-
matic impact of the media’s use of commercial high-resolution images was demon-
strated prior to Operation Desert Storm, when ABC purchased t wo t wo-meter
resolution images from the Soviet commercial satellite company, Soyuz-Karta, for
$1560 apiece. Photo analysts working for ABC News could find no trace of the
265,000 Iraqi troops which U.S. officials claimed were massed at the Saudi-Kuwait
border in the fall of 1990. Nonetheless, ABC decided not to run the story because
their photos did not include a section of southern Kuwait where the troops may
have been. The St. Petersburg Times soon purchased the third photo; their ana-
lysts also found no evidence of a massive Iraqi presence. The Pentagon insisted
that the troops were there, but would provide no visual evidence, declaring,
“We’d like it to remain a mystery to Saddam what our intelligence capabilities are.
We are not going to make our intelligence public” (Heller 1991).
Because of its timing, this news story had little political impact. By the time
the story broke, less than two weeks before the U.S.-led invasion, the momentum
was so great that there was little likelihood of revisiting the public debate of the
preceding months. Nonetheless, the incident indicates that commercial high-
resolution satellite imagery could enable the news media to play a much more ac-
tive role in monitoring and publicizing military developments.5 A commercial
PUBLIC EYES 79
market of spy-qualit y data would at least partially lift the veil of secrecy behind
which states have traditionally conducted their military operations, giving citizens
access to the disciplinary gaze of orbiting satellites.
NONSTATE ACTORS AND NEW NETWORKS OF SURVEILLANCE
The diffusion of satellite imagery, coupled with the advent of desktop computer
programs capable of manipulating the large databases associated with satellite im-
agery and transmitting them over the Internet, is creating new net works of sur-
veillance involving NGOs working on nonmilitary issues as well. Satellites can
enable citizens, mostly in industrialized countries, but to a growing extent in de-
veloping countries as well, to monitor such diverse phenomena as crop and
weather conditions, deforestation, marine habitat, and the movement of large
numbers of refugees. By serving as a powerful tool of legitimation, Earth obser-
vations from space can offer visual evidence to support NGOs’ positions.
The empowerment of NGOs by remote-sensing technologies simultaneously
erodes states’ abilities to control information about developments in their own
territories even as it intensifies the circulation of disciplinary power. The slippage
of information beyond the state does not mean that NGOs and states must stand
in an adversarial relationship to one another. In some cases they do; in others they
do not. But it does mean that states’ abilit y to control the f low of information
about their own activities and within their own territorial borders is being
eroded. Furthermore, the disciplinary power of satellites in nonmilitary matters
tends not to involve adversaries internalizing the gaze of the other, but actors en-
t wined in net works of power within a particular domain, for instance, climate
change, deforestation or humanitarian relief. This section looks at the use of satel-
lite imagery as a technology of power by environmental NGOs (ENGOs) and
humanitarian NGOs (HNGOs).
ENGOs have deployed satellite data as a powerful tool of legitimation. The
Nature Conservancy, for instance, has used satellite data to evaluate biodiversit y
and assess the health of biotic communities in their efforts to monitor enforce-
ment of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (Stein 1996). The Britain-based Coral
Cay Conservation uses Landsat TM data along with aerial photography in order
to document reef destruction around the world and to generate GIS coral reef
habitat maps which are used in ecosystem management initiatives (Harborne, per-
sonal communication, 6 May 1998). The popular World Resources Institute an-
nual reports base their estimates of global and regional deforestation primarily on
satellite data (World Resources Institute 1998). A recent WRI report combined
satellite data and fossil records to conclude that only 20 percent of the planet’s
original ecologically intact forests remains today (Bryant et al. 1997). In all of
these instances, satellite data is used to authenticate findings for an audience that
might include policy makers, the public, or potential donors.
Perhaps the greatest asset of satellite imagery is its visual character. As one in-
dividual working to stop logging in British Columbia’s Clayoqot Sound, the last
remaining expanse of temperate rainforest, declared, “Satellite images are totally
convincing. You show people a map, and they can see clearly what’s left” (quoted
in Clayton 1996, 5). Satellite imagery can make a distant, abstract ecological cri-
sis seem present and tangible. Consider, for instance, the widely circulated video
clip of the Antarctic ozone hole during the negotiations for the 1987 Montreal
Protocol. That video, a composite of satellite imagery which was broadcast to
treat y negotiators, the U.S. Congress and television audiences all over the world,
transformed an utterly invisible event into a dramatic global ecological crisis.
Thus, the Antarctic ozone hole, which the negotiators agreed to ignore because its
causes were unknown, nonetheless had a profound impact on the negotiations
(Litfin 1994).
With the advent of commercial high-resolution imaging satellites, new infor-
mation technologies that make satellite data accessible in a timely manner, and a
heightened involvement of the military and intelligence establishment in humani-
tarian crises, the stage has been set for HNGOs to incorporate satellite imagery
into their work. HNGOs have a good deal of experience in bringing seemingly re-
mote crises into the living rooms of television audiences around the world, but
they often find themselves in need of a visual source of objective information.
Satellite imagery can help them to answer such questions as how many people are
in need of assistance, precisely where they are and which way they are going, and
what local geographic and resource factors are likely to affect assistance efforts.
Not only can satellite imagery help HNGOs in formulating their own relief opera-
tions, it can help them to communicate the gravit y and scope of a problem to pol-
icy makers, the public, and donors. As more spatially focused and temporally
compressed imagery becomes available with the commercialization of high-
resolution imaging satellites, HNGOs are likely to find Earth observations a useful
tool for legitimation.
As Martha Finnemore has demonstrated (1996), normative understandings
about which human beings merit international intervention have changed dra-
matically in this century. In past centuries, norms of humanitarian intervention
applied only to whites and Christians. By the late twentieth century, a combina-
tion of decolonization and a globalized telecommunications system has facilitated
what might be called the universalization of humanit y, such that famines, natural
disasters, and genocide anywhere on the planet have become cause for interna-
tional concern and action. The global reach of Earth observations from space is
not only compatible with this normative trend; it can also help reinforce it in some
very practical ways. Terrain mapping can assist in locating areas with appropriate
PUBLIC EYES 81
topography, land cover, and access to water for the settlement and repatriation of
refugees. Likewise, satellite data can help determine the environmental impact of
large-scale movements of refugees for purposes of reforestation and habitat con-
servation. In areas with extensive cloud cover, especially in the tropical cloud belt,
radar images can be useful in locating and tracking refugees; satellite-based obser-
vations of campfires can provide important data for estimating total numbers of
refugees. For rapid-onset disasters like f loods, cyclones, earthquakes, and volcanic
eruptions, satellite imagery can be coupled with on-site GIS/GPS capacit y to pro-
duce maps with key hazards and infrastructural damage pinpointed accurately. In
programs using food aid, imagery can aid in tracking the movement of food com-
modities along supply chains as well as in pinpointing likely obstacles and bottle-
necks, even in closed societies like North Korea. Thus, the global reach of satellite
imagery is consistent with the universalization of humanit y and the internation-
alization of humanitarian assistance.
Nonetheless, the experience of ENGOs suggests an element of caution. First,
even at one-meter resolution, imaging satellites cannot discern the social causes of
either ecological or humanitarian crises. Because human agency all but vanishes
from the perspective of outer space, crises may be mistakenly reduced to physical
processes and root social causes thereby ignored. For humanitarian relief efforts
concerned with short-term amelioration, this may not be a huge problem. But if
either prevention or a deeper understanding of the causal roots of the problem is
the objective, satellite imagery is of limited utilit y. In any case, both ENGOs and
HNGOs will find that satellite data needs to be supplemented with substantial
“ground truthing.” Satellite images cannot reveal that logging trucks in Malaysia
are owned by Mitsubishi. Nor can they reveal that people in a drought-ridden part
of Africa are not starving because men from those villages work elsewhere and
send their wages home. Thus, there is a strong need to pair satellite data with
sociological and anthropological appraisal tools on the ground.
Moreover, as ENGOs in developing countries have pointed out, satellite data
is ahistorical in the sense that it shows current, but not past, levels of ecological
degradation. Landsat and SPOT images of deforestation in the tropics, for in-
stance, not only render human agency invisible, they also render invisible previ-
ous centuries’ deforestation in Europe and North America, thereby tending to
reinforce the perception that deforestation is caused by developing countries. Nor
can satellite images reveal that most of tropical timber exported from Southeast
Asia is consumed by people in industrialized countries. Similarly, while Earth ob-
servations from space are likely to prove useful to HNGOs in future relief opera-
tions, they cannot, by their very nature, uncover the deeper political and
economic causes that are often at the root of “natural” disasters. While satellite
data can reveal much about the earth’s surface, social meanings (and hence policy
implications) are not rendered transparent so easily.
The fact that satellite data renders human agency invisible is related to a sec-
ond caveat, which is that while having good information is preferable to having
poor information, it does not necessarily generate good policy. ENGOs can cite
numerous examples where further research has been a substitute, rather than the
basis, for sound policy. One can imagine a crisis in which precise numbers and ge-
olocations of starving refugees are known, along with digital elevation maps of
their camps, but little is done to alleviate their suffering. There is no simple corre-
lation between having detailed information about a problem and knowing how to
respond. If the habitat of an endangered species is being destroyed on private
land, should the federal government establish a protected wilderness area, or
should it offer tax incentives and zoning provisions to induce the owners to pre-
serve the ecosystem? If imagery reveals 500,000 refugees in a zone of conf lict,
should the United States or the U.N. send troops (and, if so, on what sort of mis-
sion?) or should HNGOs and intergovernmental organizations assume full re-
sponsibilit y for the relief effort?6 Accurate information may be an important factor
in formulating effective policy responses, but it is by no means a panacea.
While satellite imagery provides a powerful legitimating tool, it can over-
shadow or even displace other forms of information. The use of imagery and GIS
packages by indigenous groups for mapping their customary land rights and doc-
umenting the role of governments and multinational corporations in ecological
destruction, for instance, requires that these groups legitimate their positions on
the basis of high technology rather than more traditional forms of knowledge.
Similarly, international ENGOs based in Europe and North America have found
that using satellite data for conservation purposes in the tropics can have the un-
intended consequence of undercutting local aerial photography companies, an
ironic consequence if economic development is one of their objectives. If knowl-
edge is power, then deploying satellite images and the associated digital tools is a
question of political economy, and not just a technological issue. As Comor argues
later in this volume, information technologies are thoroughly embedded in the
global economy; thus, remote sensing satellites, deployed and utilized primarily in
the industrialized countries, are not divorced from economic power—especially in
the case of commercial satellites.
For both HNGOs and ENGOs, the use of Earth observations from space,
while often an effective tool, is also costly. A single image, in itself relatively use-
less in the absence of interpretive techniques, can cost anywhere from $500 to
$5000. Very few NGOs have the technically trained staff needed to acquire, inter-
pret and manipulate satellite images. For instance, the U.S.-based Wilderness So-
ciet y is one of the only ENGOs with an in-house remote sensing facilit y, acquired
as a donation, but only after substantial fundraising could the group afford to hire
the technical staff needed to operate it (interview with Janice Thomson, Remote
Sensing Coordinator for the Wilderness Societ y). Because of the cost and high
PUBLIC EYES 83
level of technical expertise involved in using satellite imagery, ENGOs have found
that they can only make effective use of the technology by engaging in a whole
range of partnerships with individuals and organizations that contribute to their
work. Networks of surveillance that include NGOs are therefore likely to involve
ties to universities and research institutions, relationships with state agencies and
international organizations, corporate sponsorship, and perhaps even links to the
military/intelligence communit y.
Scientific studies on a host of environmental problems, ranging from biodi-
versit y conservation to ozone depletion to declining fisheries to deforestation,
have employed satellite imagery, and ENGOs have become adept at piggybacking
their own work on existing studies. While HNGO ties to the scientific communit y
are not as strong as those of their environmental counterparts, there is some evi-
dence that those ties are increasing. In the first project of its kind, researchers at
the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway have begun to
develop near real-time image processing and interpretation techniques for using
high-resolution satellite images to support humanitarian relief operations (Bjorgo
1996). The Center for PVO-Universit y Collaboration was founded on the premise
that the work of PVOs (private voluntary organizations, another term for NGOs) is
greatly enhanced by ties to universit y researchers. Most of the two dozen interna-
tional NGOs associated with the center work on humanitarian and environmen-
tal issues, and many of them have used or plan to use satellite imagery in their
work (See http://www.wcu.edu/UnivPVO).
Interestingly, the end of the Cold War has led the intelligence communit y to
become involved with both humanitarian and environmental issues. The need for
institutional legitimation in the vacuum left by the Cold War, along with a height-
ened sense of environmental awareness, has no doubt contributed to the U.S. intel-
ligence community’s newfound interest in global ecology. On humanitarian issues,
the intelligence communit y has been brought in by the multilateral nature of the
problems and the U.S. military’s need to coordinate with multiple actors, including
HNGOs. While imagery from the U.S. intelligence community’s state-of-the-art satel-
lites would be of great utilit y to both HNGOs and ENGOs, the key obstacle, of
course, is secrecy. To make images available would be to divulge the technical capa-
bilities of satellites whose names are not even public knowledge, thereby, according
to the intelligence community, enabling potential adversaries to more easily conceal
their activities. Thus far, the intelligence community’s environmental activities (the
MEDEA project and the Global Fiducial Data Program, for instance) have had no
discernible impact on the work of ENGOs (Thomas 1997).
In its support to disaster and humanitarian relief operations, however, the in-
telligence communit y may have a greater incentive to share imagery when U.S.
troops are involved and the lives of Americans are at stake. Military logistics in
such situations are likely to involve coordinating activities with HNGOs and even
protecting their supply lines and other operations. In many cases, as in Somalia,
Bosnia, and Rwanda, HNGOs operate on the ground long before military person-
nel arrive on the scene. Consequently, the intelligence communit y is coming
under increasing pressure to share information, including satellite imagery, with
HNGOs. Indeed, one of the key findings of a 1995 CIA-sponsored study is that in-
telligence for humanitarian relief purposes too often “excludes important players,
and thereby limit[s] the value of the information provided” (Constantine 1995, 1).
A multitude of social, environmental and economic problems have proven
themselves too intractable for states alone to address. NGOs have proliferated to
fill the void. Simultaneously, political developments and the information revolu-
tion have enabled NGOs to participate in technologies of surveillance previously
confined to the military arena. User communities, primarily scientific and gov-
ernment, were initially stimulated by Landsat and later by SPOT. The multibillion
dollar GIS industry and Internet accessibilit y have helped to spread satellite im-
agery far and wide, with the commercialization of high-resolution satellite data
contributing to that momentum. High-resolution satellite imagery, until recently
monopolized by the national securit y agencies of the superpowers, is now freely
available to anyone with access to a credit card and the Internet.
CONCLUSIONS
Within the last decade, the disciplinary gaze of satellites which once helped to nor-
malize nuclear deterrence bet ween the superpowers has been turned towards a
plethora of military, economic, social, and environmental purposes involving ever
more expansive networks of surveillance. Technologies of surveillance, from pop-
ulation census to welfare rolls to weather prediction, have been the basis for the
state’s administrative power throughout the modern era. Indeed, ‘statistics’ and
‘state’ are derived from the same Latin root (to stand); not coincidentally, the
large-scale collection of statistics began with the emergence of the modern state
(Taylor and Johnston 1995). The early satellite era during the Cold War is a prime
example of this concentration of technologies of surveillance in the bureaucratic
apparatus of the state. Space espionage, providing a safe and unobtrusive way for
the superpowers to monitor military developments, made both sides conscious
that their deployments were largely visible to the other. The circulation of discipli-
nary power had the ironic effect of undercutting the more pernicious dynamics of
the securit y dilemma by bringing the two arch-rivals into elements of a common
securit y regime. The commercial availabilit y of high-resolution imagery may lead
to a similar outcome in other conf lict situations, with the important exception
that the absence of a perceived need to protect sources and methods will permit
domestic and transnational civil societ y to share in the global gaze.
PUBLIC EYES 85
With civilian and commercial imaging satellites, new net works of surveil-
lance have sprung up around a host of issues and have drawn in an increasingly
diverse array of state and nonstate actors. This general trend lends credence to
Rosenau’s claim that the diffusion of information technologies is undercutting
the abilit y of states to exercise control and authorit y. The end of the super-
power monopoly on space espionage, however, did not disempower the state,
but rather brought previously excluded states into the game. States still enjoy a
significant degree of control even in the face of commercialization because of
their abilit y to license commercial satellites, to outlaw the export of turnkey sys-
tems, to exercise shutter control, to compete in markets, to mandate data pur-
chasing policies for their agencies, and (in the most far-fetched scenario) to
shoot the satellites down. Thus, while the general trend is clearly in the direc-
tion of the diffusion of satellite surveillance beyond the state, the case should
not be overstated. New net works of surveillance may decenter the state, but they
do not render it obsolete.
What, then, is the impact of these shifts on the self-understandings of social
actors and the nature of power in world politics? With access to satellite imagery,
those who were excluded from past policy debates on military, economic, social,
and environmental questions may now be able to participate. More fundamen-
tally, the disciplinary gaze of space espionage is no longer fixed in the state, but is
increasingly dispersed across multiple social and political levels. As Ronald Dei-
bert has argued, information technologies may undermine rather than enforce the
notion of the modern state drawn from Foucault’s model of disciplinary power.
Rather than investing a single privileged center with a panoptic gaze, information
technologies seem to facilitate the growth of a “dispersed surveillance web” (Dei-
bert 1997, 166–171). The diffusion of satellite imagery appears to be consistent
with that trend, lending support to John Ruggie’s suggestion that the unitary per-
spective of state authorit y may be on the verge of being displaced by multiper-
spectival sources of governance (1993).
Before seizing on any grandiose conclusions about a transition from moder-
nit y to postmodernit y, we must also note that the diffuse surveillance web associ-
ated with the dissemination of satellite imagery has, in effect, enlisted a host of
nonstate actors in the larger social project of prediction and control associated
with modernit y. Imaging satellites function simultaneously as symptom, expres-
sion, and reinforcement of modernit y’s dream of knowledge as power. The adver-
sary’s military disposition, agricultural production, marine fisheries, global
climate change, land use patterns, movements of refugees: all are to be known,
predicted, and normalized. In some cases, the control that derives from the disci-
plinary gaze of satellites has favorable consequences, as it seems to have during the
Cold War. Nonetheless, the diffusion of satellite imagery is contributing simulta-
neously to the decentralization of surveillance and to its universalization.
NOTES
I am grateful to J.P. Singh and Stephen McDowell for their detailed and extremely helpful
comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
1. For instance, the European Union, turning its disciplinary gaze on its agricul-
tural producers, paid for the vegetation monitor on the recently launched SPOT 4 in order
to verify that farmers are actually growing what they claim to be growing.
2. Until the 1999 launch of Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite, the Russian SPIN-2
product, with a two-meter resolution, was the highest resolution imagery commercially avail-
able. Designers of the Terra-Server, a joint effort by Microsoft Corporation, Aerial Images,
Sovinformsputnik, and Digital Equipment Corporation, promise that their new online
world atlas will guarantee that “we can see ourselves as we really are.” SPIN-2 images of major
cities can be purchased through the Internet for $25. See http://www.spin-2.com.
3. For a detailed analysis of the Clinton administration’s policy decision, see
Baker 1997.
4. Of course, some states could simply prevent satellites from collecting and trans-
mitting imagery by shooting them down. The costs of doing so, however, would be enor-
mous, both materially in terms of the orbital debris that could disrupt telecommunications
satellite transmissions everywhere and politically in terms of committing an unprece-
dented act of war in outer space. The fact that states do not shoot down satellites points to
the resilience of the international norm of freedom of space, despite the inclusion of such
scenarios in U.S. information warfare strategic planning.
5. We should note the danger, however, that news organizations, in their rush to
break an important story or because of their lack of familiarit y with photo-interpretation,
could be wrong. For instance, following India’s nuclear weapons test in May 1998,
Newsweek included a satellite image that mistakenly identified the Indian nuclear test site
(Vipin Gupta, personal communication, May 21, 1998).
6. This, in fact, was the situation during the massive refugee migration in Central
Africa’s Great Lakes region from 1996 to 1997. While the U.S. intelligence communit y
had access to high-resolution images, it refused to share them with HNGOs, most of which
were pressing for U.S. or U.N. involvement at the time. Had commercial high-resolution
satellite data been available at the time, the HNGOs would have had access to an alternative
source of information.
REFERENCES
Aviation Week and Space Technology. 1983. Report Criticizes Landsat Commercialization.
(May 9) 118: 18.
Baker, John C. 1997. Trading Away Securit y: The Clinton Administration’s 1994 Decision
on Satellite Imaging Exports. Pew Case Studies in International Affairs, Case 222.
Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
PUBLIC EYES 87
Bjorgo, Einar. 1996. RefMon: Refugee Monitoring Using High-resolution Satellite Images.
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center. Bergen, Norway. (http://
www.nrsc.no:8001/~einar/UN/remon_abstract.html).
Blumberg, Peter. 1991. Satellite Picture Puzzle: No Iraqis. Washington Journalism Review.
(May) 14: 13–14.
Bryant, Dirk, Daniel Nielsen, and Laura Tangley. 1997. The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems
and Economies on the Edge. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute.
Burrows, William E. 1986. Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security. New York:
Random House.
Center for PVO-Universit y Collaboration website, http://www.wcu.edu/UnivPVO.
Clayton, Mark. 1997. Got an Earthly Cause? Christian Science Monitor. (May 8) 1.
Constantine, G. Ted. 1995. Intelligence Support to Humanitarian-Disaster Relief Opera-
tions. Center for the Study of Intelligence Monograph. Langley, VA: Central Intelli-
gence Agency.
Day, Dwayne. 1996. Invitation to Struggle: The History of Civilian-Military Relations in
Space.” In John M. Logsdon, ed. Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in
the History of the U.S. Civilian Space Program, Vol. 2: External Relationships. Wash-
ington, D.C.: NASA.
Deibert, Robert. 1997. Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order
Transformation. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Douglas Aircraft Company. 1946. Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Space-
ship. Report No. SM-11827.
Federation of American Scientists website, http://www.fas.org.
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention. In Peter J.
Katzenstein, ed. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Pol-
itics. New York: Columbia Universit y Press. 153–185.
Foley, Theresa M. 1988. Pentagon, State Department Granted Veto Over U.S. Remote
Sensing Satellites. Aviation Week and Space Technology. (July 20) 20–22.
Foucault, Michel. 1979. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage.
Gupta, Vipin. 1992. Algeria’s Nuclear Ambitions. International Defense Review. 4:
329–331.
———. 1995. Locating Nuclear Explosions at the Chinese Test Site near Lop Nor. Science and
Global Security. 5: 204–244.
———. 1997. “Investigating the Allegations of Indian Nuclear Test Preparations in the
Rajasthan Desert, Science and Global Security. 6: 101–188.
———. 1998. Detecting Troop Concentrations Using SPOT Data: The 1991 Persian Gulf
War. Presentation for Secret No More: The Security Implications of Global Trans-
parency. Workshop sponsored by the National Air and Space Museum, Wash-
ington, D.C. (May 21–22)
Gupta, Vipin, and Philip McNab. 1993. Sleuthing From Home. The Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists. 49 (10): 44–47.
Hall, Stephen. 1992. Mapping the Next Millennium: The Discovery of New Geographies. New
York: Random House.
Heller, Jean. 1991. Photos Don’t Show Buildup, St. Petersburg Times. (Jan. 6) A-1.
Klass, Philip J. 1971. Secret Sentries in Space. New York: Random House.
KPMG. 1996. The Satellite Remote Sensing Industry: A Global Review. Washington, D.C.: KPMG.
Lindgren, David T. 1988. Commercial Satellites Open Skies. Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
(April) 30–36.
Litfin, Karen T. 1994. Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in Global Environmental Cooper-
ation. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
MacDougall, Walter. 1985. The Heavens and the Earth. New York: Basic Books.
Mack, Pamela. 1990. Viewing the Earth: The Social Construction of Landsat Satellite System.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Marshall, Eliot. 1989. Landsat: Drifting toward Oblivion? Science. (February 24) 243: 24.
Meyer, Stephen M. 1984. Verification and Risk in Arms Control. International Security. 9.
National Securit y Council. 1955. Draft Statement of Policy on U.S. Scientific Satellite
Program. NSC 5520. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Ad-
ministration.
Oberg, James. 1981. Red Star in Orbit. New York: Random House.
Office of Technology Assessment. 1985. Anti-Satellite Weapons, Countermeasures, and Arms
Control. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Peterson, M. J. 1997. The Use of Analogies in Developing Outer Space Law, International
Organization. 51(2): 245–74.
Ruggie, John G. 1993. Territorialit y and Beyond: Problematizing Modernit y in Interna-
tional Relations. International Organization. 46(1): 139–174.
SPIN-2 website, http://www.spin-2.com.
Stein, Bruce. 1996. Putting Nature on the Map. Nature Conservancy. (January/February)
24–27.
Spector, Leonard. 1989. Keep the Skies Open. Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. (September)
14–20.
PUBLIC EYES 89
Taylor, Peter J., and Ronald J. Johnston. 1995. Geographical Information Systems and
Geography. In John Pickles, ed. Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geo-
graphic Information Systems. New York: The Guilford Press.
Thomas, Gerald B. 1997. U.S. Environmental Securit y Policy: Broad Concern or Narrow
Interests? Journal of Environment and Development. (December) 6(4): 397–425.
Wendt, Alexander. 1992. Anarchy is What States Make of It. International Organization. 46:
391–425.
The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. 1994. Foreign Access to Remote Sensing
Capabilities. Space Policy. (August) 10(3): 243–244.
Williamson, Ray A. 1997. The Landsat Legacy: Remote Sensing and the Development of
Commercial Remote Sensing. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.
(July) 63(7): 877–885.
World Resources Institute. 1998. World Resources 1998. Washington, D.C.: World Re-
sources Institute.
Zimmerman, Peter D. 1988. Photos from Space: Why Restrictions Won’t Work, Technology
Review. (May) 91.
CHAPTER FOUR
INFORMATIONAL META-TECHNOLOGIES,
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, AND GENETIC
POWER: THE CASE OF BIOTECHNOLOGIES
SANDR A BR AMAN
INTRODUCTION
Meta-technologies are politically critical because they vastly expand the capacit y
of state and non-state actors to exercise genetic power—control over the informa-
tional bases of the materials, structures, and ideas that are the stuff of power in
its instrumental, structural, and symbolic forms. The increasing use of meta-
technologies to exercise genetic power is changing the rules of the game in inter-
national relations by disrupting long-standing structures, changing the relative
weights among classes of players, and turning attention from products to
processes. Meta-technologies are always informational; as a class they include
those that process biological information, biotechnologies, as well as those that
process digital information, or digital information technologies. The analysis
here looks across the issue areas of trade, defense, and agriculture to examine
ways in which biotechnologies are being used, the impacts of these uses on rela-
tions among forms of power, and the consequences of their use for international
relations. It concludes with a look at what this suggests for analysis of the other
entrant in the class of meta-technologies, digital information technologies.
INFORMATIONAL META-TECHNOLOGIES, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,

AND GENETIC POWER: THE CASE OF BIOTECHNOLOGIES
The features that make information technologies so crucial to the issues, insti-
tutions, practices, and outcomes of international relations today are the charac-
teristics that define them as meta-technologies, analytically distinct from the
91
industrial technologies that have dominated earlier periods of human history.

Meta-technologies vastly expand the degrees of freedom with which humans
can act in the social and material worlds. While industrial technologies use a
limited range of inputs, often singular, in production processes of limited and
often singular mode that produce a limited range of outputs, often singular,
meta-technologies can handle multiple and multiplying t ypes of inputs into pro-
duction processes that are infinitely variable and thus produce an essentially in-
finite range of outputs.
This change in human productive capacit y is both qualitative and quantita-
tive in nature. It is accompanied by a loosening of historical constraints on deci-
sion-making about production processes. Some t ypes of path dependency and
structural constraints can now be sidestepped altogether. Because the range of
possibilities is so much greater than before, what has been learned in the past
about how to make decisions does not always suffice. The underlying premodern
and modern assumption that an equilibrium can be achieved—that there is a right
answer—is irrevocably gone.
In the world of digital information technologies, these characteristics trans-
late into features such as interoperabilit y, mutabilit y, and a rate of innovation that
makes ephemeralit y a commodit y in itself. Biotechnologies, however—those tech-
nologies involved in the collection, processing, distribution, and use of biological
information (DNA)—are also meta-technologies. The history of the information so-
ciet y, going back to its beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century, involved not
only the much-discussed innovations in human communication technologies, but
also the development of biotechnologies.
In domains of negotiation as historically distinct as those of trade, defense, and
agriculture, the meta-technological qualities of biotechnologies have meant that new
types of players as well as interactions among them have become critical to the func-
tioning of the international system. Looking at the impact of biotechnologies on in-
ternational relations in all of these areas makes it possible to see commonalities
across them. These commonalities are important and distinct enough that they can
be said to comprise the beginnings of a global information policy regime. Most im-
portant among them is a shift in relationships among various forms of power, most
notably the rise to dominance of a form of power historically relatively rarely used.
The subjects of biological information and its processing via biotechnologies
are relatively new to international relations. Braudel (1977) noted that while histo-
rians have long examined the accumulation of mineral and human resources, al-
most no attention has been given to plants. Even among those who have written
on the narrower question of the impact of innovation on global agriculture, few
have looked at questions raised by new plant varieties (Kloppenburg 1988). Yet mi-
croorganisms were first used as a technology, for leaching metals from low-grade
ore and for fermenting breads and drinks, as early as 7000–5,000 B.C.E. (Krimsky
META-TECHNOLOGIES, RELATIONS, AND POWER 93
1991). Lewis Branscomb (1993) and Poitras (1997) have begun the work of linking
analyses of digital information technologies with those on biotechnologies at the
most metaphoric level; the analysis here should advance the discussion by delving
more deeply into the subject and by doing so within the context of the theories of
power that are central to the practice and understanding of international relations.
As with digital information technologies, the use of biological information
technologies in recent decades has had significant impact in international relations.
Biotechnology has inf luenced the contents and directions of international trade;
redistributed relative weights among both factors of production and classes of
players; been a significant force at the forefront of the commoditization processes
that remain important to capital; and forced attention to matters of knowledge
production, the role of science, and risk within diplomatic circles. Understanding
these impacts, and their bases in meta-technological characteristics, should not
only be useful in its own right but also will contribute to understanding the ef-
fects of digital meta-technologies. Holding both t ypes of meta-technologies in vi-
sion simultaneously is increasingly important because, in the current phase of the
ongoing convergence of technologies, those that process digital information and
those that process biological information are coming together in fields such as
bioinformatics (the use of biological matter to process digital information in com-
puting), artificial intelligence (the effort to mimic human intelligence through the
use of biologically-based concepts and techniques such as those of neural nets),
and biotics (the autonomous evolution of nonhuman life forms in digital space).
In the hard world of law, the effects of this convergence are already being felt in
areas such as intellectual propert y rights that are important to the contemporary
international relations agenda.
The chapter opens with a brief introduction to the concept of genetic power,
goes on to review the impact of biotechnologies on three domains of international
relations (trade, defense, and agriculture), and examines commonalities in the use
and effects of the use of biotechnologies across those three realms.
GENETIC POWER
Political scientists have long focused attention on power in three forms:
instrumental: power that shapes human behaviors by manipulating the material

world via physical force;
structural: power that shapes human behaviors by manipulating the social and
material worlds via rules and institutions; and
symbolic: power that shapes human behaviors by manipulating the material,
social, and symbolic worlds via ideas, words, and images.
The notion that “knowledge is power” is, in this t ypology, incorporated into
analysis of instrumental, structural, and symbolic power. The easy equation of
symbolic power with information—and the relative ease of conducting research
into the content of symbolic mass communications—has meant that this t ype of
political communication has received by far the greatest attention.
In today’s highly information-intense societ y, however, it has become clear
that information is not only a distinct form of power in its own right, but has
moved to the center of the stage, dominating the uses of all other forms of
power and changing how other forms of power come into being and are exer-
cised. The term genetic well describes this form of power, as it is addressed at the
genesis, the informational origins, of the materials, social structures, and sym-
bols that are the stuff of power in its other forms. In doing so it simultaneously
extends power over the noetic universe as well. It can be added to the above
t ypology this way:
genetic: power that shapes human behaviors by manipulating the informa-
tional bases of the material, social, symbolic, and noetic worlds.
Genetic power is a particularly important form of power today because it is
that which takes the greatest advantage of the distinct characteristic of this stage of
the information societ y, the harmonization of systems—of nationally-based infor-
mation and communication systems across geopolitical boundaries, of different
t ypes of information and communication systems with each other, and of infor-
mation and communication systems with other t ypes of social systems (Braman
1993, 1995). In a harmonized environment, information f lows have the struc-
tural effect historically the domain of law; thus the abilit y to shape those f lows
and the information they hold, genetic power, is the most important form of
power. It is what Lessig (1999) talks about in hypothetical US-based detail in his
popular Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Dezalay and Garth (1998) analyze in
its international negotiational expressions, and Lewis Branscomb (1993) refers to
when he notes that both digital information technologies and biotechnologies are
of strategic concern.
The study of international relations is often confined, as are the negotia-
tions it analyzes, to single issue areas, each with its own history, modes of argu-
ment, value hierarchies, and operational definitions. But here, as in the effort to
distinguish industries, or genres, or geopolitical borders, it is the characteristic of
the postmodern condition that the lines have blurred. In the international
arena, as in the domestic, the outlines of emergent information policy regimes
thus become most evident by looking across them. Here, the impact of biotech-
nologies in three domains of international relations—trade, defense, and agricul-
ture—is examined as a way of discerning the commonalities and resonances
across them that mark the features of an emergent international information pol-
icy regime.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND TR ADE
The theories behind international trade and the stuff of that trade began with bi-
ological information at one end of the history, and issues arising out of its treat-
ment dominate the contemporary international trade agenda at the other.
HISTORY
Triggered by developments such as the British Corn Laws, economists Smith and
Ricardo launched a theoretical justification—comparative advantage—that still en-
dures for the practice of centrally collecting biological information from around
the world and redistributing it according to a design that it was believed maxi-
mized capital accumulation for those in the center. These activities were only some
among those that led Richards (1993) to describe the imperial nation-states as en-
tities more successful at control of information than they were at control of either
land or populations. They were important, though, as the then-new sciences of bi-
ology and botany contributed significantly to both ideas and efforts. Not only did
biology and botany identify t ypes of information of economic interest, but they
also introduced new approaches to experimentation and statistical analysis that
were critical to states’ growing informational armamentarium. (Strikingly, the de-
cline of empire or a state can have an immediate material impact, as in the case of
one of the world’s most important genebanks, the Vavilov Institute, and others in
the former Soviet Union that have gone into dangerous decline since the Soviet
government collapsed [The Economist 1994].)
Biological information played such a key role among resources in the impe-
rial enterprise because it is distributed so unevenly about the globe. Centers of bi-
ological diversit y—that is, regions rich in a diversit y of biological information
resources known as Vavilov Centers—are almost exclusively located in regions of
the developing world. Starting with the trips of Columbus between hemispheres,
f lows of biological information so vastly increased in the late fifteenth century it
became known as the “Columbian Explosion” (Kloppenburg 1988). As with
other t ypes of resources, biological information has been extracted in raw form
from societies in dependent relationships with the center, processed and value
added in the center, and then returned in value-added form—if at all—to those in
the developing world at high cost. In a contemporary example of this process that
has played heavily in international trade negotiations of the past decade, biologi-
cal information from Brazilian rainforests has been used by transnational corpo-
rations to manufacture valuable medicines now so protected by intellectual
propert y rights held by those corporations that they are not affordable to the
Brazilians from whom the original resources came.
Decisions made in the imperial centers about each colony’s niche specializa-
tion may have been designed to enhance comparative advantage, but they also
wrenched indigenous cultures, agricultural practices, social systems, health care,
and ecosystems. Complex multicultures in which humans had coevolved with the
other organisms in their natural environments were replaced by monocultures de-
voted to single crops that were useful for export purposes but often failed to ade-
quately sustain either humans or other organisms in those environments.
Decisions made for the purposes of maximizing gains to be made from interna-
tional trade thus had enormous direct environmental impact.
That this international division of labor did not serve all even within the
states of the center was noticed early. British farmers first rioted hundreds of years
ago in protest over the forced extraction of food from rural fields to feed those in
the cities, leaving farmers themselves without. The enforcement of monoculture,
too, was not limited to the production end. The laboring populations of Europe
found they had no choice regarding what they ate as they were forced to abandon
their traditional grains for potatoes and corn, foods that provide so many more
calories per acre than those traditionally grown in Europe that it supported a dou-
bling of the population in the century following their introduction (Kloppenburg
and Kleinman 1988). This resonance bet ween disadvantaged classes within the
most advanced nations and interests in the developing world continues. It was a
striking feature of debates during the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on
Trade and Tariffs (GATT) talks (Braman 1990) and characterizes early 2000 strug-
gles over the World Trade Organization. Successful establishment of the division
of labor for the processing of biological information required attention to each
stage of the processing chain—collection, storage, processing, establishment of
propert y rights, distribution, and use—on several fronts. The various activities of
nation-states had the effect of building a global network of biological information
and information technologies much like the global telecommunications infra-
structure, itself comprised of lines and nodes.
There are t wo levels of nodes in the biological information net work. The
first tier was established simultaneously with the building of the first global
telecommunications net work, the telegraph system run by the British, in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Archives were established in the major
cities of Eastern and Western Europe and Russia as gardens, seedbanks,
genebanks, or culture collections. A second tier of nodes was established after
World War II in centers of biodiversit y throughout the developing world via an
international net work of organizations driven by interests of the most advanced
nations, the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR). Both tiers developed to help address logistical issues, and different
t ypes of processing are done in each—the ex situ centers in the developed world
provide sites for development of laboratory and experimental techniques, and
the in situ centers provide opportunities for the study of biological information
in its environmental context. Each has strengths and weaknesses—ex situ collec-
tions involve logistics often so difficult that they are best carried out by military
units, while in situ centers have been criticized for being staffed by scientists
from the developed world who take away information but leave little behind ei-
ther in the way of information or skills or technology transfer.
The building of each tier of nodes in the global biological information net-
work was accompanied by rhetorical justifications. During the first round, as was
done with the free f low of information beginning early in the twentieth century
(Blanchard 1986; Braman 1990), this was accomplished by simultaneously de-
scribing biological information as “the propert y of all humankind” and therefore
free for the taking, and as a form of propert y over which ownership rights can
then be asserted by those who take. The intellectual propert y law system that was
developed to hold this together was sometimes surprisingly concrete: the US
Patent Office itself was one of the most aggressive agents for the collection and re-
distribution of biological information in the world in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
THE CONTEMPOR ARY SITUATION
Many of the factors that have historically affected decision-making about the dis-
tribution of biological information—transportation, geopolitical stabilit y, nature
of the labor force, available technologies, cultural factors—are path-dependent
and sensitive to structural forces. The use of recent meta-technological innova-
tions to handle biological information, with the increase in degrees of freedom
they bring, is increasingly disrupting centuries-old patterns by making it possible
to substitute one agricultural input for another. In so doing, the most advanced
nations are once again destroying the agricultural base of one after another de-
veloping country whose global economic niche to begin with had been a part of
imperial design.
Several strategies have been used by developing countries to respond to
these changes, beginning with the calls for knowledge transfer that were a part of
the New World Information Order conversation in United Nations Educational,
Social, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The reshuff ling of the map in in-
ternational trade, and the rules by which the map is drawn, is taking place today
in a number of intert wined arenas that include international trade, intellectual
propert y rights, and shifts in innovation and diffusion strategies. The loss or de-
cline of some of the world’s greatest genebanks in the countries of the former So-
viet Union and acceleration of the loss of biological information diversit y that is
the result of environmental destruction lend some urgency to these efforts.
Alarm regarding the future of agriculture in the world trading system was
raised as soon as the United States broached the notion of extending interna-
tional agreements regarding trade in goods to f lows of information, or “services”
with the first efforts to the Uruguay Round of GATT talks in the 1980s. Aware
that the United States and others of the most technologically advanced nation-
states were seeking to improve conditions for their newly-important economic sec-
tors, countries in the developing world feared that doing so would only worsen
already-poor trading conditions for developing country economies dependent
upon agriculture. These concerns remain on the table under the institutional con-
ditions that emerged from those talks, including now the GATT, General Agree-
ment on Trade in Services (GATS), and TRIPS, and the WTO as an organization to
implement all of the agreements. While biological information, technologies for
its processing, and the products of its processing are all affected by these broad-
ranging agreements, in 1999 an additional multilateral agreement was added to
the bouquet specifically to protect this t ype of informational resource, the Multi-
lateral Regime for Genetic Resources.
Intellectual propert y rights law has been developing in multiple directions
in response to demands of quite different t ypes of parties concerned about the
preservation and use of biological information. On the one hand, the abilit y to
assert propert y rights over different t ypes of life forms has been steadily ex-
panding since the early t wentieth century. On the other hand, there has been a
slowly rising tide of efforts to develop a theoretical, rhetorical, legal, and insti-
tutional framework for the protection of traditional knowledge and cultures.
Costa Rica led the way in experimentation with contracts bet ween govern-
ments and transnational corporations regarding the terms under which biolog-
ical information could be removed, and ensuring at least some return for the
nation-state on the profits generated from that information by pharmaceutical
and other companies. Governments are also negotiating with indigenous peo-
ples within their own borders for access to both the biological information on
lands over which those peoples have control and to the knowledge those peo-
ples have about how to access and use that information, as the United States
has done with the Blackfoot (Ruppert 1994). While it is certainly a positive sign
that such arrangements can be achieved, to date the funds involved have gener-
ally been shockingly low.
The boundaries of intellectual propert y rights law are being expanded to
permit those rights to be held by communities as well as individuals, and a va-
riet y of different approaches is being taken to try to ensure that traditional, as
well as “new,” forms of knowledge can be protected. Just recently, the Multilat-
eral Agreement on Plant Genetic Resources included a provision to protect
farmers’ rights. Acknowledging the critically important role that farmers have
played in working with the DNA of plants over thousands of years to maximize
the utilit y of that biological information for humans, this provision insists
upon both propert y and decision-making rights of farmers on the basis of these
contributions.
Another important policy innovation, first suggested and operationalized by
the research center nodes (CGIAR) in the global biological information network,
was defining a public domain for biological information. CGIAR has established
rules for identifying which kinds of biological information should be in the public
domain—the basic food grains, those plants upon which the survival of hu-
mankind depends, in the forms of farmers’ varieties and landraces, obsolete vari-
eties, advanced lines, genetic stocks, and wild species—and has puts its own
information of this kind into the hands of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Orga-
nization (FAO) for safekeeping as part of its program on Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture. In 1998, CGIAR called for a moratorium on granting
intellectual propert y rights on this “designated plant germ plasm,” claiming it
should be held “in trust for the benefit of the international communit y, in partic-
ular the developing countries.”
Nation-states themselves are increasingly claiming to hold intellectual prop-
ert y rights over biological information, thus presenting a completely different pol-
icy profile from that presented for human communications and information. In
some cases this is done by fiat (as the South African government has done with an
AIDS vaccine), and in some cases by law (as when the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office gives a government agency, the National Institute of Health, patents for all
ex vivo techniques used in gene therapy). Governments also negotiate terms for
the collection and processing of the biological information of their human popu-
lations, as in the case of Iceland, which has agreed to permit scientists to analyze
the genetic makeup of the entire population. (The Human Genome Diversit y Pro-
ject is collecting the biological information of a number of peoples defined as rel-
atively isolated, a practice called “harvesting” their diversit y [McNally and
Wheale 1996].)
Other developments have been strategically conceptual. The concept of
food securit y has been linked to notions of national securit y, a move that has
been successful in raising the salience of policies dealing with biotechnologies
on the global agenda. While in the 1980s agriculture was pitted against the in-
formation economy, today’s agricultural organizations and corporations empha-
size the fundamental dependence of the entire global economy upon biological
information. As it says on the website for the FAO’s Commission on Genetic Re-
sources (www.iisd.ca/linkages/biodiv/comm7.html), “Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) are the biological basis of world food securit y
and, directly or indirectly, support the livelihoods of every person on Earth.”
Innovation strategies have also changed. They have come in response not only
to political criticism, but also to repeated experiences of devastation wrought by
the vulnerabilities of agricultural monocultures—one of the first actions of the

United States upon the fall of the Soviet Union was to rush to Russia for ge-
netic stocks needed to recuperate from a devastating blight on the monocultural
U.S. corn crop. The new approach to development of crops for sustainable agri-
culture of a kind that can best address the world’s food needs is called “base-
broadening.” While during the modern period biological information was
sorted and processed in geographically centralized sites for redistribution
around the globe according to what was determined to maximize comparative
advantage, the postmodern approach to the collection, processing, sorting, and
redistribution of biological information is to centralize it not geographically, but
within the seed itself. The research effort now is to find ways of incorporating
all of the potential advantages of a genestock available for a species into seeds to
be distributed locally for differential adaptation to local contexts.
SUMMARY
The collection and redistribution of biological information was central to the im-
perial enterprise, and thus to the structuration processes shaping the basic ge-
ography of international trade. In this, biotechnology has relied upon and
contributed to the exercise of power in its instrumental, structural, and symbolic
forms by nation-states. The increase in the meta-technological characteristics gen-
erated by biotechnological innovation in recent years, however, has destabilized
the global structure as actors of a wide variet y of t ypes—many historically with-
out any real power in the international or, often, local arenas—learn how to use
the genetic power now newly available. The results of this shift for international
relations are three fold: there is an increase in turbulence and uncertaint y in the
international trade system, attention of the international trade system has
turned from product to process, and new modes of action and t ypes of agents
have been enabled by recent biotechnological innovation. Biological and digital
information technologies are now converging in the area of international trade
not only in what is traded but in the revamping of the intellectual propert y rights
system in such a way that changes directed at problems raised by either will be
applied to both.
Nation-states are players in this process in four different ways. They can con-
tract for ownership of or control over domestic biological information resources
with those local entities that have historically had control. They can simply assert
national ownership of and control over unprocessed domestic biological infor-
mation resources. They can assert control over biotechnologies and their products
that are invented by their citizens. Finally, the biological information of the citi-
zenry itself can be treated as a resource.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND DEFENSE
The use of biological information as a destructive weapon is ancient, and the

eruption of conf lict over access to biological information (at least in the form of
reproducible food) even older. Over the past couple of centuries, biotechnologies
have also been important to the logistics and economics of war. Today, tensions
over access to biological information and the value to be added from its process-
ing are so keen that there is talk of “seed wars” and “gene wars.” Advances in the
abilit y to process such information have been important in improving the capac-
it y to conduct war, providing not only weapons but also logistical support and tac-
tical and strategic diversit y. The mega-industry that has developed as a result of
mergers among corporations in the previously distinct chemical, pharmaceutical,
agricultural, food, and brewing industries is today part of a net work of defense
producers and suppliers that includes those in the nuclear and ballistic missile
industries as well (Frankel 1991).
Biological and digital information technologies are now directly linked. The
US defense establishment is now encouraging research that will permit co-design
of soldiers and the weapons they use, the former involving biotechnologies and
the latter digital information technologies intended to complement each other,
and the Japanese government has announced that it is holding off on using soft-
ware commissioned to support government functions and services because they
discovered some of the programming had been handled by the same terrorist
group that had launched a biological weapon on a subway. The movement from
metaphor to realit y could not be more clear than here—the Japanese government
fears a digital explosive contagion of the same kind that had been experienced
using biological information.
HISTORY
Biotechnologies have been important to war economically by providing direct

economic support, serving as an affordable and accessible source of resources,
and making import substitution possible (Bud 1993; Kloppenburg 1988). In
turn, military spending on R&D in the area of biotechnology is believed to have
a trickle-down effect in terms of innovation that is economically important to the
domestic economy as a whole during peace as well as war. De Landa (1991) goes
so far as to argue that agriculture itself first evolved out of defense needs, when
the walled cit y was built and then needed systematized agriculture to feed its
population. A different t ype of trickle-down may be noted in Japan, a country
that had been using biotechnologies to treat sewage as early as 1914 and to pro-
duce ethanol by 1935—but which also began to experiment with the use of
radioactivit y to process DNA for commercial purposes from the mid-1940s on

(Krimsky 1991).
The use of biological information in raw or processed form has provided
high drama: The Tatars were the first to use disease as a weapon in the fourteenth
century by catapulting dead bodies over cit y walls (van Creveld 1991), a practice
continued during peacetime by Europeans who diffused smallpox via blankets
throughout the indigenous populations of North America (Wiegele 1991). The in-
vention of pasteurization transformed warfare by vastly extending its logistical
range and led to the granting of the first patent ever on something living, given to
Pasteur (Macksey 1989; McKibben 1996). By the early nineteenth century, nation-
states had begun to support research in this area out of interest in the potential of
biotechnologies to the development of new weapons; this was successful—the first
biotechnology-derived explosives appeared in the 1840s, about the same time as
the telegraph (Pearton 1984).
The first use of biotechnologically-derived bacteria as a weapon came during
World War I, when the Germans used anthrax against Allied livestock (van Crev-
eld 1991). Chaim Weizmann raised economic support for Israel long before it was
a nation-state by offering to commercialize the biotechnological processes he had
developed during World War I for the production of explosives (Bud 1993). Since
that time, the Japanese, British, Americans, and others have been accused of, or
admitted, to the use of biological weapons (as often discussed in Arms Control
Reporter).
Food power is another way in which biological information has been impor-
tant as a tool of war. The concept of the right to food entered political discourse as
early as the French Revolution. Food power had what Paarlberg (1985) describes
as “historic credibilit y” from its importance in Britain during the mercantilist era.
Attention to the use of food as a weapon revived in the early 1970s when the
United States began to sell grain to the U.S.S.R. in order to prevent mass starva-
tion during the oil crisis, though, as recently as Reagan’s administration, the with-
holding of food from a population in order to achieve military ends was still held
in moral disdain by most.
In 1986 the Department of Defense identified as areas in which biotechnology

might be of use in the future development of new highly infections and toxic
viruses, modification of the DNA of target populations as a way of altering the bi-
ological functioning of individual organisms, altering the immunological charac-
teristics of diseases for which vaccines already have been found, and bringing
toxins into use that have long been known but weren’t until recently feasible to
use because it hadn’t been possible to manufacture them in sufficient amounts. By

1999, the DoD had added to this list modification of soldiers themselves in a
process of co-design of soldiers and weaponry. The use of biotechnologies as
weaponry remains difficult from the peacemaking and peacekeeping perspective
because of the difficult y of verifying compliance with arms control agreements
when the weapons under discussion are biological and chemical—disarmament
within the communit y of molecular biologists means biological containment
(Rabin 1987).
For national securit y reasons, the export of biotechnologies is restricted; ex-
port controls had been specifically applied by the early 1990s to biosensors and
biochips (technologies that process biological information for computing pur-
poses) (Wiegele 1991). Technologies that deliver biological weapons are also of
concern (Branscomb 1993). These t ypes of restrictions exacerbate tensions raised
in the trade arena between nations in the developed and developing worlds.
Technological innovations make a difference in the utilit y of biology-based
weapons because they provide a means of addressing historic problems in their
use: the need for sophisticated manufacturing, testing, and storage capabilities for
materials that are often fragile and ephemeral; a delivery system; and the abilit y
to protect one’s own troops and population (Wiegele 1991). Still, there are prob-
lems: biological weapons are unpredictable once released and often undetectable
in production and use, but are relatively transportable and needed only in very
small quantities. For the same reason, however, they are particularly appealing to
small terrorist groups of limited logistical or technological capacit y.
Those who oppose the use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs, or GM)
in foods believe that this use of biotechnology by corporations is in essence an act
of war against farmers, who have not only lost their means of production but also
the cultures within which those means of production were embedded and which
they in turn sustained. They also believe it is an act of war against consumers, who
are losing the opportunit y to maintain their health through diet. Growing aware-
ness of the environmental dimensions of national securit y—the notion that envi-
ronmental health is the most fundamental need in terms of survival—has also
encouraged increasing attention to the technologies through which biological
information is collected, processed, distributed, stored, owned, and used.
SUMMARY
Biological information and the technologies that process them have been impor-
tant throughout human history both as causes of war and as tools used in the
fighting of war. While the most obvious uses in both domains involve the use of
instrumental power, the value of biotechnology in increasing state capacit y in
areas like logistics—how far across space and time military efforts can be ex-
tended—has meant that these technologies have also been useful in the exercise of
structural power. (Structural power, in turn, has been used to stimulate biotech-
nological innovation.) The deep linkages of certain biological information with
national and cultural identities have provided an additional symbolic dimension
to the role of biotechnology in war historically.
Today, the increase in degrees of freedom with which inputs can be trans-
formed into outputs made possible by the meta-technological characteristics of
biotechnology has increased the utilit y of biotechnology for the exercise of genetic
power as well. Wars, whether psychological, political, or military, are being fought
not over access to information but over the refusal to accept a fundamental trans-
formation of biological information, in the debate over acceptance of genetically-
modified foods. Talk of gene wars and seed wars fills newspapers. The military
situation is considered far less stable than it was during the Cold War not only be-
cause of the diffusion of nuclear capacit y but because of the new possibilities of in-
formation warfare using both digital and biological information and the
technologies that process them. Meanwhile one cutting edge of military R&D
looks to co-design of soldiers and weaponry, using both technologies that process
digital information and those that process biological information.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE
Geographic f lows of biological information for agricultural purposes are as old

as human societ y; indeed, some claim language itself arose to serve the need to
share knowledge of how to work with biological information. It is fundamental
to the most intimate and necessary of human activities—what we eat, where we
live, how we stay healthy. After a long slow curve of innovation that began with
the use of yeasts to ferment drinks and leaven bread over 9,000 years ago (and
perhaps deliberate plant breeding longer ago than that), the study of biotech-
nologies as a science arose over the course of the nineteenth and t wentieth cen-
turies at the intersection of the scholarly disciplines of biology, chemistry, and
botany, and of the industries of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food,
and zymotology (brewing). Discoveries of the last few decades have enabled an
explosive growth of innovation in this area just as digitization of information did
for human communication and computing systems. By 2000, products that re-
sulted from the use of these were so widely distributed that concern over them
provoked mass political activit y in cities around the world. The fact that they are
often hidden in products in imperceptible ways fuels the social fears and specu-
lations that led Ulrich Beck to describe contemporary societ y as a “risk societ y”
(1992). Meanwhile evidence rises that unintended side effects of the use of
biotechnologically manipulated germ plasm are often harmful and potentially

disastrous, as in the death of monarch butterf lies who eat pollen from geneti-
cally manipulated corn.
HISTORY
The Columbian Explosion and establishment of the international division of

labor in the production of biological information marked a first stage of the use of
such information to dramatically alter the nature of agricultural practice, product,
and culture for a large proportion of the world’s populations, though earlier mi-
grations of people and thousands of years of long-distance trade had transformed
practices, foods, and products on another scale. By World War II, plant breeding
was perceived as an explicitly political tool of American foreign and economic pol-
icy (Kloppenburg 1988).
A second stage was launched by the Green Revolution of the 1960s, when
US-developed genetically specialized seeds were distributed throughout the devel-
oping world. While the Green Revolution was motivated at least in part by the hu-
manitarian goal of helping to feed the world’s hungry—itself serving the
geopolitical goal of ostensibly helping peoples in the developing world resist Com-
munism—it also served to further extend monocultural practices. The result
served well the economic interests of the US agricultural industry.
Most profoundly—in a story well told by Kloppenburg in his book, First the
Seed (1988)—the Green Revolution succeeded in commodifying the biological in-
formation of the most fundamental human crops by developing seed that would
not reproduce. Without the abilit y to store seeds from one year’s crops to use for
the next, societies are forced out of self-sustenance and into the global cash econ-
omy, and societies, as cultural geographer Carl Sauer warned would happen early
on, are destroyed. While some seeds developed in recent decades through the use
of biotechnologies may reproduce, they will do so in ways that do not reproduce
the desirable characteristics of the original. Over time, more and more inputs into
the agricultural process, including herbicides and pesticides, have been incorpo-
rated into plants themselves via genetic modification through a process of
“bundling” that is the reverse of the “unbundling” that has characterized treat-
ment in recent decades of digital information technologies and the services they
offer. Agriculture itself has become increasingly information-intensive on the ma-
chine side as well throughout the t wentieth century. The highest levels of tele-
phone penetration in the United States in the early decades of the t wentieth
century was in the midwestern farm states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and
Illinois; farmers unafraid of machinery and desperate for communicative capacit y
set up their own lines along fences and set up wives as operators in farm kitchens.
Both internationally and domestically, while some are resisting genetically-modi-

fied foods, many farmers are instead seeking the right to use, reproduce, and sell
the seeds to such foods. Battles over whether or not farmers have the right to plant
or sell that genetically-modified seed that does survive are so intense that they
have already risen to the US Supreme Court (Asgrow Seeds 1995). This issue is
likely to be revisited legally at both national and international levels.
Recent biotechnological innovations have also contributed to change in the
structure of the agricultural industry. The first industry, agriculture long stood
alone. But here, too, as elsewhere in the economic world, global oligopolistic en-
terprises are consuming enterprise after enterprise and now, industry after in-
dustry. Most agricultural business is today conducted as part of the activities of
a few global entities in the now-merged agriculture-food-chemical-pharmaceuti-
cal industry, with its enormous advantages of economies of scale and vertical
integration.
It is biotechnology companies rather than the information technology firms
of Silicon Valley that represent the leading edge of the evolution of organizational
form, one of the most commented-upon characteristics of the information societ y.
Three ways in which this is so can be identified: relationships between small and
large firms; relationships among universities, corporations, and the government;
and the development of financial instruments. Biotechnology has led in the de-
velopment of new t ypes of relationships between transnational corporations and
small research boutiques, with the former often financially controlling the latter
while simultaneously distancing themselves from the research phase of the R&D
process in an effort to minimize risk and maximize whatever it is that makes a gen-
uinely innovative environment. Companies in the biotechnology sector have been
among the most adventuresome in the crafting of financial instruments to fund
their enterprises. Much of this has been in the area of what might be termed vir-
tual finance, dealing with speculative futures and the conceptual vagaries of what
are being called real options.
Biotechnology has also led the way, by a decade or more, in the redefini-
tion of relationships bet ween government, industry, and higher education that
is now unfolding across disciplines—today led as much by dollars for implement-
ing the use of new information technologies as it is by the research funding
that has historically served as the linchpin of the relationship. As universit y-
based researchers spin off their own biotechnology research firms—or as uni-
versities tr y to hold to themselves the patents on innovations developed by
their faculties—there are ripple effects on the sociology of knowledge, for the
circulation of scholarly information through collegial venues is reduced. This
is an interesting turn in a history that begins with the federal government han-
dling all agricultural research itself, first via the Patent Office and then, via the
Department of Agriculture, that entit y spawned in public universities with the
establishment of the land grant system in the second half of the nineteenth
centur y. Ironically, however, most farmers themselves could not see the value
in this t ype of agricultural research until it became clear that it was the result
of such research that opened up the international market with the Green Rev-
olution. Today, government agencies that may have funded universit y-based
biotechnology research at times find themselves struggling competitively with
the universities themselves for control of the intellectual propert y rights over
inventions thus generated.
More recently, farmers were among the first individual users of GPS systems,
with equipment built into tractors to enable them to more precisely fertilize and
water their fields. They were early users as well of electronic means of tracking
sometimes volatile markets.
SUMMARY
The effects of recent advances in biotechnologies on agriculture as a domain of

international relations have been several. They have changed the rules of the
game regarding the international division of labor, pulling out from under many
former colonial societies the economic underpinnings upon which they had
come to rely after the lengthy imperial experience. In turn, however, new oppor-
tunities for endogenously-driven definitions of a societ y’s agricultural orientation
may be opening up as a result of increasing biotechnological sophistication and
its concomitant access to genetic power.
Interestingly, there are tensions so strong that they are generating open
conf lict at both extremes of the spectrum of possible responses to the use of ge-
netically-modified seeds. Some consumers in North America and in Europe are
so resistant to the use of such seed that they are trying to shut down interna-
tional trade negotiations, on the one hand. On the other, the desire of many
farmers within both developing and developed countries is so extreme that the
issue has already, for example, risen to the Supreme Court level in the United
States. Acceptance or rejection of the processing of biological information in
certain ways has thus become added to the panoply of tools available to nation-
states seeking to improve conditions for their own agricultural producers in the
global market, or for those trying to protect certain cultural, health, or envi-
ronmental positions.
Thus in agriculture, too, it is the meta-technological characteristics of bio-
technology that are having the most impact on international relations, and again
because these meta-technologies enable the use of genetic power.
BIOTECHNOLOGY, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,

AND GENETIC POWER
While the transformational characteristics of biotechnologies that qualify them as

meta-technologies have always been there, the extraordinary increase in their
meta-technological capacit y and the speed at which that capacit y is growing today
are at the center of fundamental changes in the subject and practice of interna-
tional relations. In every domain—trade, defense, and agriculture—the use of
biotechnologies has been key among the forces that are disturbing equilibria, dis-
rupting centuries-old patterns, increasing turbulence, unpredictabilit y and, some
would argue, risk. The global division of labor of the last several hundred years is
unraveling as monoculture economies become undermined when the use of
biotechnologies enables replacement of commodities they have long produced,
thus increasing geopolitical instabilit y.
The recognition that some genetic power is available to nation-states and
societies in the developing world as a result of their control over what is by far
the larger proportion of biological information resources is leading to a shift in
the balance of power bet ween the developed and developing worlds, and within
the developing world. While the success of new t ypes of contractual arrange-
ments, the expansion of intellectual propert y rights, establishment of a public
domain for biological information and other recent developments should not be
over-stated, these trends do mark a significant—and positive—change in direc-
tion for the global system. The need to deal with the products of biotechno-
logical processing has also significantly contributed to a shift in attention in
international trading arenas from product to process, echoing a similar shift in
the competitive target for those seeking to assert intellectual propert y rights.
The convergence of technologies that process biological information with
those that process digital information is marking each domain of international
relations. The evolution of intellectual propert y rights regime that is the lynch-
pin of today’s international trading system simultaneously affects both t ypes of
meta-technologies; indeed, lawsuits are already being pressed that use law devel-
oped in response to one t ype of meta-technology to seek redress for harm caused
using the other (e.g., Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expenses Board
1999). The U.S. defense establishment is now encouraging complementary
research in the use of the t wo t ypes of meta-technologies, and there is fear that
those engaged in information warfare may well do so using both biological and
digital information as weapons or subjects of attack. In agriculture, the sites of
convergence include the increasing information-intensivit y of farming equipment
and commodities markets, and it is the use of new information technologies that
has enabled the rise of the large oligopolistic firms that now dominate the global
pharmaceutical-chemical-agricultural-food industry.
The two earlier transformations in the relationships of societ y to biological

information and biotechnologies resulted from its interactions with capital. First
the international division of labor was used to generate capital for those in the im-
perial center, and then the biological information itself became commoditized.
The current period of transformation, marked as it is by a noted and sustained
lack of actual profitabilit y on the part of biotechnology firms, has to do with capi-
tal of another sort. (Money is, of course, only one form of capital, which is in
essence the capacit y to make things happen.) Criticism of the way in which the
concept of comparative advantage was operationalized during the colonial and
early postcolonial periods does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the con-
cept itself must be abandoned. Though in the past implementation of the concept
started from the notion that the design of such a system was better done through
centralized planning than through self-organization, it is possible to imagine a
global economic system in which each societ y’s niche is defined endogenously
rather than exogenously, and according to variables that include social, cultural,
political, and environmental goals as well as economic.
The issues raised here should be familiar. They are the same issues that arise
as a result of the use of digital information technologies: access to information; the
tension between ownership of information and the value added by its processing;
and conf licts generated among the multiplicit y of functions the same information
plays in societ y, from cultural to economic. The simultaneous study of the t wo
t ypes of informational meta-technologies should enhance our abilit y to under-
stand the meta-technological effects that they share in common and thus expand
the conceptual and policy toolkits we have available to deal with each. Elsewhere,
for example, analysis of the treatment of facticit y in the realm of biological infor-
mation reveals a distinction between first, second, and third order facticit y issues
evident in the treatment of biological information that could usefully be applied
to the complex of questions dealing with facticit y so centrally important to com-
munications law (Braman 1999).
Because the two types of meta-technologies are themselves converging, the need
to keep them both in vision at the same time is growing. This approach is valuable
for illuminating not only problems currently on the table, but also those that are not
yet emergent but surely coming. Only in this way, for example, does it become evident
that the treatment of bundling of different types of information processing is headed
in opposite directions as applied to biological as opposed to digital information; while
policy is encouraging the unbundling of different types of information processing as
applied to the latter, it is encouraging bundling as applied to the former. As with the
impossibilit y of simultaneously applying quite different legal systems to converged
communication and computing technologies, it will be impossible for both of these
policy positions regarding bundling to simultaneously be applied to converged bio-
logical information and digital information technologies and their products.
The capacit y for genetic power newly available to both state and nonstate
players because of advances in the meta-technologies such as biotechnologies has
shifted the balance within and framework for global relations. It is hoped that
identification of this fundamental change will contribute to the abilit y to analyze
distinctions among t ypes of power, responses to them, and development of ca-
pacit y for them.
REFERENCES
Arms Control Reporter.

Asgrow Seed Co. v Denny Winterboer. 1995. 33 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1430, 115 S. Ct. 788, 130
L.Ed. 2d 682, 63 U.S.L.W. 4055.
Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Toward a New Modernity. London: Sage Publications.
Blanchard, Margaret. 1986. Exporting the First Amendment. New York: Longman.
Braman, Sandra. 1990. Trade and information policy. Media, Culture and Society. 12:
361–385.
———. 1993. Harmonization of Systems: The Third Stage of the Information Societ y. Jour-
nal of Communication. 43(3): 133–140).
———. 1995. Horizons of the State: Information Policy and Power. Journal of Communication.
45(4): 4–24.
———. 1999. “Are Facts Not Flowers?” Genetic Information and Facticit y. Presented to the
International Communication Association, San Francisco. (May)
———. forthcoming. Update: From the GATT to the WTO: Snapping in the global trade
wind. In Justin Lewis and Toby Miller, eds. Cultural Policy: A reader. Oxford UK:
Blackwell.
Branscomb, Lewis. 1993. Empowering Technologies: Implementing a US Policy. Cambridge:
MIT Press.
Braudel, Fernand. 1977. Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism. trans. Patri-
cia M. Ranum. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Universit y Press.
Bud, Robert. 1993. The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versit y Press.
CGIAR. 1998. Report of the Genetic Resources Policy Committee. Washington, D.C.: CGIAR,
document MTM/98/07.
Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. 1999. Progress Report on the
World’s Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources. Rome,
Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations.
De Landa, Manuel. 1991. War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. New York: Zone.
Dezalay, Yves, and Bryant G. Garth. 1998. Dealing in Virtue: International Commercial Ar-
bitration and The Construction of a Transnational Legal Order. Chicago: Universit y
of Chicago Press.
FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources website, http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/biodiv/
comm7.html.
Florida Prepaid Post-Secondary Education Expense Board v College Savings Bank & US. 1999.
119 SCt 2199, 144 LEd2d 575.
Frankel, Benjamin, ed. 1991. Opaque Nuclear Proliferation: Methodological and Policy Impli-
cations. London: Frank Cass and Company Limited.
Frankel, Otto H. 1988. Genetic Resources: Evolutionary and Social Responsibilities. In
Jack Kloppenburg, ed. Seeds and Sovereignty: The Use and Control of Plant Genetic
Resources. Durham, NC: Duke Universit y Press. 19–48.
Kloppenburg, Jack Ralph Jr. 1988. First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnol-
ogy. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Kloppenburg, Jack Jr., and Daniel L. Kleinman. 1988b. Plant Genetic Resources: The Com-
mon Bowl. In Jack R. Kloppenburg, Jr., ed., Seeds and Sovereignty: The Use and
Control of Plant Genetic Resources. Durham, NC: Duke Universit y Press. 1–18.
Krimsky, Sheldon. 1991. Biotechnics & Society: The Rise of Industrial Genetics. New York:
Praeger.
Lessig, Lawrence. 1999. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.
Macksey, Kenneth. 1989. For Want of a Nail: The Impact of War on Logistics and Communi-
cations. London: Brassey’s (UK) Ltd.
McKibben, Bill. 1996. Some Versions of Pastoral. The New York Review of Books. New York:
McNally & Wheale. July 11. 42–45.
McNally, Ruth, and Peter Wheale. 1996. Biopatenting and Biodiversit y: Comparative
Advantages in the New Global Order. The Ecologist. (Sept.–Oct.) 26(5):
222–229.
The Economist. 1994. Needed: Seed money. Sept. 10 332(7880):100.
Paarlberg, Robert L. 1985. Food Trade and Foreign Policy: India, the Soviet Union, and the
United States. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Pearton, Maurice. 1984. Diplomacy, War and Technology since 1830. Lawrence: Universit y
Press of Kansas.
Poitras, Manuel. 1997. “Biotechnologies, Commodification and Restructuring.” Presented
to the International Studies Association, Toronto. March.
Rabin, Robert. 1987. Sustaining American Leadership in Biotechnology. In Indra K. Vasil,
ed., Biotechnology: Perspectives, Policies, and Issues. Gainesville: Universit y of

Florida Press. 229–234.
Richards, Thomas. 1993. The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire. New
York: Verso.
Ruppert, David. 1994. Buying Secrets: Federal Government Procurement of Intellectual
Cultural Propert y. In Tom Greaves, ed., Intellectual Property Rights for Indigenous
Peoples: A Sourcebook. Oklahoma Cit y, OK: Societ y for Applied Anthropology.
111–128.
Sedjo, Roger A., and R. David Simpson. 1995. Propert y Rights Contracting and the
Commercialization of Biodiversit y. In Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill, eds.,
Wildlife in the Marketplace, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
167–178.
Strobel, Gabrielle. 1993. Seeds in Need: The Vavilov Institute. Science News. (Dec. 18 &
25) 144(25–26): 416–417.
van Creveld, Martin. 1991. Technology and War: From 2000 BC to the Present. rev. ed. New
York: Free Press.
Wiegele, Thomas C. 1991. Biotechnology and International Relations: The Political Dimen-
sions. Gainesville: Universit y of Florida Press.
PART II

AND GOVERNANCE
CHAPTER FIVE
CIRCUITS OF POWER:
SECURITY IN THE INTERNET ENVIRONMENT
RONALD J. DEIBERT
In 1995, the United States Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense
issued a joint press release noting that “The security of information systems and net-
works is the major security challenge of this decade and possibly the next century.”
Given the pantheon of both old and new security threats—from nuclear weapons to
environmental degradation—such a pronouncement was of no minor significance. In-
deed, in a very short time the Internet has acquired a rather ominous association, one
that invokes images of anonymous hackers and crackers, nebulous transnational crim-
inals and money launderers, cyber-terrorists, pornographers and pedophiles. At the
root of this more ominous association is the belief—articulated in an increasingly large
volume of popular and academic literatures—that as societies become more depend-
ent on networked information infrastructures, they also become more vulnerable to
potential electronic catastrophe, either through accident or malicious intent. These
new problems of security in the context of the Internet are the focus of this paper.
As many have commented, securit y is a loaded term that activates a powerful
set of interconnected symbols and ideas. To be thrust into the realm of securit y,
an issue takes on the imprimatur of utmost importance; the division between the
high politics of military securit y affairs and the low politics of economics ref lects
this importance. More specifically, the notion evokes a specific set of responses
characterized by what Paul Chilton calls “metaphors of containment”—that is,
state surveillance of, and territorial defense from, external or outside forces
(1995). A residue of the Westphalian war system—where states have been the pri-
mary aggregations of political power with territorial encroachment from other
states in the system constituting the primary threat—securit y has been tradition-
ally conjoined with policies of fortification, balancing, and a hardening of the
outer shell of the state (Herz 1957). It is because of these associations, and recent
policy initiatives by governments in China, Singapore, Germany, and elsewhere,
that many foresee a coming government “clampdown” on the Internet.
115
Yet a quick glance at some of the ways securit y is being used in conjunction
with the Internet reveals a more complex picture. Certainly the steps taken by the
Chinese government to build a great “firewall” fall in step with the expectations out-
lined above, as do attempts by sectors of the U.S. government to limit the spread of
enhanced encryption technologies. But out of step with these expectations are ideas
concerning networked communications and computer securit y in areas such as
E-commerce or corporate communications. Rather than building walls and clamp-
ing down on the Internet, here the emphasis is on devising policies and protocols
to further accelerate transnational communication f lows. In this sense, securit y is
employed with reference to insuring the validity of purchase transactions, detecting
network viruses, and preventing system crashes—measures designed to free up,
rather than clamp down on the global information infrastructure.
What, then, does securit y in the context of the Internet mean for the devel-
opment of global communications? Is the Internet a securit y threat? If so, to
whom or what is it a threat and in what ways? How will the resolution of the
Internet- securit y problematic affect world order?
A first cut at answering these questions is suggested by several perspectives
falling within the rubric of so-called critical studies of security (Krause and Williams
1996; Lipschutz 1995; Huysmans 1998; Williams 1998). Although diverse, together
these studies provide two basic analytical points that make them especially attractive
to this study. First, they emphasize the historicity of notions of security—that is, that
security is not a notion that is fixed and transparent, but something produced in his-
tory and changes over time (Krause and Williams 1996, 49).1 Second, they under-
score the constitutive nature of collective images of security (Cox 1986, 218–19).2
Ideas and theories of what constitute a security threat, in other words, promote and
reproduce a particular type of world order by privileging a particular set of policy re-
sponses, and an object or referent that is to be secured. Assessments of whether some
issue or actor is a security threat, in other words, always presuppose an object that
requires securing and a type of political order that is valued. Although the latter has
traditionally centered on the nation-state, it need not necessarily be so, and can con-
ceivably encompass other actors or objects in the future.
While these critical perspectives provide a useful framework to assess the var-
ious collective images of securit y in the Internet environment, they are ultimately
incomplete. Although they tell us much about the normative content of compet-
ing collective images, they tell us nothing about which of them will likely pre-
dominate over time. To complete this analysis, we must turn to the material
context in which such collective images circulate, compete, and are facilitated and
constrained. One perspective that can help illuminate this context is an historical
materialist approach to communications called medium theory, developed by the-
orists such as Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan (Innis 1952; McLuhan 1964).
At the heart of the medium theory is the argument that modes of communication
are not mere empt y vessels or transparent channels, but significant causal factors
CIRCUITS OF POWER 117
that have an effect on what is communicated and how. Changes in modes of com-
munication have important implications for societ y and politics depending on the
nature or characteristics of the technology concerned.3
Although this basic proposition has been articulated in different ways by theo-
rists, I have argued that the most useful way to conceptualize it in a nondeterminist
way is by drawing out an analogy used by some medium theorists: media as envi-
ronments (Deibert 1997). Communications environments—defined as the material
properties of communication technologies and the political and economic context
in which such technologies are embedded—facilitate and constrain social forces, col-
lective images, and ideas much the same as natural environments facilitate and con-
strain the reproduction of species. As part of the structural-material landscape in
which human beings interact, communications environments do not generate social
forces, collective images, and ideas de novo; they do not impose thought or behavior.
Rather, they place obstacles and constraints in the face of some, while providing in-
tensity and dynamism to others. An examination of a changing communications en-
vironment can thus help illuminate which collective images will predominate over
time and, in doing so, help to trace the changing contours of world order.
The paper will proceed in the following way: Drawing from a framework de-
rived from a critical securit y studies approach, I will first examine four collective
images of securit y in the Internet environment: national securit y; state securit y;
private securit y; and network securit y. In examining each of the collective images,
I will highlight the differing threat perceptions, objects or referents of securit y,
policy responses, and t ype of world order promoted by each. As will be shown
below, the Internet securit y problematic is not a unified field but a complex inter-
section of interests and values some of which overlap and some of which collide.
To assess which of these competing collective images will predominate over time,
in the final part of the paper I outline several properties of the communications
environment that constrain national, state, and private while supporting the net-
work securit y collective images. In the conclusion to the paper, I sketch out what
some of the implications for world order might be of these developments.
COLLECTIVE IMAGES OF SECURITY IN THE

INTERNET ENVIRONMENT
The Internet phenomenon is well known, even if its social and political impli-
cations are not fully understood. Several histories have been written about its
origins in the United States military-industrial complex, and the unique archi-
tectural principles out of which it has evolved (Hart, Reed, and Bar 1992;
Campbell-Kelly and Aspry 1996; Hafner and Lyon 1996). Its rapid growth and
increasing penetration into societ y—facilitated by cheaper and easier-to-use tech-
nologies—is now well established with more in store for the future. Such growth
and penetration have capped a century or more of radical and fundamental

changes in communication technologies, which have re-shaped nearly every as-
pect of societ y, economics, and politics on a global scale (Castells 1996).4 At the
end of the t wentieth century, we live in a hypermedia environment of planetary
digital electronic telecommunications.
Amidst this new environment, bundles of interests and values are coalescing
and competing with each other, redefining the boundaries of power and author-
it y on a global scale. Circulating through these bundles of interests and values are
several collective images of how securit y should be conceptualized in the Internet
environment. A vast literature has been spawned that extends across several eco-
nomic, political and military spheres. Overlapping in some areas, while colliding
in others, the ideas that inform the Internet securit y problematic present rival per-
spectives on the nature and legitimacy of prevailing power relations, and the
meanings of justice, public good, and order (Cox 1986, 218–219). This swarm of
collective images is the site out of which the contours of future Internet develop-
ment and, to a significant extent, world order will be shaped.
To help disentangle these competing collective images, an analytical template
or framework derived from critical approaches to securit y is particularly helpful.
This framework includes the following questions:
1. In what ways is the Internet seen as presenting a securit y threat?

2. Who or what is presumed to be the object of securit y in this regard?
3. What specific policy measures are deemed necessary in response to that
threat?
4. What t ype of world order is promoted and (re)produced by numbers 1, 2,
and 3, above?
Four collective images will be assessed using this framework: national securit y;
state securit y; private securit y; and network securit y. It should be emphasized that
these collective images are ideal t ypes and not rigid divisions actually existing in
practice. States hold positions and elites makes statements that fuse together ele-
ments of all four. Additionally, there are potential compatibilities between each of
them. As ideal t ypes, however, they help focus analysis on differences, tensions,
and contradictions bet ween dominant collective images of securit y circulating
today in the Internet environment.
NATIONAL SECURITY
The historical relationship between the formation of national identities and com-
munication technologies is well known. As theorists ranging from Harold Innis
and Marshall McLuhan to Benedict Anderson have observed, the development of

mass printing technologies in western Europe was critical in freezing linguistic
drift and cementing collective identities around shared vernacular languages (An-
derson 1983). Further developments in mass media, such as radio and television,
amplified collective cohesion through centralized broadcasting. The integration of
mass broadcasting with state interventionist policies over content resulted in a
hyper-modern fusion of nation and state. It is for these reasons that throughout
the t wentieth century such a high premium has been placed, both theoretically
and in practice, on state control over mass media as a pillar of political develop-
ment. Among totalitarian regimes such controls are absolutely enforced and
rigidly applied. But even among the most benignly liberal-democratic states, pub-
lic broadcasting has been widely perceived as a state responsibilit y to cultivate and
preserve a shared national identit y.
The emergence of the Internet presents a challenge to this historical forma-
tion. Although nations are widely perceived by those who identify with them as
deeply entrenched, there is a realization that their vitalit y is nonetheless contin-
gent on a variet y of political protections in the communications field. Language
laws in Quebec, television and radio content regulations in Canada, film and
video regulations in France and Iran, the outright banning of television in
Afghanistan by the fundamentalist Taliban, all attest to the perception that na-
tional identit y and communication technologies are closely intertwined.5 As new
modes of communication have emerged that are based on principles other than
the mass broadcasting paradigm, these t ypes of protections and regulations have
increased. Protecting culture and identit y has become a critical concern for many
states as globalization has intensified.
To date, the major challenge confronted by these regulations has been the
proliferation of television and radio channels and the accompanying globalization
of the sources of content. While it is debatable whether or not these regulations
have been effective, it is almost certain that they will not be in the net worked
world of the Internet. To understand why this is so, consider content regulations.
The Canadian broadcasting act requires private television licensees to achieve a
yearly Canadian content level of at least 60 percent overall, measured over the
broadcast day, and 50 percent bet ween 6 P.M. and midnight. (As the national
broadcaster, the CBC must ensure that at least 60 percent of its program schedule
consists of Canadian productions.)6 Such a system of regulations can be enforced
because the channels through which broadcasters operate are a scarce resource re-
quiring government allocation. If a broadcaster defied the content regulations, the
broadcasting license could be revoked and the broadcaster would be unable to
reach the audience.
In the Internet environment, however, there is no scarce resource equivalent
to the broadcasting spectrum requiring allocation of channels. Channels are
potentially limitless. Moreover, the audience comes to the broadcaster rather than
the other way around. And broadcasters (meaning website producers) are located
around the world, rather than within the jurisdiction of Canada. To extend tele-
vision content regulations into the Internet environment would thus require a
transformation of the Canadian state into a planetary totalitarian regime—a
remote possibilit y, however desirable the outcome might be for some.
In the meantime, however, the intent of the regulations is gradually under-
mined since anyone connected to the Internet can watch whatever television
broadcasts are made available over the World Wide Web. Today, the technology is
relatively primitive, though vastly superior to what was available just a year or two
ago. Dozens of sites offer choppy “realvideo” broadcasts that range from BBC and
CNN news to pornography. It is not unrealistic to assume that current trends will
continue to the point where thousands of qualit y-produced television programs
from around the world are made available over the World Wide Web. Radio
broadcasts are following a parallel trajectory. Should the integration of media con-
tinue to the point that the Web subsumes television and radio entirely, the point
of continuing broadcasting regulations would seem negligible. The public broad-
caster would be but a whisper in an arena of screams.
From the perspective of this collective image, then, the primary threat that
the Internet poses is its potential undermining of collective national identities.
The primary object of securit y is presumed to be the nation—the imagined com-
munit y of people who share a distinct language or ethnicit y. Of the four collective
images under study here, this collective image is the one with the least visible sup-
port. Several countries (or ministries and departments within these countries),
such as Canada, France, Iran, Iraq, Germany, Vietnam, China, Syria, and Myan-
mar have made official pronouncements that showed a sense of concern about
threats to cultural identit y in the Internet environment.7 With some, such as
Canada and France for example, the sense of concern seems clearly centered on
national and cultural identit y as traditionally understood. In others, however, no-
tably China, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Myanmar, the concern with national
and cultural identit y is difficult to disentangle from a concern with state or regime
securit y, a collective image that will be dealt with in the next section and one that
should be kept distinct. Despite the ambiguit y of these cases, it is clear that there is
a constituency across several countries that views the Internet as a potential threat
to cultural securit y.
The specific policy responses that are forming around this collective image
vary widely. Among liberal-democratic states, such as Canada and France, there is
a principled reluctance to censor or block out communications with the rest of the
world.8 An important exception is the willingness to censor communications that
violate norms of decency, a measure that has been attempted over the Internet
with uneven success by the United States, Germany, and others.9 Apart from cen-
soring indecent communications, the primary policy response appears to be active

state support to ensure a national voice has a presence on the Internet. For exam-
ple, the Canadian Heritage Ministry states as its goal to “increase the creation,
production and distribution of high qualit y Canadian content in both official lan-
guages to sustain a strong Canadian presence in conventional and new media.”10
This has and supposedly will entail capital investment in Canadian media indus-
tries and the extension of the Internet into more Canadian communities. Nu-
merous other similar examples could be cited as well.11 The intent of these policies
is to provide the nation with financial and technological life-support systems so
that it will survive amidst the harsh climate of the Internet environment.
A second policy response among liberal-democratic regimes has been to form
“cultural alliances” in order to build up widespread support for cultural protec-
tions in trade regime negotiations. For example, in July 1998, cultural ministers
from several countries (with the notable exception of the United States) met to
discuss strategies to form an international alliance of cultural ministries.12 Here,
the efforts were directed in a more conventional way towards building regulatory
fences to control communication f lows. The cultural alliances are the novel as-
pect, though one whose prospects appear dim in the face of more powerful al-
liances oriented in precisely the opposite direction. Opening the market for trade
in so-called cultural products has been the focus of several recent trade negotia-
tions and a major concern of United States trade policy.
Among more authoritarian and conservative regimes, on the other hand, the
policy responses veer much more towards the censoring end of the spectrum with,
in some cases, complete isolation and containment of the population from exposure
to the Internet. Iraq, for example, has banned access to the Internet, calling it a tool
of American imperialism.13 In Myanmar, not only is the Internet outlawed but mere
possession of a computer laptop is a criminal offence punishable with a 15 year sen-
tence.14 Other states have taken a similar route, believing that the best way to pro-
tect cultural identity from the Internet environment is to isolate the cultural group
altogether from it. To repeat, it is difficult to determine whether such a strategy is
more a mechanism for state or regime survival or genuine concern with national
and cultural identity. The policy responses are, nonetheless, identical in each case.
In sum, the national securit y collective image portrays the Internet as a po-
tential securit y threat to collective identities, with the nation or culture perceived
to be the primary object of securit y. While this collective securit y image certainly
does not dominate the landscape on Internet politics, it has colored the perspec-
tives of several government ministries and countries around the world. The pol-
icy options pursued as a function of this collective image have ranged from
complete isolation and containment to active state intervention and promotion of
national expression on the Internet. The world order promoted by this collective
image is a relatively insular system of nation-states.
STATE SECURITY
While the national securit y collective image may not dominate the world political
landscape, one that is gaining significantly more exposure is characterized by a
traditional concern with threats to the power and authorit y of the state apparatus.
Particularly in the United States, though having echoes that reach across the
world, concerns have been raised about the potential use of the Internet for
strategic military purposes. These concerns are embedded in a highly elaborate
debate within military intelligence circles—again, based primarily in the United
States—about the changing nature of warfare, although the latter issue has far
greater scope (Arquilla and Ronfeldt 1997).15 A second major concern is the loss
of state power and authorit y because of the unique properties of the Internet, par-
ticularly the widespread use of encryption technologies. While this collective
image thus has several interrelated dimensions, each perceives the object of secu-
rit y to be the state, defined broadly to include the government and the total terri-
torial space, infrastructure, resources, and people under its control.
The first dimension of this collective image sees the Internet as a potentially
new medium of warfare in which states are actively planning to operate. Several
studies, primarily within the United States securit y communit y, have suggested
states are actively engaged in military preparations for Internet warfare. In a re-
cent report to the U.S. Senate the director of the CIA, George Tenet, said that
China, Russia, and other states have undertaken extraordinary steps to develop
an Internet warfare capabilit y.16 It is difficult to determine the veracit y of these re-
ports, however, since threat construction/distortion is a common practice within
U.S. military intelligence circles. What is clear is that the United States itself is ac-
tively engaged in such preparations, having gone to great lengths to ensure they
receive widespread media exposure (Der Derian 1996). Given the extent of finan-
cial, commercial, and other interdependencies bet ween states, however, the
prospects of t wo large states actually assaulting each other in full-blown “elec-
tronic warfare” seem remote. Scenarios involving stock exchanges being targeted
by states with sophisticated electronic tools of warfare are mitigated by the “blow-
back” that would be unleashed on the initiating state itself, as the ripple effects of
recent financial crises in Asia demonstrate. More realistic, perhaps, would be spo-
radic low-level electronic disruptions undertaken by so-called rogue states, terror-
ists, and other nonstate actors.
Indeed, numerous and increasing incidents of the latter sort have contributed
the most fuel to the rise of this collective image. The most sensational (but least se-
vere) of them have involved the defacing of web pages, including those of NASA,
the CIA, and various government and corporate sites around the world.17 More
consequential and disruptive have been the attacks on electronic infrastructures,
the spread of viruses, the delivery of malicious coding, and the theft or destruction
of data by underground computing groups known as hackers and crackers. Again,

precise estimates are difficult to come by because of the nature of the issue area.
Both corporations and state agencies are generally reluctant to report incidences of
computer intrusions because of the potential loss of confidence in their capabili-
ties. The episodes that have been reported suggest a growing trend, with increas-
ing recognition among government officials of their potential severit y.18
In February 1998, for example, the U.S. Defense Department reported that it
had been the object of a concerted hacker offensive, which turned out to be three
teenagers: two Americans and one Israeli. The latter, going under the codename
Analyzer, claimed that he had access to 400 Department of Defense computers,
though officials maintain no sensitive information was compromised or de-
stroyed.19 In 1997, a Swedish hacker jammed the 911 emergency phone system in
west-central Florida.20 Numerous other episodes could be cited as well.21 The Gen-
eral Accounting Office reported that the U.S. Department of Defense experienced
as many as 250,000 hacker attacks in 1995 alone.22 The perception is that while
such instances have been mostly undertaken by thrill-seeking computer experts
still in their teenage years, there is a real possibilit y that the attacks could become
better organized and funded, and directed towards a clear political agenda. More-
over, the scope and scale of the attacks could increase, with major infrastruc-
tures—such as stock exchanges, telecommunications systems, air traffic control
net works, and other vital conduits—being targeted and crashed. An illustrative
episode along these lines was the theft and destruction of Indian nuclear-related
information from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre by antiwar computer hack-
ers in July 1998.23
Apart from direct threats to physical infrastructures, a second related dimen-
sion of this collective image is the possible loss of state power and authorit y. Con-
tributing to this perception is the spread of various anonymizing technologies—and
in particular publicly distributed encryption software—that undermine the law en-
forcement and intelligence capabilities of states. The encryption issue is complex,
deeply contested, and involves high stakes for several major societal interests. Tra-
ditionally, states have monopolized and tightly controlled sophisticated encryp-
tion technologies for law enforcement and intelligence purposes. Their relatively
greater pools of capital and computing expertise ensured the maintenance of tech-
nological superiorit y over individuals and other private actors.
Gradually, however, developments in computing technologies have led to the
widespread availabilit y of increasingly sophisticated encryption systems, many of
which are shared freely over the Internet. Fueling this development has been a de-
mand among corporations and businesses driven, in part, by the need to ensure
the privacy of their communications vis-à-vis each other, and in part, by a desire
to unleash commerce over the Internet—a topic that will be taken up in more de-
tail below.24 Today, encryption systems are widely available that are practically
impossible to break even for states with access to the most powerful supercom-
puters.25 For law enforcement and intelligence officials, such developments pose a
fundamental challenge to traditional levers of power, particularly various forms of
surveillance, such as signals intelligence (SIGNIT). More broadly, they also present
problems for the enforcement of state regulations that, in turn, could facilitate
organized crime and fraud.26
These concerns in the encryption arena are simply one element of a broader
threat the Internet poses to state power. For example, the control of information
f lows in and out of states for ideological reasons, such as that undertaken by
China, Singapore, Iran, and others, becomes increasingly difficult. Once con-
nected to the Internet, it is almost impossible to prevent, from a central node, ac-
cess to information that is available over the wider net work. According to
Froomkin, “[s]hort of cutting off international telephone service or concluding an
international agreement with all industrialized countries to discontinue telephone
service with foreign countries that harbor remailers, there is little that one can do
keep out messages from any other country, or indeed to keep citizens from send-
ing messages wherever they like” (Froomkin, 1997). Not surprisingly dissident
groups within and outside these countries have organized on the Internet provid-
ing access to politically outlawed material and reporting violations of human
rights.27 Even among liberal-democratic states, similar sentiments have been
raised about the potential broad-based loss of state control over the political
agenda to non-state actors.28
The policy responses associated with this collective image have varied widely.
In response to the possibilit y of attacks on electronic infrastructures, the United
States has taken the lead in focusing on studies, organizational adaptations, and
countermeasures.29 One of the most visible of these was the creation in 1996 of
the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection to assess vul-
nerabilities and threats to critical infrastructures across all government agen-
cies.30 Additionally, all of the armed forces have engaged in wide-ranging studies
and, in some cases, operational changes to meet the challenges of information and
electronic warfare.31 Numerous other nongovernmental and quasi-public organi-
zations have emerged in the information securit y area, though their existence
bridges at least two of the collective images under scrutiny here (state and network
securit y). Although no other state has gone to the lengths of the United States in
this area, other major powers, such as Russia, China, Japan, Great Britain, and
France, have followed a similar, albeit scaled-down, course.
In response to the loss of state power and authorit y—the second dimension
of this collective image—the policy measures undertaken have varied as well de-
pending on the state concerned. In the United States and among most other lib-
eral-democratic states, concern has focused on controlling the unlimited spread
of encryption technologies that do not permit access for law enforcement. The for-
mula that has been adopted with little success to date has been the push for so-
called key-escrow encryption soft ware as the industry standard—a measure that
has been vigorously resisted by businesses and privacy advocates alike. Although
the specifics of various proposals differ, all key-escrow systems allow back door ac-
cess for states to encrypted documents and data. States have also begun to take
tentative steps to collaborate internationally on encryption policies under the aus-
pices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the G8
(Group of Eight industrialized countries), and elsewhere.32
Among non-liberal democratic states, the policy responses have varied de-
pending on the state’s interest in global commerce. For those who do have an in-
terest, policy responses have been characterized by a precarious balancing act that
reveals the contradictions of promoting connections to global information infra-
structures for economic reasons while maintaining political controls over the
f low of information.33 Singapore, for example, characterizes itself as an intelligent
island and prides itself on having one of the deepest penetrations of information
technologies in societ y. Yet it also attempts to maintain vigorous controls over ac-
cess to certain t ypes of information.34 In the Internet environment, such controls
have taken the form of strong restrictions on Internet service providers (ISPs), and
punishment and fines for those who are caught violating them. China has re-
sponded by attempting to minimize the access points, or nodes, to the global In-
ternet—in effect, creating a national intranet or what some have termed the Great
Firewall.35 Chinese authorities have also passed sweeping regulations similar to
those in Singapore against computer hacking, viruses, the leaking of state secrets,
and the spread of “harmful information” over the Internet.36 In announcing the
regulations, the Assistant Minister for Public Securit y, Zhu Entao, said that the In-
ternet “has . . . brought about some securit y problems, including manufacturing
and publicizing harmful information, as well as leaking state secrets” and that the
regulations were necessary to “safeguard national securit y and social stabilit y.”37
Whether or not these t ypes of responses will be technologically effective is, of
course, a separate matter. Among non-liberal democratic states not so concerned
with global commerce, on the other hand, the response has been much more
simply formulated. In Myanmar, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, access to the Internet
is either strictly forbidden altogether or very tightly controlled.
In sum, from the perspective of this collective image the primary threat of
the Internet is the way that it facilitates new nontraditional forms of warfare and
violence, particularly from non-state actors and terrorists. A related threat is the
potential loss of state control over information f lows in and out of the country.
The primary object of securit y is the territorial state or government. Policy re-
sponses have ranged from attempts to create territorial firewalls that funnel In-
ternet communications through official nodes (China) to coercive pressures on
ISPs and citizens to restrict their access and distribution of information (Singapore)
to the promotion of key-escrow encryption technologies (United States). The

world order promoted by this collective image is a system of sovereign states.
PRIVATE SECURITY
The concern with safeguarding privacy has been an integral component of mod-
ern liberal thought and practice since at least the nineteenth century, though ob-
viously having important intellectual precursors prior to that time. Its basic thrust
has been directed towards the protection of the private sphere from what are per-
ceived as the potentially oppressive public forces of state bureaucracies and mass
democracy (Held 1987).38 The concern with privacy is, perhaps, most visible in
the United States experience, with its provisions for individual rights and numer-
ous checks and balances against concentrations of power. However, it is a concern
that is ref lected in all liberal-democratic states around the world and is generally
considered a fundamental human right.
Although perceived threats to privacy are nothing new, advocates around the
world have argued that new technologies, including the Internet, have raised the
stakes considerably (Bennet and Grant 1999; Agre and Rotenberg 1998). Infor-
mation about individuals, which at one time might have had to be manually gath-
ered, filed, and stored, can now be digitized and shared among massive computer
databases. Moreover, as more and more aspects of societ y and economy are folded
into the hypermedia environment, an increasing amount of personal information
is folded in as well. As Lyon puts it, “In numerous ways what was once thought of
as the exception has become the rule, as highly specialized agencies use increas-
ingly sophisticated means of routinely collecting personal data, making us all tar-
gets of monitoring, and possibly objects of suspicion” (1994).
Today, transaction patterns, periodical subscriptions, health and education
records, loan and credit card data, and other t ypes of information help create an
electronic profile of individuals that is then shared among businesses and gov-
ernment ministries (Lyon 1994; Gandy 1993). Such information can then be com-
bined with aerial and space-based surveillance imagery to create sophisticated
topographical maps, called geographic information systems, that provide elec-
tronic profiles of entire neighborhoods on such topics as disease, crime, and in-
come levels (Martin 1991). Many companies offer such services directly over the
Internet.39 On the Internet itself, personal information, such as email addresses
and surfing histories, can be captured from surfers by computer programs located
in websites, which is then used to generate electronic mailing lists for advertising
purposes or to alter site advertisements to match consumer profiles.40 Coupled
with the widespread use of more dispersed centers of surveillance, such as secu-
rit y, handheld video, and web cams, the image that emerges is of a dense elec-
tronic cage in which individuals are totally enmeshed and their lives completely
transparent (Berko 1992). No wonder, then, that Jeremy Bentham’s eighteenth
century design for an all-seeing prison, called the Panopticon, has struck such a
resonant chord with so many adherents to this collective image (Gandy 1993).
The proponents of this collective image include both state and non-state ac-
tors alike. Among many liberal-democratic states, privacy commissioners or min-
istries have been created that have constructed laws and regulations to protect
privacy. Probably the most elaborate of these is the European Data Protection Di-
rective, which went into effect in October 1998.41 The Directive creates a bundle
of rights and protections for privacy that include stringent measures against per-
sonal information trade with companies or countries outside of Europe that do
not abide by the conditions of the privacy regime. Some countries, like China for
example, have no privacy regulations whatsoever, while others, like the United
States, have only minimal ones.
In addition to official privacy commissioners, several high-profile non-state
actors orbit around the privacy issue as advocates. Numerous transnational non-
governmental organizations have emerged that share and publicize information
and lobby governments and corporations, including Privacy International, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and
the Global Internet Libert y Campaign. These groups act as umbrella networks for
the numerous other smaller and more specialized interest groups that share a con-
cern with privacy. The latter range from groups committed to human rights to
cyber-libertarians and anarchists. Indeed, a strong anti-authorit y/antistate streak
still looms large in Internet culture, particularly among many of those inf luential
in its early development.
Apart from the official privacy regulations alluded to above, the common
policy element that unites electronic privacy advocates is for the complete deregu-
lation of encryption technologies—a move that pits them directly against state law
enforcement and intelligence agencies. In what appears to be a paradoxical posi-
tion, electronic privacy advocates lobby hard against any government attempts to
regulate encryption even while arguing that “the genie is out of the bottle” and
that the Internet, by its very nature, is immune to state regulation (Brin 1998).
Nonetheless, the numerous and detailed webpages maintained by these groups
have provided a highly visible touchstone in the ongoing encryption battles. The
coordination among these groups—as in the very prominent “blue ribbon” cam-
paign for Internet free speech—is impressive and suggests a formidable collection
of interest groups. Other technologies that preserve the privacy of Internet surf-
ing, such as anonymous browsers and various software shields, are also developed
and advocated by these groups.
In sum, from this collective image the threat posed by the Internet and
other information technologies is the potential invasion of privacy by states and
corporations. The primary object of securit y is the individual. The policy re-
sponses emerging out of this collective image include strict privacy regulations
and rules that protect personal data and place strictures against how such data
can be used as well as total deregulation of encryption technologies. The world
order promoted by this collective image is a system of liberal states constituted
on the basis of strong human rights and individual privacy protections.
NETWORK SECURITY
One of the more novel perspectives of securit y emerging in the Internet envi-
ronment arises out of the increasing importance of networked information tech-
nologies for all aspects of postindustrial economics, including transnational
production and global finance. New information technologies are inextricably
bound up with fundamental changes in the nature of economic organization,
from the structure of individual firms to the location of production to the move-
ment and character of money and finances (Castells 1996). As this penetration
has increased, and as more and more aspects of societ y become dependent on
networked information infrastructures, a new image of securit y is emerging that
focuses on protecting the networks themselves from systems crash, loss, theft, or
corruption of data, and the disruption of information f lows.
This network securit y image has two related dimensions. The first centers on
protecting the integrit y of data and the f low of information internal to specific
businesses and corporations. As corporate restructuring has evolved away from
hierarchical organizational structures and fixed locations towards adaptable net-
works and multi-locational f lexibilit y (a development itself fundamentally bound
up with new information technologies), ensuring the rapid and reliable f low of in-
formation, as well as the integrit y of such f lows, has become fundamentally im-
portant. Although many corporations regularly lease their own private networks,
called intranets, to ensure the speed and reliabilit y of their data f lows, there is in-
creasing pressure to integrate internal networks to the wider Internet.42 Securing
the f lows has thus become a major concern, particularly as the number of network
attacks has increased.43 Firewalls, virus-protection software, logging and real-time
alarm systems, and various forms of encryption and smart card authentication sys-
tems have been vigorously developed and applied by corporations.44 With reliable
encryption packages, for example, virtual private net works (VPNs) can be devel-
oped which deliver data around the globe using public networks instead of expen-
sive leased lines.45 To give one example, the General Electric Corp. planned to
have, by 2000, “all 12 of its business units purchasing its nonproduction and
maintenance, repair and operations materials . . . via the Internet, for a total of
$5 billion.”46 To help service these needs, a market for net work securit y has
exploded. Site Patrol International Services, for example, provides corporations

not only with the relevant firewall and encryption systems but real-time 24-hour
network monitoring to track incidences, identify potential securit y breaches, and
provide rapid responses as well.47
The second dimension of this image centers on securing f lows of informa-
tion bet ween producers and consumers, a concern that is at the heart of ongoing
attempts to commercialize the World Wide Web but is bound up with broader
changes in the marketplace towards informatization. Almost all banks, for exam-
ple, have invested in and promoted electronic access for customers.48 Partly justi-
fied for customer convenience and competitive pressures, but no doubt related
also to the potential downsizing benefits as well, most every banking transaction
can be done either through electronic tellers, over the telephone, or through
computer access with soft ware packages supplied by the banks. Each step, how-
ever, has necessitated an increasing investment in securit y protocols that in-
cludes not just software and hardware (modem pools, compact discs, leased lines,
secure servers, access control mechanisms, etc), but computer securit y consult-
ants as well.49 The widespread use of smartcards, stored value-devices, and other
digital credit systems for consumer transactions and other services around the
world have also entailed attention to net work securit y protocols and mecha-
nisms as well.50
This convergence of commercialization pressures and new information tech-
nologies in both dimensions has created a vortex of interest on the Internet. The
pressures and expectations surrounding the commercialization of the Internet
and World Wide Web have been large. Predictions have been made for several
years about an enormous market for Internet commerce emerging, ones that until
recently had not been reached (Angelides 1997).51 The main stumbling block has
been precisely the lack of securit y for transactions. Consumers have been gener-
ally reluctant to use their credit cards over the Internet thus stif ling E-commerce.
To improve securit y and unleash friction-free commerce, massive investments
have been made in encryption technologies and electronic payment schemes. Sev-
eral electronic cash systems have emerged, such as Digicash, First Virtual Hold-
ings, NetCash, and Cybercash.52 As a consequence, a marketplace on the Internet
is quickly arising, particularly in those areas—such as financial services and soft-
ware—that lend themselves to networked communications.53
In each of the dimensions noted above—that is, in intra-corporate communi-
cations and corporate-customer communications—ensuring that information net-
works function efficiently and without corruption is of paramount importance.
The network itself is the object or referent of securit y. The scope of the network is
largely non-territorial, though of course the policy deliberations that concern it are
centered in several state jurisdictions. The threats to net work securit y include a
wide range of activities, including: programming errors that could lead to systems
crashes or vulnerabilities; computer fraud and theft; disgruntled insiders and em-
ployees, who intentionally sabotage computer systems; loss of supporting physical
infrastructure; malicious hackers or crackers; industrial or corporate espionage;
and malicious coding and software, such as viruses, Trojan horses, and worms.54
In some respects, this collective image overlaps with the state securit y collec-
tive image outlined earlier. As with the latter, the network securit y image has fo-
cused attention on preventing the illegal penetration of computer systems, the
malicious use of computer viruses, and the potential disruption of major elec-
tronic-dependent infrastructures, such as stock exchanges or air traffic control
systems. The colossal public attention generated around the so-called millennium
bug or Y2K issue, for example, was an area of direct overlap between the two. Like
the state securit y collective image, this image has also contributed to the creation
of numerous organizations devoted to safeguarding computer and information se-
curit y, and the allocation of large amounts of public expenditures towards such
ends. It is for these reasons that the two collective images are often intertwined in
analyses of information securit y.
Important differences stemming from the referent of securit y in each case,
however, warrant keeping the t wo collective images distinct. First, with the net-
work securit y collective image the primary concern is with ensuring the integrit y
of information f lows internal to firms and between firms and consumers. As pro-
duction processes have diffused across territorial boundaries, and as capital mar-
kets become increasingly globalized, these issues have taken on a fundamentally
non-territorial dimension. Salomon Brothers Inc., in other words, is concerned
with safeguarding its transactions regardless of the specific jurisdictions in which
those operations are located. States, on the other hand, are fundamentally con-
cerned with ensuring the securit y of information infrastructures within a partic-
ular territorially delimited space, and only then as a larger function of the
protection of the state itself. In some cases, net works in other national jurisdic-
tions might even be the target of disruption as part of interstate competition.
Second, the net work securit y image is fundamentally oriented towards
reducing the friction and enhancing the velocit y of information f lows. The fol-
lowing quotation from an industry periodical shows the double concern with se-
curit y and speed:
In teaming up with NSTL Inc. . . . to evaluate six leading hardware-based

VPN (virtual private network) devices, we found that all were up to the
securit y challenge, able to fend off more than 200 t ypes of attack. And
in most cases, managing devices remotely was easy. But performance? It
proved problematic, especially for links of T1 (1.544 Mbit/s) or higher.
In worst-case stress testing, devices dropped anywhere from 50 percent
to 85 percent of offered loads—and for applications that rely on lots of
short packets (like corporate intranets), dropped packets can lead to lots
of retransmissions. Say so long to savings on bandwidth.55
The state securit y image, on the other hand, is concerned with restricting, col-
lecting, and blocking information f lows, should such f lows been seen as a threat
to the state. The velocit y of f lows is either incidental, or of a subordinate concern.
The differences are most strikingly apparent in the respective positions taken
on encryption policies. As mentioned above, encryption touches at the heart of
the state’s surveillance capacit y. It is for this reason that most states’ intelligence
and law enforcement agencies have attempted to maintain tight controls over the
export of sophisticated encryption technologies. In some states, the domestic use
of cryptography is tightly controlled as well.56 Corporations, on the other hand,
have come to view encryption as absolutely vital to ensuring network securit y in
both senses outlined above—that is, to protect the integrit y of their intranet f lows
as well as to ensure the securit y of transactions in the emerging electronic mar-
ketplace. It is for this reason that the giants of the corporate and computing world
have invested billions of dollars in developing Internet securit y protocols, includ-
ing encryption, and have been at the forefront of attempts to block government
restrictions.
In sum, from the perspective of the network securit y collective image the pri-
mary threat of the Internet is the potential for systems crash, loss, theft or corrup-
tion of data, and interruption of information f lows. The primary object of securit y
is the network. Policy responses include the development and distribution of highly
sophisticated encryption technologies, systems of secure access, Virtual Private
Networks, Intranets, and digital immune systems. The world order promoted
by this collective image is a system of highly-integrated internationalized states
embedded within a dense network of transnational communication f lows.
COLLECTIVE IMAGES IN THE HYPERMEDIA ENVIRONMENT
The four collective images outlined above circulate as alternative paradigms of In-
ternet organization and, by extension, world order. Which of the four predomi-
nates will have significant consequences for the nature of politics and authorit y
into the twent y-first century. While the analytical framework derived from a criti-
cal securit y studies approach helps illuminate the normative content of these col-
lective images, it does not provide any clues as to which of them will likely
predominate over the others—a limitation shared among critical, postmodern, and
constructivist approaches to world politics generally. To complete the analysis, we
must turn to the material context—the communications environment—in which
these collective images circulate, compete, and are facilitated and constrained.
Obviously, given the considerable support that exists for each of the collec-
tive images above, we should not expect one of them to prevail fully over the oth-
ers in the short-term. The institutional inertia and material interests surrounding
all of these collective images ensure that none will wither immediately. Shifts in
world order—though abrupt in historical terms—occur gradually, often spanning
generations. Three elements of the communications environment, however, sug-
gest that the network securit y collective image will thrive over time while national,
state, and private securit y collective images will be constrained:
1. The packet-switching, non-linear architecture of the Internet environment. One

of the major constraints of the national and state securit y collective images is the
very architecture of the Internet communications environment itself. The Internet
is not a single entit y, but rather a net worked connection among millions of dis-
persed computers. Each of these computers adheres to a common interconnection
standard, known as TCP/IP. This standard enables the use of packet-switching,
which is how information is transmitted through the Internet. In packet-switching,
messages are broken up into discrete units, or packets, that are then routed
through the net work and reassembled once they reach their destination. With
packet-switching technology and the distributed TCP/IP net work, the data that
comprise a single message take multiple independent routes to reach their desti-
nation. Hence the common description of the Internet as a decentralized, anar-
chic net work. The constraint that this architecture presents to the national and
state securit y collective images is that as the network spreads and as communica-
tion f lows become more dense and swift, the difficulties of filtering out or block-
ing particular t ypes of information mounts. There are no single choke points or
nodes through which all information passes, for example. Nor is there any single
route through which particular messages travel. Information is scrambled and dis-
tributed across numerous independent trajectories along the network (Dam and
Lin 1996).57 Although it is possible for states to completely detach themselves
from the network and prevent citizen access altogether, once they opt to connect,
the constraints of the network for censorship and other forms of communication
regulation loom large. Certainly coercion, threats, and intimidation are em-
ployed—perhaps even successfully. From a technological perspective, however, the
architecture of the Internet makes them much more difficult to enforce.
2. Advanced Encryption Technologies. Although the packet-switching architec-
ture of the Internet may make it difficult to filter out or censor particular t ypes of
information, do not digital computing technologies actually facilitate state sur-
veillance—an integral part of the state securit y collective image? Certainly the tools
of electronic surveillance available to states have grown significantly in recent
years, specifically artificial intelligence programs employed in net work surveil-
lance systems, such as the American Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or
FinCEN (Helleiner 1998). In fact, the digital character of information and the
ever-increasing computing power integral to the Internet would actually make the
job of state surveillance enormously more effective were it not for a second prop-
ert y of the communications environment: the wide dissemination of easily acces-
sible and highly-sophisticated encryption technologies. Once the province of state
military and intelligence agencies, the mass popularit y of computers and im-
provements in computing technologies have led to the diffuse development of
highly sophisticated public key encryption systems. Today, encryption soft ware
with keys in the 1000-bit range are freely distributed over the Internet—a level of
sophistication that would be resistant for decades to even the most advanced net-
work of Cray supercomputers at the service of government securit y agencies. Al-
though states may set regulations that prohibit the use and export of such
technologies, the consensus among most is that “the genie is out of the bottle”
(Dam and Lin 1996).58 At best, prohibitions against encryption use and key-
escrow schemes are contrivances to buy time in a losing battle. The encryption
properties of the communications environment clearly favor the privacy and net-
work securit y collective images outlined above.
3. Post-Industrial Global Capitalism. A further boost to the network securit y
collective image is provided by changes in the global political economy, particu-
larly the transnationalization of production and the globalization of finance. Al-
though the full details of the latter are beyond the scope of this paper, they are
well documented elsewhere. What is of relevance, however, is that these changes
have generated a large constituency of powerful interest groups who support the
network securit y collective image. Transnational corporations, particularly in the
knowledge and financial services sectors such as banking, insurance, telecommu-
nications, and entertainment, not only command enormous sums of wealth, but
have a material interest in the development of secure global net works. As their
corporate structures move further in the direction of f lexible, just-in-time pro-
duction arrangements dispersed across multiple national locations involving mo-
bile and wireless communications, their dependence on the net work rises in
importance. This has generated not only a structural pressure on states, but a
powerful constituency actively lobbying for the relaxation of encryption regula-
tions and generating a vast market of ever-sophisticated network securit y products
as well.59 As more states mold their policies according to liberal-capitalist princi-
ples and in the direction of so-called knowledge economies (partially as a product
of the structural pressures of transnational capital), the constituencies resisting or
contradicting the network securit y collective image wither in importance and in-
f luence. Advocates of privacy, though having a largely independent set of con-
cerns, gain in the wake created by this constituency’s support of encryption
technologies, though not enough on their own to override the latter’s hegemony.
Moreoever, the overall transparency of the hypermedia environment in areas that
are unaffected by encryption technologies—the widespread use of surveillance

cameras, to give one example—places additional constraints on the private securit y
collective image (Brin 1998).
CONCLUSION
In words that apply equally well to this analysis, Robert Cox commented that: “It
would, of course, be logically inadmissible, as well as imprudent, to base predic-
tions of future world order upon the foregoing considerations. Their utility is rather
in drawing attention to factors which could incline an emerging world order in one
direction or another” (1986). The analysis presented above suggests that world
order will incline in the direction of a network securit y collective image. Of course,
powerful elements can be identified that favor national, state, and private collective
images as well, including the People’s Republic of China, the U.S. law enforcement
and intelligence communit y, and privacy advocates. This support suggests that all
of the collective images will coexist for some time to come. Given the constraints
and supports of the hypermedia environment, however, we should expect the net-
work securit y collective image to f lourish and become hegemonic over time.
What are the implications for states and world order of the rise and f lourish-
ing of this collective image? What is most significant is that the policies associated
with the network securit y collective image are oriented in precisely the opposite
direction of those traditionally associated with the term securit y. Rather than
erecting walls and hardening territorial shells, the net work securit y collective
image suggests a hastening of transnational communication f lows. As these f lows
of information accelerate, and the networked web of communications becomes in-
creasingly dense, the structural pressures on states will increase accordingly. The
internationalization of the state, and corresponding paralysis of state autonomy
and power, will continue, and even magnify (Cox 1986; Cerny 1995; Deudney
1995). Certainly states have not disappeared, nor should we expect them to. How-
ever, they are in the process of being turned inside out—locked-in and interpene-
trated by an electronic web of their own spinning.60
As dominant securit y concerns shift their focus to the net work, the nature
and exercise of power will be transformed as well. Rather than being associated
with the control of territory—a space-of-places, in Castell’s words—power will in-
creasingly be manifested in the control over a “space-of-f lows” (Castells 1989).
Regulation, direction, and restriction of the tempo and access to circuits of infor-
mation, in other words, could become the most significant bases of political
power (Luke 1991). Like crypto-palities of the new medieval world order, these
transnational private securit y regimes could thus very well represent a new politi-
cal species arising on the world political landscape. They suggest a dispersal of
authorit y to a much wider domain of non-state and private actors, oriented

around new frames of space-time references beyond territorialit y.61
NOTES
1. As Krause and Williams put it, “To understand securit y from a broader perspec-
tive means to look at the ways in which the objects to be secured, the perceptions of threats
to them, and the available means of securing them (both intellectual and material) have
shifted over time.”
2. “Collective Images” is a term I borrow from Robert Cox. He defines collective
images as “differing views as to both the nature and legitimacy of prevailing power rela-
tions, the meanings of justice and public good, and so forth. Whereas intersubjective
meanings are broadly common throughout a particular historical structure and constitute
the common ground of social discourse (including conf lict), collective images may be sev-
eral and opposed. The clash of rival collective images provides evidence of the potential for
alternative paths of development . . .”
3. Cf., James Rosenau’s views on technology in his contribution to this volume.
4. Cf., see also Mark Zacher’s contribution to this volume.
5. Ironically, the same fundamentalist Taliban has its own website, at http://
www.taliban.com/index.html. There, one can read why “[p]rohibition of TV, VCR was
essential to save the societ y from destruction.”
6. See the Canadian Broadcasting Act, 1991, found online at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/
ENG/LEGAL/BROAD_E.HTM
7. See Syria’s on Net, and on Guard. Wired News (July 10 1998). A spokesman for the
Syrian Computer Societ y said that “Our problem is that we are a traditional societ y and we
have to know if there is something that cannot fit with our society.” Ta Ba Hung, Vietnamese
Minister of Science, Technology, and Environment, said that “information f low might affect
badly the cultural identity of the nation.” See Keith B. Richburg, Future Shock: Surfing the
Net in ’Nam, Washington Post. (November 19, 1995). For Iran, see Neil MacFarquhar, With
Mixed Feelings, Iran Tiptoes to the Internet. New York Times (October 8, 1996).
8. For a good overview of Canadian communications policy with special reference
to the Internet, see Eli Turk and David Johnston, “Competitiveness, Access, and Canadian
Content: The Three Pillars of Canadian Internet Policy.” (Paper delivered to the Impact of
the Internet on Communications Policy conference, December 3–5, 1997, Harvard Uni-
versit y, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Found online at: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/
iip/iicompol/Papers/Johnston.html
9. See David Hudson, Germany’s Internet Angst. In Wired News. (June 11, 1998);
Stephen Labaton, Computer Stings Gain Favor as Arrests for Smut Increase. In New York
Times. (September 16, 1995).
10. See Strengthening and Celebrating Canada for the New Millennium. Canadian Her-
itage Portfolio—Overview of Priorities. (Canadian Heritage 1998). Found online at
http://www.pch.gc.ca/mindep/misc/millenium/e-9.html
11. See, for example, France’s Chirac Pledges Computer, Literacy Drive. CNN Online,
(March 10, 1997); French Launch Cyberspace War Against English. In London Times.
(April 14, 1997); and Victoria Shannon, Online Via the French Connection: It Takes a
Global Village. Washington Post. (June 16, 1997).
12. See Culture Forum Eyes CNN Rival. The Toronto Star. (July 1, 1998). The cultural
ministers also discussed plans to create a global news organization to rival CNN.
13. Iraq: Internet Yet Another Tool of American Domination. CNN Online. (Febru-
ary 17, 1997).
14. See Joshua Gordon, East Asian Censors Want to Net the Internet. Christian Sci-
ence Monitor. (November 12, 1996).
15. The Future of Warfare. The Economist. (March 8, 1997).
16. See A Prelude to InfoWar. Reuters (June 24, 1998).
17. NASA Web Site Brief ly Closed Due To Hackers. CNN Online. (March 7, 1997).
18. Jacques Gansler, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for accquisition and technol-
ogy, said that teenage crackers pose a “real threat environment” to national securit y. See
Wayne Madsen, Teens a Threat, Pentagon Says. Wired News. (June 2, 1998). See Pentagon
Reports Cyberattack. Wired News. (February 25, 1998).
19. See James Glave, Hacker Raises Stakes in DOD Attacks. In Wired News (March 4
1998). The teen, Ehud Tenebaum, was eventually arrested by Israeli National Police for “il-
legally accessing computers belonging to the Israeli and United States governments, as well
as hundreds of other commercial and educational institutions in the United States and
elsewhere.”
20. Robert Trigaux, Crackers—the bad apples among hackers—find government and
business easy prey. In Toronto Star. (July 4, 1998).
21. As this paper is being written, yet another hacker incident occurred, this time of
the U.S. Coast Guard computer systems by a disgruntled officer. See Laura DiDio, U.S.
Coast Guard Beefs Up Securit y After Hack. In CNN Online. (July 22, 1998).
22. Trigaux, Crackers.
23. See James Glave, Crackers: We Stole Nuke Data. Wired News (June 3, 1998).
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/12717.html
24. Corporate spying is a major factor in the private development of encryption tech-
nologies. For discussion, see Adam L. Penenberg, Corporate Spies. Forbes Digital Tool.
(April 3, 1998). Online at: http://www.forbes.com/asp/redir.asp?/tool/html/98/apr/
0403/feat.htm
25. “In July 1997, it took 78,000 volunteered computers on the Internet 96 days to
crack a message encrypted with DES (the Data Encryption Standard), a secret key algo-
rithm that uses a 56-bit key. It is estimated that it would take the same computer resources
67 years to crack a secret key algorithm using a 64-bit key and well over 13 billion times that
age of the universe to crack a 128-bit key.” Government of Canada. (February 1998).
26. For an overview, see Vic Sussman, Policing Cyberspace. U.S. News and World Re-
port. (January 23, 1995); M.B. Gayle, Virtual Chaos. Washington Times. (May 8, 1995); Pat
Cooper, Organized Crime Hackers Jeopardize Securit y of U.S. Defense News. (October 3,
1994); Michelle Celarier, What a Tangled Web. Euromoney. (October 1996).
27. See, for example, Michael Clough, Cyberspace: Why Nations Could Fear the In-
ternet. Los Angeles Times. (February 4, 1996); Michael White, Now We’re Watching Big
Brother. The Guardian. (August 3, 1996); Gregory Katz, Zapatistas. The Dallas Morning
News. (March 12, 1995); and Faiza S. Ambah, Dissidents Tap the ‘Net’ to Nettle Arab
Sheikdom. Christian Science Monitor. (August 24, 1995).
28. A particularly illuminating illustration in this respect are the views on anony-
mous re-mailers contained in Strassman and Marlow (1996). See also Swett (July 1995).
29. See the report Information Securit y—Computer Attacks on Department of De-
fense Pose Increasing Risks, Government Accounting Office, (May 1996) for an early study
and recommendations.
30. See the website for the PCCIP at http://www.pccip.gov/. Its first major report, en-
titled Critical Foundations (1997), provided a glimpse of some of the conceptual difficulties
that surround adopting traditional notions of securit y in the new Internet environment,
particularly the blurred distinctions bet ween military, civilian, domestic, and foreign in-
frastructures. The report stated that “[f]ormulas that carefully divide responsibilit y be-
tween foreign defense and domestic law enforcement no longer apply as clearly as they used
to. “With the existing rules, you may have to solve the crime before you can decide who has
the authorit y to investigate it.”
31. See Securit y Team Finds Pentagon Computers Unsecured, CNN Online (April 16,
1998) for details on counter-intelligence efforts at the Pentagon and elsewhere.
32. See the report OECD, Cryptography Policy: The Guideliness and the Issues, (1997)
available online at http://www.oecd.org/dsti/sti/it/secur/prod/GD97-204.htm. See also
the report of the OECD Emerging Market Economy Forum: Workshop on Cryptography
Policy, (Paris 9-10 December 1997), available on-line at http://www.oecd.org/
dsti/sti/it/secur/act/emef.htm; see also the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls
for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies at http://www.
wassenaar.org/.
33. See Leslie Helm, Asia Wary of Being Wired. Los Angeles Times. (February 3,
1996).
34. See Darren McDermott, Singapore Unveils Sweeping Measures To Control
Words, Images on Internet. Wall Street Journal. (March 6, 1996).
35. See Rone Tempest, China Puts Roadblocks on Information Superhighway. Los
Angeles Times. (September 6, 1996); Steven Mufson, Chinese Protest Finds a Path On the
Internet. The Washington Post, (September 17, 1996); Angela Li, Complete Control of
Internent ‘Unlikely.’ South China Morning Post, (January 11, 1997); and Philip Shenon,
2-Edged Sword: Asian Regimes on the Internet. New York Times. (May 29, 1995).
36. “China Issues New Net Controls.” Wired News. (30 December 1997).
37. Ibid.
38. Critiques of mass democracy as a potentially oppressive force that could threaten
libert y have a long history reaching back to Plato’s The Republic.
39. See, for example, Analytical Surveys Incorporated at http://www.anlt.com/. The
description of the services is as follows: This innovative and rapidly growing company uses
a variet y of advanced technologies to convert paper-based maps, aerial photography, tax
records and other geo-referenced information into a digital format. Once in a computerized
form, the information can be combined in layers to form a geographic information system
(GIS), or intelligent map. A GIS is a powerful and f lexible analytical tool that is easily
accessed, analyzed and updated by users in a broad range of decision making processes.
40. See Denise Caruso, As Privacy Grows Scarcer on the Internet. New York Times.
(June 3, 1996); and Pete Slover, Cyber Crumbs: Do Internet Cookies Leave a Trail That
Could Threaten Your Privacy? Salt Lake Tribune. (July 31, 1998).
41. See Simon Davies, Europe to U.S.: No Privacy, No Trade. Wired News. (May
1998).
42. See David Greenfield, Global Intranet Services: Patchy But Promising. Data Com-
munications. (March 21, 1997).
43. More than half the network managers at 205 Fortune 1,000 companies say they
have detected attempted break-ins during the past 12 months. Nearly 60 percent of those
who know they have been hacked admit to 10 or more break-ins during the same period.
“Securit y.” Data Communications. (August 1997) 175.
44. For various examples, see the following: Lee Bruno, Plugging Securit y Holes.
Data Communications. (February 1998) 29–32; Lee Bruno, Firewall Protection Without
the Pitfalls. Data Communications. (March 1997) 31–32; Rodney Thayer, Bulletproof IP.
Data Communications. (November 21, 1997) 60; Charles Cresson Wood, Logging, Audit-
ing and Filtering for Internet Electronic Commerce. Computer Fraud and Security. (August
1997) 16.
45. See Securit y. Data Communications. (August 1997) 176; and Joyce Harvey, The
VPN Puzzle. America’s Networks. (April 1, 1998) 43–47. See also Tina Bird, Building VPNs:
the 10-Point Plan. Data Communications. (June 1998) 123–132. Bird notes that VPNs can
be up to 80 percent cheaper than private leased lines.
46. Cited in United States Department of Commerce report, “The Emerging Digital
Economy,” (April 1998), found online at: http://www.ecommerce.gov/emerging.htm
47. See the Site Patrol International Services website at http://www.bbnplanet.

com/products/securit y/sitepat.htm
48. Illustrating the financial depth and global scope of such activities, ScotiaBank Inc.
of Canada is an international financial institution with $200 billion in assets that services
4 million customers in 50 countries. See Lee Bruno, Banking on Trust, Data Communica-
tions (May 21, 1998) 43–49 for an overview of its extensive network securit y provisions.
49. In its transition to electronic access services, ScotiaBank Inc. hired a team of
“ethical hackers” who worked from a remote site in Palo Alto, California that staged a mul-
tipronged computer attack on the mainframe, operating systems, and Web servers. See
Bruno, “Banking on Trust,” p. 45. For 48 hours of hacking, the price: $35,000.00. The
total cost of ScotiaBank Inc.’s deployment of electronic access services was $2,007,000.00.
The market for net work securit y products and services was projected to grow by 70% in
1997. See Charles Cresson Wood, Status of the Internet Electronic Commerce Securit y
Market. Computer Fraud and Security. (September 1997) 8. See also J.H.P. Eloff and Suzi van
Buuran, Framework for Evaluating Securit y Protocols in a Banking Environment. Com-
puter Fraud and Security. (January 1998) 15–19; Laura DiDio, Private-key Nets Unlock
E-Commerce. Computerworld. (March 16, 1998) 49–50.
50. See Alan Laird, Smartcards—Is Britain Smart Enough? Computer Fraud and Secu-
rity. (February 1997) 11–15; Ivars Peterson, Power Cracking of Cash Card Codes. Science
News. (June 20, 1998). As online stock and investment transactions have become more com-
mon, securit y concerns have increased there as well. For one example, see Ellen Messmer,
Investment Firm Buys Into Public-Key Encryption. In Network World. (May 4, 1998) 57–60.
See also Sharon Machlis and Jana Sanchex-klein, Will Smart Cards Replace ATMS? CNN
Online. (July 30, 1998). http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9807/30/homeatm.idg/.
51. See Gordon Arnaut, The Holy Grail of Internet Commerce. The Globe and
Mail. (November 14, 1995); and Steve Lohr, The Great Mystery of Internet Profits. New
York Times. (June 17, 1996). While expectations of a market for consumer transactions
have not panned out as fully as some predicted, that for business-business transactions
has exploded. The United States Department of Commerce report, entitled “The Emerg-
ing Digital Economy,” forecasts $300 billion in Internet commerce bet ween businesses
by the year 2002 based on current traffic trends. The report is located at http://www.
ecommerce.gov/emerging.htm
52. See Alasdair Murray, Digital Money Opens Way to Cashless Global Trading. The
Times. (January 9, 1996); Neil Gross, E-Commerce: Who Owns the Rights? Business Week.
(July 29, 1996).
53. See Andrew Allentuck, Financial Services That Delight, Amaze. The Globe and
Mail. (November 14, 1995); and Vanessa O’Connell and E.S. Browning, Stock Orders on
Internet Poised To Soar. Wall Street Journal. (June 25, 1996). The Dell Corp was selling as
much as $6 million worth of computer equipment and software each day during 1997. See
the U.S. Department of Commerce report, “The Emerging Digital Economy,” at
http://www.ecommerce.gov/emerging.htm
54. For an overview, see CSL-Computer Systems Laboratory Bulletin, (March 1994),
found online at http://www.nsi.org/Library/Compsec/compthrt.txt
55. VPNs: Safet y First, But What About Speed? Data Communications. (July 1998).
56. See the exhaustive survey on state cryptography policies at the Global Internet
Libert y Campaign website, http://www.gilc.org/crypto/crypto-survey.html. As the report
indicates, Belarus, China, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and Singapore all maintain tight
domestic controls on cryptography use.
57. A U.S. National Research Council report noted: “When an interceptor moves
onto the lines that carry bulk traffic, isolating the bits associated with a particular commu-
nication of interest is itself quite difficult. A high-bandwidth line (e.g., a long-haul fiber-
optic cable) t ypically carries hundreds or thousands of different communications; any given
message may be broken into distinct packets and intermingled with other packets from
other contemporaneously operating applications. The traffic on the line may be encrypted
in bulk by the line provider, thus providing an additional layer of protection against the in-
terceptor. Moreover, since a message traveling from point A to point B may well be broken
into packets that traverse different physical paths en route, an interceptor at any given point
in between A and B may not even see all of the packets pass by.”
58. See Titanic Meeting Stuck at Dock. Wired News. (June 10, 1998). Of the avail-
abilit y of complex encryption codes outside of the United States, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
said “That’s a change in the world of spying and law enforcement that we cannot effect”—
meaning, precisely, that the clock cannot be turned back on encryption technologies. Like-
wise, the U.S. National Research Council’s report, “Cryptography’s Role in Securing the
Information Societ y,” concluded that “Because cryptography is an important tool for pro-
tecting information and because it is very difficult for governments to control, the com-
mittee believes that the widespread nongovernment use of cryptography in the United
States and abroad is inevitable in the long run.”
59. See Group of Companies to Lobby Globally on Internet Concerns. Wall Street
Journal. (December 11, 1996).
60. The weak-strong state continuum does not capture well the transformations that
are discussed here. Rather than a weakening of the state per se, what I am describing here
is, rather, a re-orientation of states. (cf. Migdal 1988).
61. For a similar view on the consequences for world order of new information tech-
nologies, see James Rosenau’s contribution to this volume.
REFERENCES
Agne, Philip E. and Marc Rotenberg, eds. 1998. Technology and Privacy: The New Land-
scape. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origins and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso.
Angelides, Marios C. 1997. Implementing the Internet for Business: A Global Marketing
Opportunit y. International Journal of Information Management. 17(6): 405–419.
Arquila, John, and David Ronfeldt, eds. 1997. In Athena’s Camp: Preparing for Conflict in
the Information Age. Santa Monica, CA: R AND.
Bennet, Colin J., and Rebecca Grant, eds. 1999. Visions of Privacy: Policy Choices for the Dig-
ital Age. Toronto: Universit y of Toronto Press.
Berko, Lili. 1992. Surveying the Surveyed: Video, Space and Subjectivit y. Quarterly Review
of Film and Video. 14(1–2):61-91.
Brin, David. 1998. The Transparent Society. New York: Addison-Wesley.
Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspry. 1996. Computer: A History of the Information
Machine. New York: Basic Books.
Castells, Manuel. 1989. The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restruc-
turing, and the Urban-Regional Process. Oxford: Blackwell.
———. 1996. The Information Age: Society, Economy, and Culture, Vols. 1–3. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Cerny, Phillip. 1995. Globalization and the Changing Logic of Collective Action. Interna-
tional Organization. 49:595–625.
Chilton, Paul. 1995. Security Metaphors: Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common
House. New York: Peter Lang.
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. 1996. Cryptography’s Role in Securing the
Information Society. Washington: National Research Council.
Cox, Robert. 1986. Social Forces, State and World Order.” In Robert Keohane, ed. Neo-
Realism and Its Critics. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Dam, Keneth, and Herbert Lin, eds. 1996. Cryptography’s Role in Securing the Information
Society. Washington: National Research Council.
Deibert, Ronald J. 1997. Parchment, Printing and Hypermedia: Communication in World
Order Transformation. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Der Derian, James. 1996. Global Swarming, Virtual Securit y, and Bosnia. The Washington
Quarterly. 19(3):45–56.
Deudney, Daniel. 1995. The Philadelphian System: Sovereignt y, Arms Control and Bal-
ance of Power in the Americ States-Union, ca 1787–1861. International Organi-
zation. 49: 191–228.
Froomkin, A. Michael, 1997. The Internet as a Source of Regulatory Arbitrage. In Brian
Kahin and Charles Nesson, eds., Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and
Global Information Infrastructure. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Gandy, Oscar Jr. 1993. The Panoptic Sort: A Political Economy of Personal Information. Boul-
der: Westview Press.
Government of Canada. 1998. A Cryptography Policy Framework for Electronic Commerce.

Ottawa: Task Force on Electronic Commerce.
Hafner, Katie, and Matthew Lyon. 1996. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the
Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Hart, Jeffrey, Robert R. Reed, and Francois Bar. 1992. The Building of the Internet.
Telecommunications Policy. (November) 16: 666–689.
Held, David. 1987. Models of Democracy. Stanford: Stanford Universit y Press.
Helleiner, Eric. 1998. Electronic Money: A Challenge to the Sovereign State? Journal of
International Affairs. 51(2): 387–409.
Herz, John. 1957. Rise and Demise of Territorial States. World Politics. 9: 473–493.
Huysmans, Jef. 1998. Securit y! What do you mean? From concept to thick signifier. Euro-
pean Journal of International Relations. 4(2): 226–255.
Innis, Harold. 1952. The Bias of Communications. Toronto: Universit y of Toronto Press.
Krause, Keith, and Michael Williams. 1996. Critical Security Studies. Minneapolis: Univer-
sit y of Minnesota Press.
Liphshutz, Ronnie. 1995. On Security. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Luke, Timothy. 1991. The Discipline of Securit y Studies and the Codes of Containment.
Alternatives. 16: 320–344
Lyon, David. 1994. The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society. Minneapolis: Uni-
versit y of Minnesota Press.
Martin, David. 1991. Geographic Information Systems and their Socioeconomic Applications.
London: Routledge Press.
McLuhan, Marshal. 1964. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-
Hill.
Migdal, Joel. 1988. Strong Societies and Weak States: State-Society Relations and State Capabil-
ities in the Third World. Princeton: Princeton Universit y Press.
Strassman, Paul A., and William Marlow. 1996. Risk-Free Access Into the Global Informa-
tion Infrastructure Via Anonymous Re-Mailers. Paper delivered to the Symposium
on the Global Information Infrastructure: Information, Policy, and International
Initiatives. Harvard University, Cambridge Mass, USA. (January 28–30)
Swett, Charles. July 1995. Strategic Assessment: the Internet. Office of the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conf lict (Policy Planning).
Williams, Michael. 1998. Identit y and the Politics of Securit y. European Journal of Interna-
tional Relations. 4(2): 204–255.
CHAPTER SIX
THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF

WINTELISM: A NEW MODE OF
POWER AND GOVERNANCE IN THE
GLOBAL COMPUTER INDUSTRY
SANGBAE KIM AND JEFFREY A. HART
INTRODUCTION
Technological competition in the global information industries—the leading sec-

tor in the contemporary global political economy—is currently moving beyond
competition over technological innovation per se. The technological winner is
now the one who manages to control de facto market standards while at the same
time protecting intellectual propert y rights. Moreover, the new mode of techno-
logical competition puts pressure on firms and governments everywhere not only
to adjust to the new principles of competition, but also to adopt new forms of in-
dustrial governance and state-societal arrangements.
In the global personal computer (PC) industry, two American companies, Mi-
crosoft and Intel, t ypify this new mode of technological competition. Together,
Microsoft and Intel have defined the architecture for IBM-compatible PCs by set-
ting and controlling de facto market standards and protecting those standards as
the world’s most valuable form of intellectual propert y. Scholars in International
Political Economy (IPE) understand that the resurgence of the U.S. international
competitiveness is closely related to its relative strength in this new leading sector.
This is in a sharp contrast to the debates of the 1980s and early 1990s over the rel-
ative decline of the U.S. international competitiveness in previous leading sec-
tors—steel, autos, consumer electronics, and semiconductors.
Building on Borrus and Zysman’s work (1997), we attempt to understand the
new mode of technological competition and subsequent changes in industrial gov-
ernance and state-societal arrangements by using the concept of Wintelism. Wintelism
143
writ small is a new mode of competition mainly in the personal computer industry,
in which the Wintel (Windows + Intel) coalition represents the combined power of
Microsoft and Intel over the architectural standards of PCs. In the PC industry, Mi-
crosoft’s operating system and Intel’s microprocessors are not just superior pieces of
equipment that the competition might hope to match or surpass with a reasonable
effort. Rather, for some years now, they have served as structural constraints—the
rules of the game—that every firm entering the industry has had to accept.
Wintelism writ large is a new form of industrial governance that originated
from the computer industry, but can be applied to all information industries. It is
our view that there is a close fit bet ween Wintelism writ large and horizontal in-
dustrial governance. In the Wintelist era, large firms that are vertically integrated
no longer dominate because they cannot compete adequately with horizontally fo-
cused, specialized firms. We will be arguing below that recent changes in U.S.
state-societal arrangements are well suited to an era of architectural competition.1
We use the term modified regulatory state to refer to U.S. government policies and
institutional arrangements. Other countries have not been so fortunate in this re-
gard, including the country that was the main source of foreign competition for
U.S. high technology firms in the 1980s, i.e., Japan.
THE TECHNOLOGICAL BASIS OF WINTELISM
The rise of Wintelism is connected with the growing prominence of a technological

sector that we call software electronics technology. Software electronics technology in-
cludes computer software, microcode, semiconductor chip designs, and technical
standards in products and services. Software electronics does not include the hard-
ware aspects of electronics or information technologies. We will call these excluded
technologies hardware electronics. Although both hardware and software electronics
belong to the broader category of information technology, our definition of Win-
telism begins with the distinction between the two technological sectors.
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TECHNOLOGIES
Among soft ware electronics technologies, we will focus on technologies associ-

ated with computer architecture. Computer technology is comprised of hardware (all
the physical equipment of computers), firmware (embedded software in program-
mable microchips) and software (a set of instructions that tells the electronics sys-
tem how to perform tasks). There are also published and unpublished standards
and interface protocols that allow designers to make sure that hardware and soft-
ware work together. As Morris and Ferguson hold,
THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WINTELISM 145
The standards define how programs and commands will work and how
data will move around the system—the communication protocols and
formats that hardware components must adhere to, the rules for ex-
changing signals bet ween applications soft ware and the operating sys-
tem, the processor’s command structure, the allowable font descriptions
for a printer, and so forth. (Morris and Ferguson 1993, 88)
Morris and Ferguson call this complex of standards and rules architecture. The ar-
chitecture is mainly defined by microprocessor, basic input output system (BIOS),
data bus, and operating system software. All elements are usually referred to to-
gether as a platform. Technologies concerning the computer architecture are the
core of PC technology; among them, the most critical parts are microprocessors
and operating system software.
Personal computer systems are generally designed around microprocessors,
which embody most of the central processing unit of a computer within a single
chip. The microprocessor chip is embedded in a printed circuit board with helper
chips to form what is called a motherboard. The motherboard generally includes a
separate chip for the BIOS, a digital clock, the data bus, and a bank of chip sock-
ets for dynamic random access memory (DR AM). The motherboard is connected
via the data bus and other input/output interfaces to PC peripherals such as the
monitor, the keyboard, the f loppy disk drives, the hard drives, and whatever else
the customer wants to have connected. IBM-compatible PCs use Intel’s x86 series
of microprocessors or microprocessors designed to emulate those devices. Apple’s
Macintosh uses Motorola or IBM (Power PC) microprocessors.
Operating systems translate the software written in higher-level languages, like
BASIC, Fortran, or C++ into machine language instructions that are understood
by the computer’s central processing unit. It also manages data f lows into and out
of the central processing unit and may also manage the way in which data is han-
dled in data storage devices. In terms of the functional level of software, the op-
erating system is most closely related to the hardware and to design a good one
requires sophisticated knowledge of computer science, but does not require much
knowledge in the application domain or real-world problems that end users con-
front. For application software to perform well, the designer must start from a good
understanding of the problems that users are trying to solve.
TECHNOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF SOFTWARE ELECTRONICS
There is a restricted meaning of technology as knowledge, and an extended mean-

ing of technology in relation to embedded institutions (Hart and Kim 2000). In
the restricted meaning, technology is technological knowledge embodied in
material products. Here we note that there are at least three distinct aspects of
technological knowledge in software electronics: technical standards, intellectual
propert y and product innovation.2
The most prominent feature of contemporary soft ware electronics technol-
ogy is the increasing importance of standards. This feature derives from the high
value placed by consumers on compatibilit y bet ween interrelated technological
components. For example, the PC is a modular device assembled from a series of
discrete components, each of which has its own discernable production chain.
Thus, the existence of a dominant technical standard provides producers and con-
sumers with the advantages of compatibilit y among subsystems while products
are continually refined and reconfigured. Architectural standards enable rapid in-
novation to take place at the component level without sacrificing compatibilit y at
the system level.
Despite these advantages, architectural standards may also result in barriers
to entry that lead to the potential for particular firms to exercise market power be-
cause of imperfect competition. In fact, the operating system and microprocessor
are perfect examples of subsystem markets with high barriers to entry because of
the entrenchment of the IBM-compatible PC architecture. To utilize the biggest se-
lection of software for personal computers, consumers have had little choice but
to buy a machine containing an Intel-designed chip and loaded with Microsoft’s
operating systems.
The second feature of software electronics technology is that there are in-
creasing demands for protecting proprietary knowledge as intellectual propert y
rights. One of the major technological trends that brings about those demands is
the rising cost of research and development and other innovation-related activities.
Investment in R&D has accelerated worldwide; and product life cycles have become
shorter. In order to recoup substantial investments in R&D, a company must be
able to secure its investment in technology in the form of intellectual propert y.
Effective protection of intellectual propert y, however, has become more dif-
ficult as copying of digital technology has become easier. For example, computer
software programs costing huge sums to develop can be copied quickly and cheaply
by unscrupulous individuals with fairly rudimentary equipment. Moreover, “the
information-intensive nature of software means that its exploitation by a number
of parties does not degrade its qualit y” (Mowery 1996: 305). Semiconductor chips
pose similar problems with respect to existing forms of intellectual propert y pro-
tection. As in computer software development, designing new chips and prepar-
ing masks for chip manufacturing is expensive, but copying chip designs and
reproducing chip masks is relatively simple and inexpensive.
Therefore, it is no surprise that firms want more secure ways of protecting
their intellectual propert y. Recent evidence shows that information technology
firms are seeking greater intellectual propert y protection through legal mecha-
nisms, such as patents and copyrights. Similarly, the number of patent and copy-
right infringement lawsuits is increasing. These current trends have raised the
salience of intellectual propert y laws and their enforcement in the eyes of national
governments (Clapes 1993; Moore 1997).
The final feature of computer architectural technologies is its unique pattern
of product innovation. For computer architectures, functionalit y is more highly
valued than qualit y. Software engineering is a highly knowledge-intensive process,
more like a craft industry than like high-volume manufacturing. Japanese efforts
to create software factories—by adapting methods from high-volume manufactur-
ing that normally enhance productivit y such as statistical qualit y control, stan-
dardized components, and speeded up assembly lines—have not succeeded. Instead,
the most highly valued soft ware is written by small teams of skilled engineers
(Cusumano 1991).
New computer architectures are usually introduced by discontinuous break-
through-t ype innovations rather than by incremental innovations or qualit y
improvement. The development of a new generation of microprocessors and op-
erating system soft ware yields major innovations with little room for incremen-
tal improvement bet ween major breakthroughs. Furthermore, this development
of new products in microprocessors and operating systems is based on the obso-
lescence of old products; new products destroy the old generation (Kenney
1996).
One important question here is whether there is a set of identifiable institu-
tional arrangements specific to a given technology or set of technologies that pro-
duces better long-term economic consequences overall for the political unit in
which those institutions exist. Herbert Kitschelt (1991) argues that any technology
has two important dimensions that inf luence the choice of industrial governance
structures: one is the degree of coupling in the elements of a technological system,
and the other is the complexit y of causal interactions among production stages. He
argues that each technological system—characterized by its position vis-à-vis the
two dimensions—requires a distinct governance structure for maximum perform-
ance. For example, the more tightly technological elements are coupled, the more
control needs to be centralized. The more complex the causal interaction between
production stages is, the less control needs to be decentralized. Following
Kitschelt, we argue that software electronics technology requires a distinct gover-
nance structure—or a particular set of institutional arrangement—for maximum
economic performance (Hart and Kim 1998).
Software electronics is a loosely coupled technological system. Each step or
component of production in a software electronics system is separated from every
other step in space and time. Thus the production steps can be done in any
sequence at any location because loose coupling permits decentralized control,
and errors in components do not easily affect the entire system. For example, the
modularit y of the PC system means that parts, subassemblies, components, and

peripherals can be sourced in the open market from wherever the best price/
performance can be garnered. The components from multiple vendors fit to-
gether because they are compatible enough to enable end-to-end interoperabilit y
among the components. Here, architectural standards serve as the lubricant that
allows modular components to work together well.
Soft ware electronics is also a complex interactive technological system. In
other words, a soft ware electronics system requires complex feedback bet ween
production stages to keep the whole process on track. Thus, its developmental
processes have to take place in decentralized organizational units, because a cen-
tralized system of control would be quickly overloaded. For example, the whole
process of soft ware development including design, coding, testing, and integra-
tion entails a tremendous amount of feedback and informal communication
within the firm. Thus, technological trajectories of advanced soft ware are not
readily predictable in time, cost, or in final results. The development of new com-
puter software technology is usually the result of trial-and-error research. This is
called learning by doing. Likewise, close interaction between producers and sophis-
ticated users is critical in the soft ware development process. For instance, the
alpha and beta testing of new software generations provides invaluable feedback
to software developers on the features desired by users and helps eliminate bugs
before the product is shipped. This is called learning by using. (Rosenberg 1982).
In this context, technological properties of soft ware electronics require a
f lexible institutional environment that encourages the rise of decentralized in-
dustrial governance structures. Software electronics technologies do not reward
the organized capabilities of vertically integrated private or state-owned enter-
prises or the interventionist role of the state where architectural standards exist.
Smaller sized start-up firms with cross-regional or cross-national networks emerge
as the fittest industrial governance structure but, in cases where R&D uncertain-
ties are substantial and knowledge intensit y is high, appropriate industrial gover-
nance requires the coexistence of large and small firms. In this regard, Herbert
Kitschelt points out that,
. . . corresponding governance structures [to soft ware electronics] in-

clude mixed regulatory requirements and the exigencies of effective
global marketing strategies give large corporations an advantage, un-
precedented organizational decentralization nevertheless continues to
prevail under the umbrella of the large corporation (1991, 474).
Large corporations with decentralized structures or horizontal intercorporate

alliances among those corporations are required in order to provide necessary fi-
nancial and technological supports. Appropriate state governance promotes this
kind of horizontal industrial governance. The regulatory state promotes small

start-up firms while enforcing antitrust laws to prevent large firms from discour-
aging innovation. The regulatory state thus encourages value-chain specialization
in the computer industry as discussed below.
THE SUCCESS OF WINTEL AND STRUCTUR AL POWER
The case of computer architecture technology t ypifies a new mode of competition

in the global computer industry. In this new competition, the cutting edge of in-
dustrial competition lies in the establishment of de facto technical standards.
Since the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981, for example, Intel and Microsoft
have defined the IBM-compatible PC architecture and established that architec-
ture as a global standard. In this section, we discuss how Intel and Microsoft
were able to dominate markets of microprocessors and operating systems for PCs,
and will explain what their success means by using the conceptual framework of
structural power.3
THE WINTEL COALITION IN THE PC INDUSTRY
Since 1981, Intel had supplied leading edge microprocessors for IBM-compatible
PCs. It maintained its leadership position in this market through development
and continual improvement of its x86 series of microprocessors. All IBM-compat-
ible PC manufacturers buy Intel-designed microprocessors or clones of Intel mi-
croprocessors to build machines that run DOS/Windows operating systems.
About 90 percent of all PCs sold in recent years are IBM-compatible PCs. There are
several producers of x86 Intel clone chips, such as Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) and Cyrix. However, Intel has been successful in limiting the market share
for cloned microprocessors by taking deep price cuts when necessary, making
steep production ramp ups of new generations of products, and launching aggres-
sive legal challenges to companies that simply copy Intel designs rather than engi-
neering their own design improvements.
In 1992, the year when Intel became the world’s largest semiconductor man-
ufacturer, it held the overwhelming majorit y of the market for the then state-of-
the-art 32-bit microprocessors. Intel’s share was 73 percent of this market ($3.18
billion) compared with Motorola’s 8.5 percent ($0.38 billion), AMD’s 8.0 percent
($0.35 billion), Texas Instruments’ 1.9 percent ($0.06 billion), and NEC’s 1.1 per-
cent ($0.05 billion) (Fransman 1995, 169).
Microsoft’s great opportunit y came when IBM chose it to be the supplier of
the DOS operating system for the PC in 1981. This gave Microsoft the basis for
growth, but its subsequent performance has depended on frequent improvements

in operating systems. Microsoft’s market position in PC operating system software
resembles that of a pure monopolist even more than Intel’s in microprocessors.
For example, Microsoft’s operating systems sit on about 90 percent of the world’s
personal computers (Microsoft, 89 percent; Apple, 8 percent; Unix, 2 percent;
IBM OS/2, 1 percent), and PC customers have almost no choice but to purchase
DOS/Windows to access the many compatible soft ware applications currently
available on the market.
After succeeding in computer languages and operating systems, Microsoft in-
vested in developing applications software. Its first major success in this area was
a spreadsheet program called Excel, displacing Lotus, which until then had domi-
nated the market with its 1–2–3 product. Microsoft then successfully created and
marketed a word processor, Microsoft Word, for both the Apple Macintosh and
the IBM PC, which managed to displace earlier programs like Word Perfect as the
market leader. Microsoft now controls 60 percent of the Windows spreadsheet
market, and 47 percent of the Windows word processing market. Microsoft’s rev-
enues from applications software rose from $1.4 billion in 1992 to $2.2 billion in
1993, an increase of 58 percent. Microsoft was the world’s largest independent
soft ware producer in 1998, with annual revenues of $14.5 billion and 27,320
employees (Cusumano and Selby 1995, 3; Chang 1994: 15–16; http://www.
microsoft.com/presspass/fastfacts.htm).
Much of Intel’s and Microsoft’s strength in the marketplace is the result of a
special relationship they have developed over time with each other. In order to
keep their share of their respective markets, Intel and Microsoft had to coordinate
their strategies whenever a new microprocessor or a new version of the operating
system was introduced to the market.
An introduction of a faster and more powerful microprocessor requires a
new operating system to perform its tasks at higher speeds (or to perform new
tasks) in order for the user to benefit from the improved chip. Similarly, the suc-
cessful introduction of an operating system newly developed by Microsoft de-
pends on the replacement of older machines that occurs whenever a new and
faster Intel microprocessor is released. Independent software developers tend to
focus their efforts on operating systems and hardware platforms that have the
largest user base.
In a circular fashion, both Intel and Microsoft have benefited from the great
variet y of soft ware applications and computer peripherals that have been devel-
oped to serve this installed base. The mutually reinforcing power of Intel’s micro-
processors and Microsoft’s DOS/Windows products over the PC architecture gave
rise to the idea of the Wintel (Windows and Intel) coalition. While there are some
tensions in the Microsoft/Intel partnership, so far the two firms have managed to
continue their successful collaboration.
WINTELIST STR ATEGIES AND STRUCTUR AL POWER
The question arising here is how the combined power of Wintel—or the success of
Microsoft and Intel separately—was established in the PC architecture in the first
place. Microeconomic theories can be used to explain Wintel’s success within the
conceptual frameworks of network externalities, lock-in effects, dominant design and
first-mover advantages. Of particular interest is how first-mover advantages in in-
dustries subject to network externalities can be used by innovating firms to deter
entry by potential market entrants and to lock in customers. These economic ap-
proaches, however, cannot predict or explain the international power implications
of Wintelism.
In this section, we draw upon the concept of structural power to examine the
power implications of Wintelism. We argue that there are basically two different
ways of understanding power—material power, which confers the material capabili-
ties to control over others in relational dimensions, and structural power, which
confers the power to reconstitute the rules of the game (including the surround-
ing structure and even actor’s identit y) by which actors constrain other actors
(Hart 1976, 1989; Hart and Kim 2000).
With this conceptual framework, we understand that, in the new mode of
technological competition, an industrial winner should be able to establish the
material base of manufacturing and technological innovations as usually under-
stood. However, it should also be better able to manipulate the rules of the
game of technological competition. Three aspects of Microsoft’s and Intel’s
business strategies—control over technical standards, intellectual propert y pro-
tection and continuous product innovations—clearly show that the structural
power dimension—interacting with the material power dimension—was working
explicitly so that Wintel has remained at the center of the evolution of the PC
business.
First of all, the success of Wintel should be understood within the context of
the increasing importance of technical standards. Currently, competitive success
f lows to the company that manages to establish de facto market standards control
over a broad, fast-moving, competitive product market (Gabel 1987, 1991; Grind-
ley 1995).
The most t ypical example of standards competition is found in the success of
IBM-compatible PCs in contrast with Apple’s Macintosh series. Although some
experts argue that the Macintosh architecture is technically superior to that of the
IBM-PC, the latter has nevertheless stubbornly held on to its dominant market po-
sition. The IBM-compatible PC makers, by adopting an open standards strategy, ef-
fectively locked in the customer base and created a market with a much more
diverse set of products with generally lower prices than comparable Apple prod-
ucts (Yoffie ed. 1997; Grindley 1995).
The Wintel coalition established de facto standards for each successive gen-
eration of the PC architecture by maintaining a subtle balance between aggressive
diffusion and limited licensing of architectural standards—by adopting an open
but owned standards strategy (Borrus and Zysman 1997). Open standards may
mean a loss of market share for developers of new technology as a result of the abil-
it y of other firms to market compatible cloned products. By means of limited dis-
semination of standards, however, Intel and Microsoft were able to maximize the
effect of net work externalities and gain competitive leverage in the PC industry.
Cloning may even give a systematic advantage to the initial developer if it helps it
to maintain its status as first mover in successive product generations.
The competition between IBM and the clone makers led to an explosion in
demand for IBM-compatible PCs. The more IBM PC clone makers used Intel chips
and Microsoft operating systems and the more soft ware developers developed
products that were compatible with Wintel standards, the greater was Intel’s and
Microsoft’s competitive advantage over potential rivals in the microprocessor and
operating systems businesses. Indeed, Intel’s microprocessors and Microsoft’s op-
erating systems represent a structural constraint that every firm entering the in-
dustry has had to accept in the PC business. In short, Wintel has controlled the
rules of the game in the PC industry.
Theoretical works in international political economy can help us better un-
derstand the importance of technical standards for the international system as a
whole. Susan Strange’s concept of structural power is particularly useful.
Strange argues, “structural power . . . confers the power to decide how things
shall be done, the power to shape frameworks within which states relate to each
other, relate to people, or relate to corporate enterprises. The relative power of
each part y in a relationship is more, or less, if one part y is also determining the
surrounding structure of the relationship” (Strange 1988: 25). According to
Strange, structural power in the arena of knowledge is the most important
among the four main structural arenas—securit y, trade, finance, and knowledge.
She argues,
. . . whoever is able to develop or acquire and to deny the access of oth-

ers to a kind of knowledge respected and sought by others; and whoever
can control the channels by which it is communicated to those given ac-
cess to it, will exercise a very special kind of structural power. . . . today
the knowledge most sought after the acquisition of relational power and
to reinforce other kinds of structural power (i.e. in securit y matters, in
production and in finance) is technology (1988, 31).
In spite of Strange’s silence about technical standards, control over technical stan-
dards in the PC industry clearly qualifies as an example of structural power.
The sophisticated management of intellectual propert y was the second es-

sential ingredient in the success of Wintel. While the diffusion of technical stan-
dards was a part of the offensive dimension of Wintelist strategies, the protection
of intellectual propert y was part of its defensive dimension. Indeed, a fine balance
bet ween liberal dissemination of open standards and stringent protection of in-
tellectual propert y rights emerged as a central issue for Intel and Microsoft.
Choosing the right degree of openness and the right amount of intellectual prop-
ert y rights enforcement was a problem that had to be solved, as it was, with open
but owned standards (Borrus and Zysman 1997).
To protect their interests, Intel and Microsoft were active in policing in-
fringements and taking legal action in their home markets. Interfirm level law-
suits against alleged cases of intellectual propert y infringement have played an
important role in protecting the intellectual propert y of Wintel. Examples include
computer-related infringement lawsuits, such as NEC vs Intel, Intel vs AMD, Intel vs
Cyrix and Microsoft vs Shuuwa (Clapes 1993). Without such a defense, the t wo
firms would not have been able to remain leaders in their respective markets, be-
cause they would not have been able to afford investments in new technologies
and new production facilities.
Successful intellectual propert y rights enforcement ultimately requires a com-
mitment on the part of national governments to enact strong copyright and patent
laws in the first place and then to develop credible enforcement procedures. Intel-
lectual propert y protection has primarily been a matter of national (territorial) ju-
risdiction in the sense that “each national government determines the scope of
protection and rights subject only to bilateral and multilateral agreements. . . .
Within each system, countries established regimes of protection that were eco-
nomically and philosophically compatible with their cultures” (Hansen 1997
265–6). In recent years, Intel and Microsoft have lobbied the U.S. government for
stronger intellectual propert y laws, and persuaded the U.S. government to pres-
sure foreign governments to enforce intellectual propert y rights. In this way, the
developers of the Wintel PC platform have been able to maintain control over
those technologies by restricting access to companies unwilling to pay the price
and follow the dictates of technology licensing agreements (Gabel 1991 11–4).
Indeed, the U.S. government has played an indirect but important role in the
international success of the Wintelist firms by advocating a strengthened interna-
tional regime for protecting intellectual propert y. The U.S. government has taken
a trade-oriented approach to international intellectual propert y issues. Intellec-
tual propert y protection became a major trade issue in the Uruguay Round of the
GATT and later in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-
Related Aspects of Intellectual Propert y Rights (TRIPs) (Ryan 1998).
However, because of the vagueness of both domestic and international intel-
lectual propert y regimes, many bilateral disputes over intellectual propert y have
occurred in recent years. For this reason, the U.S. government has concluded a
number of bilateral reciprocit y agreements with other countries that protect soft-
ware programming and chip mask works on substantially the same basis as in U.S.
domestic law (Leaffer 1991; West 1995). Such U.S. initiatives, because of their es-
sentially unilateral nature and the claims of target governments that the United
States is violating their sovereign right to decide for themselves what intellectual
propert y laws to enact and enforce, lead inevitably to clashes bet ween systems—
system friction as Sylvia Ostry calls it (Ostry 1996; Bergsten and Noland 1993;
Tyson 1992).
A combination of economic and power political theories helps us understand
the power implications of intellectual propert y protection. Intellectual propert y
disputes have sometimes become the basis for power struggles between national
governments. For example, the U.S. government has been pressuring the govern-
ment of the People’s Republic of China to adopt stricter intellectual propert y laws
and to enforce them. The U.S. government has tried to persuade the Chinese gov-
ernment to change its legal regime for reasons of Chinese self-interest (e.g., to pro-
mote the growth of indigenous software firms), but it also has used coercion to the
extent that it made stricter enforcement a condition for continuing most favored
nation (MFN) trade status and U.S. support for Chinese entry into the WTO.
Beyond the relational power dimension, however, we would like to call atten-
tion to a deeper structural dimension of intellectual propert y issues (what
Stephen Krasner calls “meta-power issues”). According to Krasner, “. . . relational
power behavior refers to efforts to maximize values within a given set of institu-
tional structures; meta-power behavior refers to efforts to change the institutions
themselves . . . [and] . . . the abilit y to change the rules of the game” (1985: 14).
International intellectual propert y regimes are not a given but rather must be pe-
riodically redefined by the actors themselves, while interpreting their material in-
terests and circumstances. In her recent work, Susan K. Sell pays attention to the
role of ideas—in relation to power—in helping actors to define their material inter-
ests within intellectual propert y regimes (1998).
In a similar vein, Joseph S. Nye’s concept of soft power also provides a useful
framework for understanding the structural dimension of intellectual propert y
disputes (1990). Soft power is the abilit y to achieve desired outcomes in interna-
tional affairs through attraction rather than coercion. It works by convincing oth-
ers to follow, or getting them to agree to, norms and institutions that produce a
desired behavior. Soft power can rest on the appeal of ideas themselves or on the
abilit y of certain actors to set the agenda in ways that shape the preferences of oth-
ers. In a related vein, Susan Strange argues that, “technological changes do not
necessarily change power structures. They do so only if accompanied by changes
in the basic belief systems which underpin or support the political and economic
arrangements acceptable to societ y” (1988, 123). International intellectual prop-
ert y regimes are concerned with protecting the abilit y of individuals and private
firms to inf luence the values and beliefs of others by means of ideas rather than
tangible products—that is to say ideational power—and therefore must be a compo-
nent of any discussion of either soft power or structural power in the contempo-
rary international system.
Along with standards initiatives and intellectual propert y protection, the
success of Wintel has also been based on its abilit y to introduce successive prod-
uct innovations—the third ingredient of Wintel’s success. Architectural leaders
can perpetuate their market positions only if they continually offer new improved
products that are compatible with older subsystems. In fact, Intel and Microsoft
continuously renew their products in order to sustain their control over the PC in-
dustry. Intel’s abilit y to maintain its leadership in the microprocessor industry lies
in its abilit y to maintain continuit y across successive product generation while at
the same time greatly increasing the processing speed of its microprocessors. Mi-
crosoft has also frequently made incremental improvements and occasionally
introduces major advances in its products.
A fundamental root cause of this dramatic speeding in product change has
been the astonishing rate of improvement in the performance of semiconductors
and soft ware. For example, according to Moore’s Law, the capacit y of micropro-
cessors and memory devices doubles roughly every eighteen months while the
price per operation stays the same (Moore 1996; Schaller 1997). As a result of this
steady and rapid technical progress, a seemingly endless stream of new personal
computers is constantly being introduced. Each new introduction seems to bring
greater functionalit y for roughly the equivalent prices of its predecessor, while the
value of earlier models drops dramatically. As Martin Kenney argues, “as value is
being created more quickly, it is also being destroyed more quickly . . . the econ-
omy is obsolescence-based” (Kenney 1996). The rapid obsolescence of successful
knowledge-intensive products, often accelerated by the new products developed
and introduced to the market by the original innovators, is often cited as a con-
temporary example of Schumpeterian creative destruction (Schumpeter 1950).
Microsoft and Intel have managed to subtly balance the three strategies of
being aggressive in diffusing standards, innovative in periodic improvement of
products, and fiercely protective of intellectual propert y rights. There is an un-
avoidable trade-off among these three strategies, since, for example, too aggressive
protection of intellectual propert y can result in slower diffusion of standards. We
will argue below that one important role for public policy is to make sure that ag-
gressive protection of intellectual propert y does not become an impediment to
market growth or market entry by potential competitors.
The dynamics of technological competition are not determined solely by the
actors’ material capabilities in production and innovation. The competition is as
much about structural power as it is about material power. This new form of
structural power also changes the nature of competition over material resources
by privileging certain t ypes of technological knowledge in the broader interna-
tional competition for resources.
Stefano Guzzini’s recent work on power, which implicitly assumes a con-
structivist stance, provides a useful framework for synthesizing our discussion of
material power vs. structural power.4 Guzzini focuses on the interaction between
agent power and structural governance, saying that “power lies both in the relational
interaction of agents and in the systematic rule that results from the consequences
of their actions. . . . power analysis, as the comprehensive account of power phe-
nomena, must call into question the relationship between the different forms of
power and of governance” (1993, 471–4).
Obtaining control over key material resources is a primal reason for exercising
power. Any cultural, institutional, or normative developments that improve the ef-
ficacy of those resources should logically also become targets for attempts to ac-
quire power. As Guzzini suggests, therefore, “two strategies are possible to improve
one’s potential power in a given situation: to cause either a quantitative improve-
ment of the relevant situational power resources or a change in the environment
that defines the situationally relevant power resources” (1993, 455–6). The ques-
tion arising here is how to improve both resources and environment—material
power as well as structural power in our terms—in a specific issue area, for example
the global computer industry. To answer this question, we turn now to the role of
industrial and governmental institutions.
THE RISE OF WINTELISM AND DECENTR ALIZED GOVERNANCE
The rise of architectural competition pressures firms and governments everywhere

not only to adjust to the new principles of competition, but also to reconsider their
institutional environment to adjust better to technological and competitive
changes. We will argue that modifications in American institutions in response to
increased competition from other industrialized countries (especially Japan)
helped to assure the success of Wintelism and the resurgence of the U.S. industrial
competitiveness. In this section, we focus on two levels of governance: industrial
governance structures and state-societal arrangements.
HORIZONTAL INDUSTRIAL GOVERNANCE
Industrial governance is defined mainly in terms of corporate and industry struc-

ture. Types of corporate governance can be distinguished by observing the char-
acteristics of firms and industries: for example, whether coordinating networks are
organized vertically or horizontally. Those characteristics include the size of the in-
dustry, the organizational structure of firms, the degree of concentration of own-
ership, the level of inter-firm coordination, the degree to which user-producer (or
manufacturer-supplier) links are utilized by firms in the industry, and the presence
of national or cross-national production and distribution networks.
The pattern of integration among industrial units in the U.S. computer in-
dustry is horizontal. The so-called Silicon Valley model t ypifies the horizontal
governance structure (Ferguson and Morris 1994). The Silicon Valley model en-
courages horizontally focused and non-bureaucratic corporate structures. In ar-
chitecturally contending companies like Microsoft, for example, architectural
competition permits many systems and organizations to be developed independ-
ently and still work together gracefully. It also permits clean separation between
centralized general-purpose functions and decentralized or specialized functions,
and enables management of unpredictabilit y and change (Ferguson and Morris
1994; Cusumano and Selby 1995; Cusumano and Smith 1997).
The competitive structure of the U.S. computer industry is also being trans-
formed from one of an oligopoly dominated by large vertically integrated firms to
something else. The PC industry from its earliest beginnings adopted a horizontal
supplier structure, consisting of competing PC assembler firms. Companies such
as Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Lotus, Compaq, Seagate, Oracle, 3Com, Electronic
Data Systems, and many others all thrived by being specialists in particular layers
of a newly emerging information technology industry value chain. All these firms
were integrated in a horizontal way—not vertically as the older mainframe com-
puter companies were—and formed regional production networks in Silicon Val-
ley (Borrus and Zysman 1997; Cringely 1993; Saxenian 1994).
In the horizontal industrial structure, a handful of companies supplying
components to PC assemblers came to define and control the system’s critical ar-
chitectures, each for a specific layer of the system. For example, Borrus and Zys-
man hold,
Market power has shifted from the assemblers—such as Compaq, Gate-

way, IBM, or Toshiba—to key producers of components (e.g., Intel); oper-
ating systems (e.g., Microsoft); applications (e.g., SAP, Adobe); interfaces
(e.g., Netscape); languages (e.g., Sun with Java); and to pure product defi-
nition companies like Cisco Systems and 3COM (1997, 150).
This shift in market power is suggested in the advertisements of PC producers like

IBM, Toshiba, Compaq or Siemens-Nixdorf. Their systems are nearly identical
and emphasize components or soft ware that have become de facto market stan-
dards—Intel Inside and Microsoft Windows Installed—rather than unique features of
their own brands.
Another important point is that the horizontal supplier network in the elec-
tronics industry reaches to the global arena. To describe the global production
networks, Borrus and Zysman (1997) adopt the concept of Cross National Produc-
tion Networks (CPNs). CPNs refer to the disintegration of the industry’s value chain
into constituent functions that can be contracted out to independent producers
wherever those companies are located in the global economy. CPNs now affect the
entire global electronics industry. Moreover, CPNs express the reduced need for
companies to control production through ownership or direct management of
each piece of the value chain.
Indeed, Wintelist strategies of relying on product standards control and
intellect ual propert y protection facilitate the rise of global crossnational pro-
duction net works. A given firm can more easily subcontract production, even
across national boundaries, without worr ying about the possibilit y that con-
tract suppliers will develop competitive technologies because that firm can still
dominate the market for critical systems elements through setting de facto mar-
ket standards. Wintelism creates a whole range of market opportunities for de
facto standards holders in sectors that were previously dominated by giant
assemblers.
THE MODIFIED REGULATORY STATE
State governance is mainly defined by the industrial role of the state. The so-called
strength of the state—the capabilities of government agencies and other national
political institutions in relation to the business sector, including mechanisms of
state penetration into societ y—or state-societal arrangements—defined in terms of
the distribution of power among the state, the private business sector, and organ-
ized labor—is often considered to be a critical factor for understanding the nature
of state governance (Hart 1992). More specifically, the industrial role of the state
is embodied as industrial policy, which refers to the deliberate attempt by the gov-
ernment through a range of specific policies such as financial subsidies, trade pro-
tectionism, promotion of R&D, and procurement to determine the structure of
the economy (Johnson 1982).
The U.S. state is often considered to be a regulatory state; it is frequently con-
trasted with the developmental states of East Asia—particularly of Japan and South
Korea—that intervene directly in industrial matters and try to direct investment
into high priorit y areas.5 Nevertheless, the U.S. government has intervened in cer-
tain industries where there is a clear national securit y or public goods rationale.
For example, as an advanced user and R&D sponsor, the U.S. government made
important contributions throughout much of the history of computer industry—
but particularly in the early period.
The so-called first-mover advantages of the American computer industry were

generated not only as a result of commercial activit y but also by government R&D
policies, often through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
(Flamm 1987, 1988). The defense-oriented (or mission-oriented) R&D policy of
the postwar U.S. government, which included substantial public funding of basic
computer science research in universities, was very important in establishing the
technological basis for the computer industry (Ergas 1987). The technologies cre-
ated in some military programs were spun off into commercial computers; this
largely unplanned diffusion and sharing of technology resulted in first-mover ad-
vantages for the American computer industry. IBM’s entry into electronic com-
puters, for example, was largely underwritten by military contracts (Alic 1992;
Sandholtz et al. 1992).
However, in order to understand the evolution of U.S. government policies
toward the computer industry, we need to look beyond the boundaries of what is
considered industrial policy—i.e., industrial targeting, subsidies and R&D pro-
grams. Industrial policy is designed to help specific industries to achieve and/or
maintain global competitiveness. The regulatory pattern of government policy in
the U.S. computer industry, which relied on macroeconomic policies, antitrust en-
forcement, and vigorous Intellectual Propert y Rights protection, was more im-
portant for the growth of that industry than any industrial policy. In particular,
we should note that there are two t ypes of important regulatory government poli-
cies for the PC industry.
The U.S. government, by strictly enforcing antitrust and fair competition
laws, made important, but often largely unrecognized, contributions to the rise of
Wintelism. U.S. enforcement of antitrust and fair trading laws in the 1960s led to
IBM’s unbundling of hardware and soft ware sales, which was central in encour-
aging value-chain specialization in the computer industry and fostering the
growth of both the semiconductor and packaged soft ware industries (Mowery
1994; Mowery ed. 1996). Indeed, the policy-induced emergence of computer com-
ponent suppliers began subtly to undermine the logic of competition rooted in
economies of scale and vertical control of technology. They helped to create the
foundation for the emergence of Wintelism.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the United States government seemed to
be relaxing its antitrust policies, especially in sectors with strong R&D and strong
foreign competition, and owners of intellectual propert y rights benefited from a
more benign judicial attitude (Merges 1996). Recent actions against Intel and Mi-
crosoft taken by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commis-
sion suggest a revival of interest in stricter enforcement of antitrust and fair
trading laws.
The U.S. government has also played a major role in promoting Wintelism by
defining and protecting the intellectual propert y rights of major firms. The U.S.
government has long recognized the importance of protecting intellectual prop-

ert y in industry as a way of encouraging technological innovation. Intellectual
propert y is seen as a key asset for modern corporations with very important ram-
ifications for industrial strategy and structure. Merges holds,
Intellectual propert y determines the degree of legal shelter an incum-

bent can count on. Strong protection, like a brick wall, protects such an
incumbent from the winds whipped up by potential entrants, while
weak protection is more like a tent—it helps but cannot be relied on when
the winds get too strong (1996: 285).
The legal development of computer program-related intellectual propert y laws

suggests that the United States has adopted a strong protection regime for com-
puter hardware as well as software.
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES IN SOFTWARE ELECTRONICS
Success or failure in software electronics basically depends on the match between

the architectural technological competition of the industry and national institu-
tional arrangements, as argued at the beginning of this essay. The technological
properties of software electronics—a loosely coupled system with high causal com-
plexit y—are consistent with the rise of horizontal industrial governance, as seen in
the U.S. PC industry and in the Silicon Valley model. The properties of software
electronics are also consistent with a modified regulatory relationship bet ween
the government and other economic actors.
Industrial governance structures in the U.S. computer and software industry
approximate a f lexible form that blends competition and cooperation in order to
cope with the unique innovative patterns of software electronics: large R&D costs,
trial and error research yielding fast-paced breakthrough-t ype innovations, and in-
expensive copying and distribution of digital media. Small venture capitalists invest
in those nodes of the innovation network in which causal relations are sufficiently
well understood. Also, rapid innovative patterns in software electronics is likely to
give large corporations with decentralized structures an advantage over more cen-
tralized research arrangements—like cooperative R&D consortia—in developing new
products and in bringing them to the marketplace.
In cases where R&D uncertainties are substantial, a comprehensive public and
semipublic infrastructure of technological development through universities and
public research centers plays a critical role. For example, the defense-oriented in-
dustrial policy of the postwar U.S. government, which included substantial pub-
lic funding of basic computer science research in universities—without any clear
industrial applications—has been more successful in establishing a strong domes-

tic industry than interventionist forms of industrial policy in other countries.
Moreover, the regulatory role of the U.S. government to provide a competitive
market situation has been working as a political foundation for the success of the
industry.
This characterization of governance structures in the U.S. computer industry
parallels in important ways the general features of the American system of politi-
cal economy. Robert Gilpin argues,
Corporate governance in the United States is characterized by extensive

fragmentation and an overall lack of policy coordination at both the na-
tional and, to a lesser extent, the firm level. As in the case of the gov-
ernment, a primary motive behind this fragmentation of corporate
organization is to prevent the concentration of power. . . . the American
system fits the neoclassical model of a pure competitive model based on
price competition and in which firms seek to maximize profits (1996,
419–20).
In cases where countries already have elements of appropriate governance struc-

tures fitted into technological properties of software electronics within their ex-
isting national institutions, there are more possibilities that technological success
will be achieved within a framework of path-dependent learning (Hart and Kim
1998). In this sense, the U.S. computer industry benefited enormously from ex-
isting governance structures conducive to software electronics innovations. The
U.S. case shows that, when following the process of path-dependent learning, the
initial costs of entering new electronics technology markets are quite modest and
therefore even relatively small firms will be able to respond to new opportunities
quickly.
The American science and technology (S&T) infrastructure may be uniquely
well suited for architectural competitions in new technologies. According to Mar-
garet Sharp, S&T infrastructure involves high qualit y secondary education, a
good vocational training system, a strong universit y sector, a well-funded aca-
demic research base with a major postgraduate component, universit y-industry
linkage, research associations that support technology dissemination to small and
medium-sized businesses, and the encouragement of regional initiatives bringing
together firms, universities and research institutions (1997, 101). Indeed, the role
of a social, cultural or institutional infrastructure in producing human resources
and technological knowledge gains attention especially in software electronics.
The domestic system of higher education in the United States, for example,
appears to provide a much thicker basis of appropriate human resources for soft-
ware electronics than those in Japan or Europe. The structure of American higher
education systems also has closer links with government-funded research in the
computer sector. American Universities have maintained closer relationships with
corporations in producing and sharing technological knowledge. In fact, the or-
ganizational and disciplinary f lexibilit y of U.S. universities in computer science
has not been matched in many of the other economies. This S&T infrastructure
has been supported by the unique American technological culture encouraging
breakthrough-t ype and creative but risky innovative attempts in soft ware elec-
tronics (Mowery 1996, 306–307; Nelson 1998, 321).
To conclude, the U.S. success in creating Wintelism provides a better expla-
nation of the recent resurgence of U.S. international competitiveness. In effect,
the rise of Wintelism enabled U.S. firms to pioneer the new rules of the game in
the global computer industry: ones that grew out of the distinctively American
market environment and were adapted to overseas opportunities. In the PC in-
dustry, for example, U.S. firms lead the industry overall and also dominate many
segments including complete systems, microprocessors, operating systems, and
packaged applications (Dedrick and Kraemer 1998, 58). United States firms were
able to set global standards because they not only had the abilit y to maintain and
expand their spheres of control, but also were supported by (and adjusted to) the
American system of political economy.
CONCLUSIONS
The development of software electronics gave rise to a new mode of technological

competition where control over architectural standards became more important
than advanced manufacturing capabilities. We have tried in this essay to argue
that the success of the Wintel coalition—Microsoft and Intel—in the global PC
market is an indication of the rise of a new mode of technological competition
called Wintelism that is much broader in scope (Wintelism writ large). We
claimed that an assessment of the political implications of Wintelism requires a
definition of power that goes beyond the conventional understanding of power in
terms of control over material resources. Wintelist firms have concentrated on a
set of strategies—creative use of technical standards and intellectual propert y
rights, backed by accelerated innovations—that enabled them to define the rules of
the game in horizontal markets. They became hegemonic in their horizontal
niches. The dominance of technological architectures characteristic of Wintelism
is therefore a form of structural power.
This horizontal hegemony poses very interesting problems for governance at
the level of the national government. Should national governments promote hor-
izontal hegemony in the name of international competitiveness (as Bill Gates so
urgently argues is necessary) or should they enforce their antitrust and competi-
tion laws and break up horizontal monopolies to prevent predatory pricing and
unfair trade practices? Should they fund new R&D projects proposed by hori-
zontal hegemons or should they preferentially fund small challengers to those
hegemons?
Relying on the previous work of Herbert Kitschelt, we argued that innova-
tions in soft ware electronics, a loosely coupled technological system with high
causal complexit y, are consistent with horizontal industrial governance structures
and a modified regulatory state. The regulatory state in the United States has
been modified slightly to make it possible to produce a large number of high qual-
it y computer professionals and to permit close universit y-industry linkages for cre-
ative research. From time to time, the U.S. government condones industrial
targeting. For example, the creation of R&D consortia like Sematech for the semi-
conductor industry was permitted as an exception to the general rule of avoiding
direct interventions in industrial development.
As described above, Wintelism was born in the transition from the main-
frames to PCs in the computer industry and as a response to increased competi-
tion from Japan in the 1980s; but we are now observing another transition in the
computer industry. Since the early 1990s, there have been signs of the growing
importance of a combined computer and telecommunications industry that in-
creasingly revolves around global net work infrastructures (Moschella 1997). As
this net work-centric era begins, the prospects for new market leaders and new
t ypes of power are once again topics of speculation.6 The critical question that
arises here is whether the current shift toward networked computers will result in
the same kinds of fundamental changes across a wide range of customer, technol-
ogy, distribution, sales, marketing, and supplier businesses that characterized the
rise of Wintelism or whether Wintelism will simply adapt itself to the increased
importance of network computing.
NOTES
An earlier version of this paper was prepared for delivery at a workshop on Information,
Power and Globalization at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Associa-
tion, Boston, Massachusetts, September 2 1998. We would like to express our gratitude
to the following for comments and criticisms on earlier drafts: Jonathan Aronson, Sandra
Braman, Ed Comor, Ron Deibert, Rob Kling, Karen Litfin, Stephen McDowell, James N.
Rosenau, J.P. Singh, Debora Spar, Virginia Walsh, Mark Zacher, John Zysman, and several
anonymous reviewers. Please do not cite or quote without the written permission of the
authors.
1. Please note the parallels between our argument on this subject and those of Bra-
man, Comor and Deibert in this volume.
2. Based on this new conceptualization of technology, we can attempt to go beyond

the inherited and limited view of technology as easily transferrable, proprietary knowledge.
We propose a more complex concept of technology that includes technical standards, intel-
lectual property rights, norms, craft knowledge, and embedded institutions and culture. Hart
and Kim (2000) coined a new term, technoledge, compounded from technology and knowl-
edge, in order to emphasize this new and more complex conceptualization of technology.
3. Concerning the architectural dominance and business strategies of Intel and Mi-
crosoft, there are many well-documented works. For example, for the rise of Intel and Mi-
crosoft in the context of IBM’s collapse, see Chposky and Leonsis (1988), Carroll (1993),
and Ferguson and Morris (1994). Concerning Intel and its microprocessor business, see
Moore (1996) and Jackson (1997). Concerning Microsoft and Bill Gates, see Wallace and
Erickson (1992), Ichbiah and Knepper (1992), Manes and Andrews (1993), Cusumano
and Selby (1995), Stross (1996), and Wallace (1997).
4. International theorists are recently thinking more about the larger set of norms,
rules, and structures, which have governed international systems. For example, works by
IR theorists, such as Alexander E. Wendt (1987 1992), in the tradition of social construc-
tivism, have taken their cues from Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory in sociology
(1984). In the most recent work in this tradition, the constructivists have made the forma-
tion of identities and social norms a key question for research (Katzenstein, ed. 1996).
5. See the essays by Aronson, McDowell, and Zacher in this volume for further dis-
cussion of the differences among the advanced industrial nations in their approaches to reg-
ulating the computer and telecommunications industries.
6. See the essays by Aronson, Singh and Zacher in this volume for further discus-
sion of the impact of network technologies.
REFERENCES
Alic, John A. et al. 1992. Beyond Spinoff: Military and Commercial Technologies in a Chang-
ing World. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Bergsten, C. Fred, and Marcus Noland. 1993. Reconcilable Differences?: United States-Japan
Economic Conflict. Washington D.C.: Institute for International Economics.
Borrus, Michael and John Zysman. 1997. Globalization with Borders: The Rise of Win-
telism as the Future of Global Competition. Industry and Innovation. 4(2).
Carroll, Paul. 1993. Big Blues: The Unmasking of IBM. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks.
Chang Jr., Ike Y. 1994. The Economics of Dominant Technical Architectures: The Case of the
Personal Computer Industry. Santa Monica, CA: R AND.
Chposky, James, and Ted Leonsis. 1988. Blue Magic: The People, Power and Politics Behind
the IBM Personal Computer. New York: Facts on File.
Clapes, Anthony L. 1993. Softwars: The Legal Battles for Control of the Global Software
Industry. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books.
Cringely, Robert. 1993. Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Million,
Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Cusumano, Michael A. 1991. Japan’s Software Factories: A Challenge to U.S. Management.
New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Cusumano, Michael A., and Richard W. Selby. 1995. Microsoft Secrets: How the World’s
Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shapes Markets, and Manages
People. New York: Free Press.
Cusumano, Michael A., and Stanley A. Smith. 1997. Beyond the Waterfall: Software De-
velopment at Microsoft. In David B. Yoffie, ed. Competing in the Age of Digital
Convergence. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Dedrick, Jason, and Kenneth L. Kraemer. 1998. Asia’s Computer Challenge: Threat or Op-
portunity for the United States & the World? New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Drucker, Peter F. 1993. Post-capitalist Society. New York: HarperBusiness.
Ergas, Henry. 1987. Does Technology Policy Matter? In Bruce R. Gile and Harvey Brooks,
eds. Technology and Global Industry: Companies and Nations in the World Economy.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Ferguson, Charles H., and Charles R. Morris. 1994. Computer Wars: The Fall of IBM and
the Future of Global Technology. New York: Times Books, Random House.
Flamm, Kenneth. 1987. Targeting the Computer: Government Support and International Com-
petition. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.
Flamm, Kenneth. 1988. Creating the Computer: Government, Industry, and High Technology.
Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.
Fransman, Martin. 1995. Japan’s Computer and Communications Industry: The Evolution of
Industrial Giants and Global Competitiveness. Oxford: Oxford Universit y Press.
Gabel, H. Landis, ed. 1987. Product Standardization and Competitive Strategy. Amsterdam:
North-Holland.
Gabel, H. Landis. 1991. Competitive Strategies for Product Standards: The Strategic Use of
Compatibility Standards for Competitive Advantage. London: McGraw-Hill.
Giddens, Anthony. 1984. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration.
Cambridge, England: Polit y.
Gilder, George. 1989. Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology.
New York: Touchstone.
Gilpin, Robert. 1996. Economic Evolution of National Systems. International Studies Quar-
terly. (September) 40(3).
Grindley, Peter. 1995. Standards Strategy and Policy: Cases and Stories. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versit y Press.
Guzzini, Stefano. 1993. Structural Power: the Limits of Neorealist Power Analysis. Interna-
tional Organization. 47(3).
Hamilton, Marci A. 1997. The TRIPs Agreement: Imperialistic, Outdated, and Overpro-
tective. In Adam D. Moore, ed. Intellectual Property: Moral, Legal, and Interna-
tional Dilemmas. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Hansen, Hugh C. 1997. International Copyright: An Unorthodox Analysis. In Adam D.
Moore, ed. Intellectual Property: Moral, Legal, and International Dilemmas. Lan-
ham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Hart, Jeffrey A. 1976. Three Approaches to the Measurement of Power in International
Relations. International Organization. 30(2).
———. 1989. ISDN and Power. Discussion Paper 7, Center for Global Business, the Busi-
ness School of Indiana Universit y.
———. 1992. Rival Capitalists: International Competitiveness in the United States, Japan, and
Western Europe. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Hart, Jeffrey A. Hart, and Sangbae Kim. 1998. Technological Capacit y as Fitness: an Evo-
lutionary Model of Change in the International Political Economy. Paper pre-
pared for delivery at the conference on Evolutionary Perspectives on International
Relations, Bloomington, IN. (December 4–6)
———. 2000. Power in the Information Age. In Jose V. Ciprut, ed. Of Fears and Foes: Security
and Insecurity in an Evolving Global Political Economy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Ichbiah, Daniel, and Susan L. Knepper. 1992. The Making of Microsoft: How Bill Gates and
his Team Created the World’s Most Successful Software Company. Rocklin, CA:
Prime Pub.
Jackson, Tim. 1997. Inside Intel: Andy Grove and the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Chip
Company. New York: Dutton.
Johnson, Chalmers. 1982. MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy
1925–1975. Stanford: Stanford Universit y Press.
Katzenstein, Peter J., ed. 1996. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World
Politics. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Kenney, Martin. 1996. The Role of Information, Knowledge and Value in the Late 20th
Century. Working Paper.
Kitschelt, Herbert. 1991. Industrial Governance Structures, Innovation Strategies and the
Case of Japan: Sectoral or Cross-National Comparative Analysis. International
Organization. 45(4).
Krasner, Stephen D. 1985. Structural Conflict. Berkeley: Universit y of California Press.
Leaffer, Marshall A. 1991. Protecting United States Intellectual Propert y Abroad: Toward
a New Multilateralism. Iowa Law Review. 76.
Manes, Stephen, and Paul Andrews. 1993. Gates: How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an
Industry and Made Himself the Richest Man in America. New York: Doubleday.
Merges, Robert P. 1996. A Comparative Look at Intellectual Propert y Rights and the Soft-
ware Industry. In David C. Mowery, ed. The International Computer Software In-
dustry: A Comparative Study of Industry Evolution and Structure. New York: Oxford
Universit y Press.
Moore, Adam D., ed. 1997. Intellectual Property: Moral, Legal, and International Dilemmas.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Moore, Gordon E. 1996. Intel: Memories and the Microprocessor. Daedalus. (Spring) 125(2).
Morris, Charles R., and Charles H. Ferguson. 1993. How Architecture Wins Technology
Wars. Harvard Business Review. (March–April)
Moschella, David C. 1997. Waves of Power: Dynamics of Global Technology Leadership,
1964–2010. New York: AMACOM.
Mowery, David C. 1994. Science and Technology Policy in Interdependent Economics. Boston:
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Mowery, David C., ed. 1996. The International Computer Software Industry: A Comparative
Study of Industry Evolution and Structure. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Nelson, Richard R. 1998. The Co-evolution of Technology, Industrial Structure, and Sup-
porting Institutions. In Giovanni Dosi, David J. Teece, and Josef Chytry, eds.
Technology, Organization, and Competitiveness: Perspectives on Industrial and Cor-
porate Change. Oxford: Oxford Universit y Press.
Nye, Jr. Joseph S. 1990. Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. New York:
Basic Books.
Ostry, Sylvia. 1996. Policy Approaches to System Friction: Convergence Plus. In Suzanne
Berger and Ronald Dore, eds. National Diversity and Global Capitalism. Ithaca
and London: Cornell Universit y Press.
Rosenberg, Nathan. 1982. Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics. Cambridge Uni-
versit y Press.
Ryan, Michael P. 1998. Knowledge Diplomacy: Global Competition and the Politics of Intellec-
tual Property. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute.
Sandholtz, Wayne, Michael Borrus, John Zysman, Ken Conca, Jay Stowsky, Steven Vogel,
and Steve Weber. 1992. The Highest Stakes: The Economic Foundations of the Next
Security System. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Saxenian, Annalee. 1994. Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and
Route 128. Cambridge: Harvard Universit y Press.
Schaller, Robert R. 1997. Moore’s Law: Past, Present, and Future. http://www.cs.uoregon.
edu/classes/ cis629/Readings/moore.htm.
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1950. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. 3rd ed. New York:
Harper and Row.
Sell, Susan K. 1998. Power and Ideas: North-South Politics of Intellectual Property and
Antitrust. Albany: State Universit y of New York Press.
Sharp, Margaret. 1997. Technology, Globalization, and Industrial Policy. In Talalay,
Michael, Chris Farrands, and Roger Tooze, eds. Technology, Culture, and Com-
petitiveness: Change and the World Political Economy. London and New York:
Routledge.
Strange, Susan. 1988. State and Markets. London: Pinter.
Stross, Randall E. 1996. The Microsoft Way: The Real Story of How the Company Outsmarts
Its Competition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Toff ler, Alvin. 1990. Power Shift. New York: Bantam Books.
Tyson, Laura D’Andrea. 1992. Who’s Bashing Whom?: Trade Conflict in High-Technology
Industries. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.
Wallace, James. 1997. Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace. New York:
Wiley.
Wallace, James, and Jim Erickson. 1992. Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the
Microsoft Empire. New York: HarperBusiness.
Wendt, Alexander E. 1987. The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations
Theory. International Organization. 41(3).
Wendt, Alexander E. 1992. Anarchy is What States Make of It: the Social Construction of
Power Politics. International Organization. 46.
West, Joel. 1995. Soft ware Rights and Japan’s Shift to an Information Societ y: The
1993–1994 Copyright Revision Process. Asian Survey. 35(12).
Yoffie, David B., ed. 1997. Competing in the Age of Digital Convergence. Boston: Harvard
Business School Press.
CHAPTER SEVEN
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND CONSUMPTION:

CONTR ADICTIONS IN THE EMERGING
WORLD ORDER
EDWARD COMOR
Capitalism is inherently innovative. In a competitive capitalist system, the need to

implement increasingly efficient ways of producing, distributing and selling com-
modities is ever present. But nations, communities and individuals are not ma-
chines—people can not be readily manipulated or “upgraded” in ways that are
always accommodating to such systemic compulsions. New technologies, regard-
less of the logic of their development, are rarely embraced wholeheartedly. Indeed,
sometimes they are rejected. Simply put, what is rational for capital may not be
acceptable to human beings.
A remarkably under-assessed aspect of this tension is the abilit y or willing-
ness of people to purchase the goods and services that global capitalism is pro-
ducing. Not only are technologies directly developed for the production and
distribution of commodities, they are now becoming increasingly important in ef-
forts to further consumption. Students of International Studies have not yet di-
rectly addressed the complexities and implications of this relationship bet ween
technology and consumption and these complexities and implications constitute
the focus of what follows.
Following the collapse of communism and the near universalization of neo-
liberal economic policies, at the beginning of the twent y-first century, the world
order is in many ways a characteristically capitalist world order. While the impli-
cations of production and distribution developments and the role of new tech-
nologies in relation to these have been examined by students of International
Political Economy and others, analyses on how technology is shaping consump-
tion—the final stage in the production process—largely has been ignored. More
generally, a vast range of governance developments are being directly inf luenced
169
by more than just political actors pursuing various interests involving rapidly
emerging technological capacities. Governance also is being shaped by technolog-
ical applications being implemented to modify an essential institution of human
existence—consumption. (For other chapters in this volume that address the rela-
tionship of capitalism to governance, see McDowell, and Kim and Hart).
Borrowing from economist Thorstein Veblen’s conceptualization of con-
sumption as an institution—a structured complex of “habits of thought” (Veblen
1953, 133)1—in the following pages, I discuss the relationship bet ween con-
sumption and technology with a particular emphasis on the problems involved
in coordinating production with consumption. In the first section, I argue that
consumption can and should be conceptualized as a sociological institution. I do
this in order to establish the complex nature of consumption, both in relation to
the capitalist production process and to realit y in toto. In the second section, the
role of technology in shaping this institution is addressed. Systemic forces are
identified that compel capitalists directly and state officials indirectly to expand
markets through what I call the global “widening” and “deepening” of consump-
tion. In the section following this, I focus on the Internet as a contemporary case
study of these. An argument is made here that Internet developments potentially
could lead to a crisis of consumption and, hence, global capitalism writ large.
This position is elaborated in the fourth and penultimate section.
As Robert W. Cox has recognized, “Consumption is the motor force of capi-
talism and the motivation of consumer demand is indispensable to capitalism’s
continuing development” (1995, 168). In the context of this importance, my goal
in this chapter is to locate where and when systemic tensions and potential con-
tradictions might occur in light of technological and related transformations in
the global political economy. (For a quite different approach to issues related to
global consumption, see the chapter by Aronson.)
CONSUMPTION AS AN INSTITUTION
It is useful to think of consumption as more than just a necessary activit y. More

generally, consumption also is an institution—a historically constructed and
power-laden t ypification of habitualized thoughts and actions. Indeed, the very
raison d’etre of all institutions is to structure ways of thinking and doing (Berger
and Luckmann 1967, 54). Institutions inf luence all human relationships and
their pervasiveness, for the most part, is a result of their functional necessit y.
Through this structuring of thought and action, predictabilit y in most interac-
tions is facilitated and this relieves people of having to spend considerable time,
effort and, in some instances, the need to engage in explicit conf lict in virtually
every social encounter. Also, over time, experience (sometimes bitter) tends to
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND CONSUMPTION 171
compel people to appreciate things as they are as opposed to how they might be.
This distaste for uncertaint y and unpredictabilit y further entrenches institu-
tional norms.
Thoughts and actions involving consumption are constructed realities in-
volving class, gender, and other power dynamics. As with most institutions, such
historically produced realities directly affect thought and action in ways that deny
their historicit y. The way in which consumption is conceptualized and practiced
in any given place and time is not only a human-produced realit y, ways of think-
ing about consumption and “doing” consumption themselves are structured prac-
tices. This, in effect, limits the f lexibilit y of such institutionalized ways of
thinking and doing and herein lies a potential contradiction: while the inherent
dynamism of capitalism compels ongoing reforms to the institution of consump-
tion, there are limits to how fast consumption ideals and practices can in fact be
modified over a given period of time in a particular spatial context.
The beginnings of modern consumerist societies usually are traced to the in-
dustrial revolution. Understanding the forces and processes that led to this
involves an appreciation of already existing institutions, organizations and tech-
nologies and their mediation of consumption-related developments. Pre-capitalist
grain purchasing practices, for example, mediated and shaped the development of
early English capitalism. The long-standing custom of selling grain in open mar-
kets on specific days at a commonly agreed upon just price—involving militant in-
terventions when farmers, merchants or millers were suspected of manipulating
supplies to increase prices—directly shaped subsequent norms in seller-buyer rela-
tions (Ackerman 1997, 113–14). What remains alive in thought and practice di-
rectly shapes the parameters of what is possible. In conceptualizing consumption
as an institution, history is a tool for analysts seeking to specify process and iden-
tify tensions and contradictions in contemporary developments.
At the beginning of the twent y-first century, efforts to stimulate consumer ac-
tivit y over the Internet are being directly inf luenced by traditional shopping prac-
tices such as the seemingly natural proclivit y to physically handle products and
interact with other living, breathing human beings. As with other structured re-
lationships, a core part of the ongoing construction of the institution of con-
sumption involves not just problematic revisions to established ways of thinking
and doing but also the development and active interventions of new mediators in
daily life. Through the pervasiveness of institutions such as the price system, or-
ganizations like the advertising-marketing firm, and technologies such as auto-
matic teller machines, what has come to be known as the consumer societ y
continues to develop in uneven and sometimes unpredictable ways.
Consumption is like other institutions in terms of its structuring proclivities
but it is relatively unique in terms of its extraordinary position in capitalist
economies. To better understand these dynamics and the role of technological
developments in relation to them, it is helpful to recall the classical Marxist di-

alectic bet ween what are called forces of production and relations of production.
By forces of production, I refer to the devices (e.g. technologies), facilities (e.g.
factories) and ideas (e.g. technical know-how) used in the production process. By
relations of production, I refer to how human relationships are organized in ac-
cordance with ways of doing production, distribution, exchange, and consump-
tion. At any given place and time, relations of production roughly correspond
with the state of existing productive forces. For example, productive relations—as
expressed through school systems, legal structures, religious orders, and so
forth—to some extent are expressions of the ways in which people make use of
productive forces such as natural resources, manufacturing capabilities, social
pools of knowledge and, of course, technologies (Cohen 1988, 4–7).
This forces-relations dialectic continues to play itself out through, for instance,
the recent f lowering of computer-based information and communication technolo-
gies. Their widespread development and application can be traced to the economic
crisis of the 1970s—a period in which mostly Western-based corporations and states
were compelled to respond to unprecedented conditions of rising inf lation, deepen-
ing unemployment, and growing competition from overseas. Measures to reorganize
production norms and related reforms to domestic and international regulatory
regimes, to some extent, have been responses to mostly corporate interests seeking
to take advantage of emerging technologies. Again, this forces-relations relationship
is dialectical. New technologies do not determine new social relationships. Technolo-
gies and techniques always are developed and applied by human beings acting on the
basis of intersubjective conceptualizations of reality and these are shaped by various
relations of production and a complex of mediators. More to the point, structured
conditions and/or various acts of resistance condition the ways in which new tech-
nologies and techniques are adopted or rejected.2
Consumption ideals and practices in any given place and time play an impor-
tant role in the complex structuring of human relationships. Moreover, the insti-
tution of consumption itself is directly inf luenced by other institutions as well as
various organizations and technologies. The law, for example, particularly prop-
ert y law, is an institution that shapes consumption. It provides individuals with
state-sanctioned rights in relation to commodities while rules, regulations and so-
cial norms, to varying degrees, shape how consumption takes place (Cosgel 1997,
155). Organizations, such as corporations, nation states, unions, NGOs, and
many others inf luence ongoing consumption developments through a vast range
of activities. Technologies (including techniques), such as the printing press, tele-
satellites, and even tools as banal as eating utensils, also inf luence the ongoing
history of this institution. In sum, consumption is not only an institutional con-
struct shaped by organizations, technologies and other institutions, it is itself an
important component in the ongoing and complex construction of realit y.
THE DEEPENING AND WIDENING OF CONSUMPTION
The task of modifying the institution of consumption (the task of, in effect, pro-
ducing consumers) for the most part is being pursued directly by corporations and
indirectly by states. In effect, corporations and states have mobilized various or-
ganizations and technologies—as well as other institutions (such as the law and re-
ligion)—in the task of modifying and expanding consumption. In relatively
advanced economies, this has involved new efforts, through technology, to deepen
already entrenched ways of thinking and acting. This also can be termed the com-
moditization of daily life in which “more aspects of family life, religious practice,
leisure pursuits, and aspects of nature” are becoming commercialized and brought
into the fold of capitalist relations (Gill 1995, 409). As for relatively less developed
areas of the world, efforts to widen capitalist consumption activities into previ-
ously under-exploited and geographically unreachable markets continue.
This deepening and widening of consumption is a response to the dynamism
of capitalism writ large and to recent and unprecedented developments in infor-
mation and communications capabilities and investments. As Marx demon-
strated, capitalists generally are so productive that they are forever facing the
prospect of not securing markets for their goods and services. At its worst, “there
breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurd-
it y—the epidemic of overproduction” (Marx and Engels 1979, 86). Competition
over limited markets has involved efforts to produce and distribute commodities
more efficiently through technological improvements. Recent manifestations of
these developments constitute yet another stage in the systemic drive to expand
consumption activities through, 1) institutional widening, 2) the “production of
new needs” and the “discovery and creation of new use-values” through con-
sumption’s deepening, and 3) the “creation of new needs by propagating existing
ones in a wide circle” through both widening and deepening (Marx 1973, 408).
In response to the rise of global (especially Asian-based) competition, the
relatively high costs of unionized labor in the West, and other factors, in the
1970s mostly U.S.-based corporations came to recognize that production process
efficiencies could be improved significantly through the development and large-
scale application of computer-based technologies. Such technologies involve costs
that eventually must be paid for through expanding profits. New technologies
also may be applied in the development of new commodities that themselves re-
quire markets in which they can be sold. Finally, new technologies implemented
in order to expand markets through, among other things, an extension of geo-
graphic reach, more effective marketing practices, and faster turnover times, also
involve overhead costs that must be paid down and these include the often incal-
culable costs of reorganizing a range of production, distribution and exchange-
related activities.
In sum, the systemic pressure of capitalism to be technologically innovative

ultimately involves the need to expand profits and, more particularly, the eco-
nomic compulsion to implement such innovations in an effort to substantiate or
pay down their costs (Lachmann 1956). This, in turn, implies some form of
growth in rates of consumption and this involves deliberate efforts to expand mar-
kets through the intensification of consumption activities (what I am calling its
deepening) and/or efforts to grow markets by selling commodities in new territo-
ries or spaces (what I call consumption’s widening).
The past twent y years of marketplace deregulation in the United States, fol-
lowed by American-led efforts to open up and liberalize foreign markets through
international trade agreements and related interventions, ref lect extraordinary
productive forces being developed in response to systemic pressures. While tech-
nological and other innovations were initiated by mostly corporate interests, of ne-
cessit y, states—the sovereigns of legal authorit y in international relations—have
been the essential mediators of efforts to restructure the way in which global cap-
italism (including consumption) takes place. Enormous investments and long-
term corporate and state-based strategic plans today are directly linked to the need
to construct a world in which new technological capabilities can be fully exploited
and this involves rapid, pervasive, and problematic efforts to deepen and widen
the institution of consumption.
The ideal conditions in which consumption may be widened involve both
practical and ideological components. These include a secure and steady growth
in production, wages, and the availabilit y of commodities. It also involves a mass
recognition that consumption and consumerist values are inherently good. Tech-
nological developments, in the workplace, in the marketplace, and in the home,
play an essential role in all of these. Consumption as a facilitator for ongoing eco-
nomic expansion also involves spatial transformations. Examples of this include
the changing organization of homes and transportation net works to accommo-
date emerging consumption norms. In most Western industrialized countries (but
in North America especially), suburbanization, the ascendancy of the shopping
mall, and the massification of the automobile, along with the predominance of
commercial television in the home, facilitated a dramatic growth of consumption
among a burgeoning post-war middle class. From 1975 to 1998, real consumption
in the world doubled to $24 trillion while 86 percent of all private consumption
is carried out by just 20 percent of the world’s population (UNDP 1998, 1–2).
This growth of consumption in mostly First World countries continues to in-
volve a historical process in which diverse and complementary nodal points—
organizations, technologies, and other institutions—facilitate (and sometimes
retard) the development of consumerist thoughts and practices.3 In addition, com-
plementary nodes support the diversification and specialization of production,
distribution, exchange, and consumption. Such developments, promoting the
f lexibilit y and even the individualization of consumption, ideally involve tech-

nologies that provide for a faster turnover of commodities directly as a result of
falling spatial and temporal barriers separating producers from consumers.
This deepening and widening process, and the struggle to minimize spatial
and temporal barriers, has involved technology-related developments such as the
promotion of consumer credit capabilities, the growth of commercial mass media,
the expanding reach of advertising and marketing interests and, of course, a range
of state-based reforms aimed at regulatory, educational, and infrastructural devel-
opments (both domestically and internationally) crafted to facilitate rising rates of
consumption (Lee 1993, 84). Keynesian macroeconomic policies, for example, still
aspire to maintain stable growth rates in domestic and world consumption while,
more recently, policies have been implemented to aggressively commercialize the
Internet. The goal of this latter development is to ensure that the communications
revolution is a boon to corporate interests and, more generally, the Internet be-
comes fully exploited as a new productive force for global capitalism (Baran 1998,
125–7).
Technological developments and applications, and, hence, large-scale invest-
ments, are essential in efforts to widen and deepen consumption. In relation to its
deepening through the use of information and communications technologies,
commodities such as financial services and entertainment products, and a range
of specialized technologies such as personal computers, involve the promotion of
a somewhat different ideological message than that related to widening. Rather
than widening’s general massification of consumption and its “keeping up with
the Joneses” ideal, deepening more directly involves the acquisition and use of
commodities as a means of enhancing the liberal ideal of individualized identit y
and meaning.
In seeking new markets, corporations attempt to become a growing presence
in comparatively underdeveloped parts of the world. In already relatively satu-
rated areas, many are compelled to go further and become an integral part of
people’s lives. Worldwide networks of instantaneous and interactive f lows of in-
formation about consumer spending patterns and preferences are essential for
this to proceed. Through digital communications, coupled with increasingly so-
phisticated database information on credit card and other spending activities,
commercial interests monitor individuals. More participation online now means
increasingly accurate information for vendors who, in turn, can more directly tar-
get prospective customers. The use of software on Internet browser systems that
tells websites who is visiting (a technology called the cookie) is being used as a
means of developing consumer profiles.4 As a result, specifically targeted adver-
tisements and icon come-ons are posted on the screen of the individual virtually
every time he/she logs on and often throughout his/her visit to cyberspace.5 The
deepening of consumption also involves the rise of nonmaterial commodities
characterized by unprecedented f lexibilities, a pluralit y of consumer applications,

and fast (if not instantaneous) turnover times. With the Internet and related de-
velopments, the institution of consumption now has the technological capacit y to
become, more than ever before, a deepening presence in our day-to-day lives.
CONSUMPTION THROUGH THE INTERNET
Arguably, no assemblage of contemporary productive forces better illustrates

the compulsion to deepen and widen the institution of consumption than does
the Internet. The advantages of its development and implementation for the on-
going development of capitalism are manifold. So too, however, are its potential
contradictions.
The Internet is becoming a mass and specialized interactive marketplace. Its
infrastructure is a virtually seamless web of information and communications
technologies and services whose physical reach is limited only by the availabilit y
of the electricit y and hardware needed to transmit and process its digital signals.
Its presence enables corporations and entrepreneurs to sell or lease non-material
commodities to anyone almost immediately and regardless of location. The ca-
pacit y to integrate such services and tailor them to the particular demands of
consumers, as well as to gather information for future marketing efforts, is un-
precedented. For the producers of both material and nonmaterial commodities,
the Internet furthermore constitutes an opportunit y to eliminate bricks-and-
mortar retailers.
Just as important as the abilit y to reach new markets through a virtual rather
than a physical presence is the opportunit y provided by the Internet to speed up
turnover times toward the goal of what Marx famously referred to as “the t win-
kling of an eye.” In addition to these incentives to make use of Internet technolo-
gies for commercial purposes is the necessit y of paying down the costs involved in
their implementation. For example, the economic (and other) costs related to the
construction of the Internet already appear to be compelling an extraordinary cor-
porate and government-led promotion of its economic and even democratic po-
tentials. This has included an initiative, led by the U.S. executive branch, to make
the Internet a tariff-free zone for transnational commerce (The White House 1997
and U.S. Department of Commerce 1999).
Investments made over the past decade or two in public telecommunications
infrastructures are mounting. These are the wires and satellite links through which
Internet commerce takes place.6 Ongoing merger and acquisition activities among
information, communications, and other corporate interests almost all involve
strategic considerations related to prospective Internet developments. Such activi-
ties generally ref lect the presence of a widespread demand for ever-improving
information and communications capabilities primarily for the economic reasons

outlined above. These investments do not, however, ref lect significant shifts in the
demands of consumers in either developed or relatively less developed parts of the
world (at least not yet). While, historically, the relationship between corporate de-
mand and the supply of information and communications facilities has been largely
dialectical, with the Internet, for the most part, individual consumers have been
relatively inactive, following supply far more than demanding it.
Examples of this effort to modify demand include the emerging practice
among banks in relatively aff luent communities to charge clients service fees if
they want to deal with f lesh-and-blood tellers. This is being pursued as a means of
reducing labor costs and to impel otherwise reluctant customers to participate in
electronic banking. The introduction of digitalized television services is another
instance of corporate efforts to modify cultural norms. In the United States, an
extraordinary consensus has been reached among a broad range of corporations
on the technical standard on which to digitalize domestic television signals by the
year 2006. In effect, U.S. corporate interests, through the legal and policing pow-
ers of the American state, hope to bring the Internet into people’s homes through
their television screens. In the United Kingdom, digitalized television broadcast-
ing has been established and its main proponents—led by SKY Digital (controlled
by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation International)—consider it to be the pre-
lude to a universally accessible and very commercial TV-based Internet system.
More generally, efforts to get people culturally “wired” in relation to the Internet—
especially the young (through the use of Internet-linked computers in schools) and
those consumers possessing healthy disposable incomes—are well underway (U.S.
Department of Commerce 1998).
One of the more remarkable features of plans to capitalize on Internet tech-
nologies involves the abilit y to, in effect, eliminate turnover time through what has
been referred to as the virtualization of capitalism. Some software products, for ex-
ample, constitute potentially ideal commodities for capitalists. Not only can such
nonmaterial commodities be distributed and consumed almost instantaneously,
unlike automobiles or screwdrivers, the makers of software products like Doom or
Eudora can add layers and upgrades with little risk of saturating markets. One com-
mon strategy, as pointed out by Ronald Diebert, is to “release ‘beta’ and ‘share-
ware’ versions for free over the Internet to entice consumers into the latest versions
(and also download the costs onto the consumer of product testing!)” (1998).
In the words of Veblen, “The highest achievement of business is the nearest
approach to getting something for nothing” (1964, 92). Of course, ideals rarely
translate into realities and even consumption over the Internet involves inevitable
bottlenecks. After all, the more ephemeral brand of capitalism that technology
hath wrought is still capitalism and, as such, tensions and outright contradictions
are almost as predictable as the systemic compulsions underlying them.
TENSION AND CONTR ADICTION ON THE INTERNET7
In the United States, the epicenter of global capitalism, from 1980 to 1992, pri-
vate final consumption expenditures on recreational, entertainment, education,
and cultural services increased (in constant prices) at an annual rate of almost
7 percent while total private consumption expenditures rose by 4.3 percent
(United Nations 1993, 2007). A relatively small portion of the population has fu-
elled these growth rates. For most, real wages continue to stagnate or decline
while wage and job securit y disparities between rich and poor grow (UNDP 1998,
29–30). Personal credit and working longer hours have enabled others to partici-
pate in the consumption boom but for many this has resulted in mounting debt.
Perhaps not surprisingly, in 1996, 55 percent of Internet users in the United
States were from the wealthiest one-third of the population (Media Dynamics
1997, 168). For reasons involving spending capabilities alone, the rapid formation
of a mass consumer market for the products and services now being readied for
the Internet is by no means a certaint y.
As for the time to consume online, the average American has more free time
today than ever before.8 From 1965 to 1985, average annual gains in the free time
available to full-time employed men in the United States was 8 minutes each day
while for women it was 19 minutes. Similar gains in free time have been recorded
in other industrialized countries (Robinson 1991, 138, 140).9 More interesting
than these averages is how people have been using this time. Through these
decades, television watching has taken up increasing amounts of free time. In
1970, the television set was on for an average of 32.5 hours each week in U.S.
households. In 1980, this figure rose to 46.5 hours. In 1995 the television was on
for 50 hours a week (Media Dynamics 1997, 26). Not only has television viewing
outpaced the growth of free time, time spent watching TV has increased more
than any other free time activit y such as reading, listening to music, or visiting
friends. Surveys on the use of home computers indicate that the time an individ-
ual spends online generally reduces time spent using other electronic media, in-
cluding television (Robinson and Godbey 1997, 165). For example, in the first
two months of 1996, watching television was the most adversely affected free time
activit y among five hundred U.S. adults directly as a result of their use of personal
computers (Media Dynamics 1997, 178).
Although the abilit y to use several forms of media at one time (for example,
listening to a radio while “surfing” the Internet) ref lects the complexit y of time-
use analyses, a cursory reading of such studies indicates that the free time needed
to directly participate in Internet-mediated consumption is far from unlimited and
may well be cannibalistic in relation to other electronic commerce activities. Pro-
ponents of the Internet counter such observations by pointing to the f lexibilit y,
efficiency and overall speed in which Internet commerce takes place as evidence
that more can, and will, be done in less time. Gross time measurements, some
argue, are secondary to what can be achieved over a given period of time. For ex-
ample, more free time (theoretically) will be gained as a result of shopping online
instead of driving to and walking through a shopping mall to make a purchase.
But this line of reasoning assumes that consumers are “rational” actors who will
both embrace timesaving technologies and enthusiastically participate in Internet
commercial transactions.10
Television watching and Internet surfing are becoming remarkably similar ac-
tivities. Indeed, as already mentioned, these may well merge into one medium.
This should not be a surprise. The core source of revenue for both, at least at pres-
ent, is their abilit y to attract people to advertisers. Like television, online sensa-
tions (involving seductive point-and-click icons, for example) arguably have
become more important motivators for Internet use than some kind of purpose-
ful quest for information. To attract eyeballs to advertisers and, hopefully, com-
mercial websites, the Internet is becoming a kind of interactive million-channel
digital television system specializing in endless provocations.
In addition and in relation to this effort to deepen consumption through the
Internet and related technology-based developments is the emergence of an ever-
changing and, arguably, more ephemeral culture, locally, nationally and even
globally. This cultural shift perhaps has contributed to the common assumption
that people have less, not more, free time. More time, when accompanied by more
choice and immediacy, does not necessarily compel the development of a world
characterized by ever-growing consumer desires. The speeding-up of life and its
psychological implications instead could stimulate (and, arguably, already is stim-
ulating) countercultures in search of less consumption, f lesh-and-blood instead of
online relationships, and perhaps even a greater valuation of the spiritual and
communit y aspects of life over the commercial and individualistic.
Beyond such questions concerning income and time, the success of Internet
developments thus also involves the capacit y of cultures and individuals to un-
dergo rapid modifications in their consumptive practices. Given the entrenched na-
ture of consumption as a sociological institution—itself sustained through a
plethora of related institutions, organizations, and technologies—the speed with
which relatively well-off consumers are expected to modify their day-to-day norms
in relation to investments involving Internet and related technological applications
deserves some attention. In this context, the Internet may constitute a consump-
tion crisis in the making. Questions concerning the abilit y of consumers to pay for
new services, the time needed to participate, and their psychological-cultural will-
ingness to live more and more of their lives in cyberspace remain unanswered.
In relation to the systemic compulsion to commoditize virtually every as-
pect of life, the institution of consumption has long been a significant compo-
nent in constructing the meaningfulness of life. Consumption can, and usually
does, link us to others in relationships that hopefully make sense. The role of
consumerism as a meaningful ideology and consumption as a meaningful activ-
it y has become particularly significant given the cultural conditions of early
t went y-first century capitalism. Consumption, for many, now involves much
more than the satisfaction of subsistence needs. As technology enables capital-
ism to produce more, for relatively wealthy consumers whose consumption ac-
tivities involve the search for meaning and identit y, one can argue “that the
struggle to maintain or expand profits is increasingly the struggle to control not
just consumption practices but also the meaningfulness of the consumption ex-
perience itself” (Lee 1993). One of the cultural characteristics of contemporary
capitalism is the emergence of a disparate but nevertheless global consumerist
societ y “in which ever-growing consumption becomes the principle aspiration,
source of identit y, and leisure activit y for more and more of the population”
(Ackerman 1997, 109).
In this context, corporate interests will intensify their efforts to sell not just
commodities but, more essentially, meanings. There are contradictory implica-
tions related to this. The systemic compulsion to control meaning (that is, the
need to sell more “sizzle” in order to sell more “steak”) will involve corporations
in ever-larger and more complex mergers and partnerships involving digital
technologies. The goal for such interests is to become a widening and deepen-
ing presence in workplace, household, transportation, recreational and other
environments so that, in effect, the institution of consumption mediates virtu-
ally every moment of our lives. But as a result of the f lexibilities garnered
through new technologies and efforts to deepen consumption activities, con-
sumption itself is becoming increasingly personalized. In effect, aff luent con-
sumers around the world are being encouraged to tailor their demands and
consumption activities to suit their own preferences. However, such efforts to
deepen consumption through new, f lexible, and increasingly personalized tech-
nologies paradoxically may be making this systemic compulsion to control con-
sumption a more, rather than less, difficult task. With increasingly sophisticated
computer and digital technologies, resourceful consumers are becoming more
capable of, in effect, manufacturing their own soft ware and even hardware
commodities thus potentially enabling them to circumscribe corporate efforts to
control the meaningfulness of consumption experiences.
While a range of institutions, organizations, and technologies propagate and
mediate the general ascendancy of consumption and consumerism, it is a mistake
to underestimate the fact that some institutions and organizations, in effect, oppose
the idealization of a consumerist societ y. Religious organizations (some becoming
increasingly globalized through migratory developments, television transmissions,
and even celebrit y promotions) sometimes directly challenge aspects of the insti-
tution of consumption. Another institution—marriage—continues, for the most
part, to promulgate ideals such as love and sharing over selfishness and materi-
alism. But against these (and others), the mediators promoting an increasingly
global consumerist societ y—and thus the institution of consumption—for the
most part are inter-linked, mutually supportive, and generally overwhelming. De-
spite this, given the limitations and contradictions characterizing consumption,
it is not surprising that deviant behavior and pockets of organized opposition are
ever present.11
CONCLUSIONS
In this chapter I have addressed the role of technology in shaping the institution
of consumption. Not only does consumption remain an under-assessed aspect of
the world economic system,12 it constitutes an essential component of the ongoing
development of global capitalism. Emerging alongside investments in new tech-
nologies are vested interests seeking the reconstruction of consumption ideals
and practices. In the world’s peripheries these mostly involve efforts to widen con-
sumption and in relatively developed social-economic contexts the emphasis is on
its deepening.
Consumption can be conceptualized as a sociological institution—a histori-
cally constructed and power-laden t ypification of habitualized thoughts and ac-
tions—that directly shapes the thoughts and activities (or inactivities) of the
innumerable agents of global governance. (On related concerns, see the chapter by
Braman.) Its complex components are interlinked and sometimes challenged by
other institutional constructs as well as various organizations and technologies.
Consumption also constitutes a moment in the ever-dynamic capitalist production
process. As such, the institution of consumption is the subject of ongoing, neces-
sary, but often problematic modifications. Emerging productive forces—generally
new ways of “doing” capitalism (including new technological applications)—compel
this institution to be paradoxically both stable and dynamic. Established modes of
consumption, and other institutional, organizational, and technological mediators
that contribute to how realit y is conceptualized and practised, usually place con-
straints on the capacit y to modify consumption. In the contemporary global polit-
ical economy, remarkable demands are being placed on this institution and, as
discussed, the Internet is a technology-based illustration of potentially contradic-
tory developments involving its deepening and widening.
While Veblen addressed the relationship bet ween technologies and insti-
tutions at the end of the nineteenth century, Marx and Engels published one of
the first analyses of technology and globalization—The Communist Manifesto—
fift y years before that. “The bourgeoisie,” said Marx, “cannot exist without con-
stantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby relations of
production, and with them the whole relations of societ y.” Marx went on to
write that “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases
the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere,
settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere” (Marx and Engels 1979,
83). Herein I have argued that the institution of consumption is an essential but
not well understood aspect of developments related to the Internet, governance,
and, more profoundly, the future of capitalism and world order. Consumption,
fundamentally, is a complex nodal point in the ongoing construction of realit y
and it is at this level of human consciousness that the increasingly technology-
dependent edifice of global capitalism is both demonstrably dynamic and po-
tentially vulnerable.
NOTES
Thank you to the editors and referees of this volume and my fellow contributors for their
critical comments and helpful suggestions. I am especially grateful to Ronald Deibert and
Jeffrey Hart.
1. Veblen elaborates as follows: “habits of thought are the outcome of habits of life
. . . the discipline of daily life acts to alter or reinforce the . . . received institutions under
which men live. And the direction in which, on the whole, the alteration proceeds is con-
ditioned by the trend of the discipline of daily life” (1919:314).
2. Although this summary of the forces-relations of production dialectic is a
much-simplified version of that developed by Marx, it is fair to point out an important
shortcoming. In recognizing that the general level of development of the productive
forces in a societ y explains why certain relations of production, and not others, can
advance—and that these relations of production then facilitate the advancement of par-
ticular productive forces while retarding the development of others—precisely how this
process works, for the most part, remains unanswered. As such, Marx’s forces-relations
dialectic provides a general explanation (a starting point, perhaps) but lacks precision in
terms of the mechanisms at play at any particular time and place. On the subject of tech-
nology, it is necessary to complicate matters by recognizing that technology, in practice,
almost always constitutes both a productive force and relation. A technique, for example,
constitutes the essential ingredient shaping technological applications and to some ex-
tent it is also an outcome of such applications. A technology and the technique used in its
application are virtually inseparable—one would be irrelevant without the other. It is in
this sense that technology simultaneously is a productive force and a relation. This is not
to say that in a general historical context a productive force should not be given analytical
primacy: both empirically and logically, a productive force or at least the potential for its
development must exist in order so that social and economic relations have at least the ca-
pacit y to develop. On the logic of this, the following historical questions posed by Marx
for his own ruminations are illuminating: “is Achilles possible when powder and shot
have been invented? And is the Iliad possible at all when the printing press and even
printing machines exist? Is it not inevitable that with the emergence of the press, the
singing and the telling and the muse cease, that is the conditions necessary for epic
poetry disappear?” (1984:150).
3. An example of this complex relationship among institutions, organizations, and
technologies in the history of consumption is the development of the modern commercial
Christmas—a religious holiday that has become a significant component of the institution
of consumption. A related development is the department store. Dating from the latter half
of the nineteenth century, for the first time one retailer sought to sell customers everything.
To encourage people to modify their established consumption habits, department stores
were designed to promote a comfortable and positive shopping experience, particularly for
middle class women. Department stores, in the decades preceding the automobile, both
ref lected and contributed to a middle class metropolitan lifest yle. Christmas norms were
directly modified by the promotion of gift giving as mediated through the modern depart-
ment store—a custom largely unknown before the middle of the nineteenth century. Sub-
sequent developments, transforming Christmas into an annual orgy of mass consumption
(Nissenbaum 1997), underlines the complex relationships at play involving consumerism,
religion, family, mass media and other nodal points of social-economic realit y (Ackerman
1997:116).
4. More precisely, the cookie is a text file saved in Internet browser directories or
folders and stored in an individual’s R AM while his/her browser is running. Most of the
information in a cookie is technical and innocuous but websites also use cookies to record
personal preferences.
5. Recently, for example, within two weeks of opening a new Internet account and
after two visits to the Internet bookstore Amazon.com, I was greeted with a prominently
displayed icon message reading “Hello Edward Comor” followed by an invitation to visit
Amazon again and again.
6. In OECD countries, from 1980 to 1995, these investments have increased from
$95 to $118 per capita (using 1995 prices and exchange rates). In the US, this figure rose
from $111 to $124. In total (again using 1995 prices), in the United States these invest-
ments stood at $117 billion while in 1995 they totaled $191 billion (OECD 1997).
7. An elaboration of parts of this section can be found in Comor 2000.
8. Free time constitutes all time spent in activities (or inactivities) that are not oblig-
atory. Obligatory categories of time use include work time, committed time (egs. family
care, shopping, housework) and personal care (egs. sleeping, eating, grooming). The reader
is reminded that data representing the average does not represent important disparities in
the distribution of income, credit and time capabilities.
9. There are two main reasons for this increase in free time. First, fewer people are
married and this has reduced time spent on family care and housework. Second, most
workers in these relatively aff luent societies are retiring earlier or are working fewer hours
as they get older (Robinson and Godbey 1997: xvi).
10. The reader will note the use of quotation marks for the word rational. The pur-
pose is to underline the inter-subjective nature of rational (including consumer) thought
and action.
11. The individual raised in relative aff luence, for example, recognizing that the
cliché “money can’t buy you happiness” resonates with his/her experiences, may reject
truths equating consumption with a meaningful life. This way of thinking and subsequent
practices constitute a direct challenge to the norms of contemporary consumption. Because
of the range of mediators challenged by such anti-consumerist attitudes and activities, a
range of institutions, organizations, and technologies will directly or passively rebuke or iso-
late these malcontents. However, barring revolution, the only mediators that have success-
fully challenged consumption norms on a large scale and over extended periods of time
have been compelled to become participants in consumer societ y. Organic farming for in-
stance—once (and still) promoted as an alternative to mass consumer factory farming—has
become big business in its own right involving the marketing and sales of how to books
and specialized health food shops. Even environmental organizations are compelled to
market the natural environment to prospective donors through glossy promotions focus-
ing attention on the plight of baby seals and other attractive, irresistible, and meaningful
victims. Predictably and paradoxically, even Greenpeace accepts donations charged to
credit cards (Luke 1998).
12. As John Kenneth Galbraith recently has pointed out, “On no matter is econom-
ics more in contradiction with itself than in its view of consumer behavior and motivation
and the consumer-oriented societ y” (Galbraith 1997: xxi).
REFERENCES
Ackerman, Frank. 1997. The History of Consumer Societ y. In Neva R. Goodwin, Frank
Ackerman and David Kirton, eds. The Consumer Society. Washington, D.C.:
Island Press.
Baran, Nicholas. 1998. The Privatization of Telecommunications. In Robert W. McChes-
ney, Ellen Meiksens Wood and John Bellamy Foster, eds. Capitalism and the
Information Age. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. 1967. The Social Construction of Reality. Garden
Cit y, N.Y.: Anchor.
Cohen, G.A. 1988. History, Labour and Freedom. Oxford: Clarendon.
Comor, Edward. 2000. Household Consumption on the Internet. Journal of Economic
Issues. 34.
Cosgel, Metin M. 1997. Consumption Institutions. Review of Social Economy. 55.
Cox, Robert W. 1995. Debt, Time, and Capitalism. Studies in Political Economy. 48.
Deibert, Ronald J. 1998. Private correspondence with author.
Gill, Stephen. 1995. Globalization, Market Civilization, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism.

In Millennium. 24.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1997. Foreword. To Neva R. Goodwin, Frank Ackerman and
David Kirton, eds. The Consumer Society. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Lachmann, Ludwig. 1956. Capital and its Structure. London: G. Bell and Sons.
Lee, Mart yn J. 1993. Consumer Culture Reborn. London: Routledge.
Luke, Timothy W. 1998. The (Un)Wise (Ab)use of Nature: Environmentalism as Global-
ized Consumerism. In Alternatives. 23.
Marx, Karl. 1973. Grundrisse. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
———. 1984. Introduction to a Critique of Political Economy. In Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels. The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. 1979. The Communist Manifesto. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Media Dynamics. 1997. TV Dimensions ’97. New York: Media Dynamics.
Nissenbaum, Stephen. 1997. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Vintage.
OECD. 1997. Communications Outlook 1997. Paris: OECD.
Robinson, John P. 1991. Trends in Free Time. In Wendy O’Conghaile and Eberhard
Kohler, eds. The Changing Use of Time. Dublin: European Foundation for the
Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
Robinson, John P., and Geoffrey Godbey. 1997. Time For Life. Universit y Park: Pennsylva-
nia Universit y Press.
UNDP. 1998. Human Development Report 1998. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
United Nations. 1993. United Nations Statistical Yearbook. Issue 40. New York: United
Nations.
US Department of Commerce. 1998. The Emerging Digital Economy. Washington, D.C.: US
Government.
———. 1999. The Emerging Digital Economy II. Washington, D.C.: US Government.
Veblen, Thorstein. 1919. The Place of Science in Modern Civilization and Other Essays. New
York: Viking.
———. 1953. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Mentor.
———. 1964. The Vested Interests and the Common Man. New York: Sentry Press.
The White House. 1997. Framework For Global Electronic Commerce. Washington, D.C.: US
Government.
PART III
GOVERNANCE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
CHAPTER EIGHT
CAPITALISM, TECHNOLOGY, AND

LIBER ALIZATION: THE INTERNATIONAL
TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGIME, 1865–1998
MARK W. ZACHER
INTRODUCTION
Open and coordinated communications f lows between countries are vital for in-
ternational firms, governments, and national populations. This chapter outlines
the promotion of commercial openness from the mid-nineteenth century to the
present. It focuses on regulations concerning jurisdictional rights, technical stan-
dards, as well as market access and pricing, and it explores the inf luence of three
general factors that have been the central driving forces of economic liberalization.
The politics of international telecommunications relations and particularly
of international cooperation are fascinating for a variet y of reasons. First, in 1865
the International Telegraph Union (the predecessor of the International Telecom-
munication Union or ITU) was the first global international organization to be
created. Second, the evolution of international telecommunications provides an
important story of growing economic liberalization over the last century and a
half. That is to say, there has been progress toward the reduction of barriers to
the f low of international communications. There have always been some impor-
tant forms of international cooperation in jurisdictional and technical areas to
facilitate the f low of communications, and the scope of this cooperation has
grown markedly over the last half of the twentieth century. With regard to the is-
sues of market access and pricing, international cooperation actually hindered
liberalization from the mid-nineteenth century through to the late twentieth cen-
tury, but these old forms of cooperation, which were based on a cartel among
The author would like to thank Hilla Aharon, Jim Rosenau, J.P. Singh, and Debora Spar for their com-
ments on previous drafts.
189
state telecommunications administrations, began to disintegrate in the 1980s.

Through means such as divestiture, deregulation, re-regulation, and privatiza-
tion, states have transformed their telecommunications services industries from
tightly controlled monopolies into competitive markets. A discussion of alterna-
tive liberalization policies falls out of the realm of this discussion. However, it
should be noted that privatization does not necessarily imply liberalization, and
conversely liberalization may include one or more government-owned entities
(Hills 1986). Although currently, states have very diverse international telecom-
munications regulations, there were signs in the late 1990s that the international
communit y might be in the process of refashioning a regime for market access
and pricing based on a high degree of economic liberalization.
Third, the liberalization components of the international regime have been
shaped by three general factors: the capitalist world political economy, the dis-
tribution of state power (particularly the existence of a dominant state or group
of states), and technological change. Capitalism encourages firms to seek busi-
ness opportunities throughout the world, and this drive on the part of firms has
been fundamental to intergovernmental efforts to maintain and increase com-
mercial openness for their firms. In a sense, large firms throughout the world
have operated under the mandate of interconnection in that they have consis-
tently demanded technical interconnection among commercial enterprises
throughout the world. At the same time, it is questionable whether changes in
capitalism have been mainly responsible for changes in the international
telecommunications regime. For example, the drive toward deregulation in cap-
italist states since the 1970s has facilitated liberalization, but it is doubtful
whether it was largely responsible for the significant changes in international
telecommunications politics in recent decades. It is unquestionably the case that
the United States expedited the liberalization process—perhaps by a decade or
more. It is, however, doubtful whether American interests and inf luence are the
central forces behind the long-term movement toward greater commercial open-
ness. What has been fundamental to the small and large changes in the inter-
national telecommunications regime has been the evolution in international
telecommunications technology. Technological innovations have led states to
adopt frequent small changes in matters such as technical interconnection stan-
dards and the allotment of the frequency spectrum to different services, and
they have also been responsible for the dramatic alterations in the politics and
law of international telecommunications in the last several decades of the t wen-
tieth century.
The purposes of this chapter are to trace the trends toward liberalization or
economic openness in the international telecommunications regime and to ana-
lyze the major factors that have shaped the regulatory trends. The first part of this
chapter focuses on progress with regard to jurisdictional rights and technical stan-
CAPITALISM, TECHNOLOGY, AND LIBER ALIZATION 191
dards, while the second part looks at the sphere of greater change—market access
and pricing. In the course of this analysis of regime change, particular attention is
given to the impacts of evolving technology, changes in capitalist ideology and
practice, and the distribution of state power (particularly the existence of a hege-
monic state). All of them have had an inf luence, but technology has been the cen-
tral shaping force. From the international capitalist system there f lows the
mandate for interconnection, but the changes in international capitalism are not
mainly responsible for the evolution of the telecommunications regime. The pop-
ularit y of deregulation has had an impact on the telecommunications regime, but
it has not been the major inf luence on regime change. Likewise, the United States
has unquestionably played a very important role in promoting liberalization in re-
cent years, but it has been firms’ and governments’ responses to the commercial
benefits of new telecommunications technologies that have driven the evolution
of the regime.
JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS AND TECHNICAL STANDARDS
1865–1939
Telecommunications first emerged in the 1830s with the invention of the tele-
graph. It was, however, not until the 1850s that the telegraph was used exten-
sively for communication bet ween adjacent countries. Then, by the mid-1860s,
the telegraph was employed extensively for transoceanic communications with
the laying of a net work of cables bet ween the continents. During the 1850s and
early 1860s, international business firms became more reliant on telegraph com-
munications, and they objected to the host of technical barriers that hindered
effective transmissions. In fact, the impact of telegraph communications on in-
ternational business in the mid-nineteenth century was of a similar order as the
impact of the merger of telecommunications and computing in the late t wenti-
eth century. Businesses thus began to press for international accords to create
international standards that would eliminate many of the technical barriers. In
1865, most of the major western countries assembled in Paris and created the
International Telegraph Union (ITU) with mandates to facilitate the f low of
telegraph transmissions and to improve commercial coordination. The major
areas of technical standardization concerned switches at gateways along interna-
tional borders, international cables, and codes for communication. In subse-
quent decades ITU conferences concerned with technical standards and codes
were factious because such accords involved adjustment costs and sometimes
inf luenced states’ comparative advantage in international markets. Neverthe-
less, agreements were concluded on the important obstacles that affected
interconnection since effective interconnection was demanded by firms in-

volved in international commerce. Clearly, the telegraph had marked impacts on
the growth of trade and investment, and the growth of the international tele-
graph system was embraced by the commercial communit y (Codding 1972:
13–21, 65–67; Headrick 1991).
At about the turn of the century, international telecommunications greatly
expanded with the introduction of two revolutionary technologies—telephone and
radio. In the case of telephones the standardization problems were somewhat
similar to those in telegraph communications as most of the standards that com-
mercial interests demanded concerned technical guidelines for switches at int-
ernational borders. Over time there was, however, an increasing need for
standardization of both switches at borders and some t ypes of equipment within
countries. This led to the creation of international consultative committees on
standardization with regard to telephone, telegraph and radio in the mid-1920s.
The choices of technical standards for telephone switches, transmission equip-
ment, and cables had some implications for the markets of national manufactur-
ing firms, but overall the levels of standardization were rather modest in
comparison to those required today (Codding 1972: 32–36; Chapuis 1976). It is
important to note with regard to both telegraph and telephone systems during the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century that the world was divided into three
somewhat self-sufficient and technologically distinct net works: continental Eu-
rope, Britain and its empire, and the Western Hemisphere. The standards em-
ployed by the European countries were generally accepted for interregional
communications, and also for some t ypes of equipment used within the Americas
and the British Empire. The international competition involved in standard set-
ting at this time was muted by the fact that British and American manufacturers
dominated the equipment markets in their regions. Also, in Europe there were
several dominant national manufacturers that controlled particular segments of
the equipment market.
The advent of international radio communications in the first decade of the
twentieth century raised some regulatory problems that were similar to those that
arose at the previous international telephone and telegraph conferences. It was
necessary to standardize certain communication codes (as was the case with tele-
graph communications), and it was also necessary to standardize certain t ypes of
transmitting equipment in order to facilitate interconnection bet ween radio sta-
tions or transmitters in different countries and on ships. One particular regula-
tion is of interest because of the way in which the competition for the equipment
market was handled. In the early years of the twentieth century, the Italian-British
Marconi company tried to prevent ships and shore stations from using its equip-
ment to interconnect with stations using equipment manufactured by other firms.
In 1906, the newly created International Radiotelegraph Union (IRU) prescribed
the norm that stations could not refuse to interconnect with other stations be-
cause of the make of the equipment that those other stations were using. In other
words, competition was not allowed to interfere with international interconnec-
tion and hence maritime safet y (Codding 1972: 83–96).
A unique problem raised by radio concerned the rules for the use of the fre-
quency spectrum which, of course, falls within national as well as international
airspace. States have never explicitly adopted an accord on the jurisdictional sta-
tus of the frequency spectrum or airwaves within national airspace, although
states have implicitly accepted that national stations have a right to transmit
through foreign airspace—what one might call a right of innocent transmission
through foreign airspace. There was, and still is, an implicit understanding that
the frequency spectrum circling the planet constitutes a kind of common prop-
ert y resource. States would not have accepted a treat y with this explicit under-
standing since they support national sovereignt y over airspace for air travel. The
jurisdictional understanding concerning a right of innocent transmission through
foreign airspace was implied in the early twentieth century IRU rule (still accepted
today) that states should not broadcast on any frequencies being used by foreign
radio stations if they were registered with the IRU and were actively used by the
foreign stations. Many transmissions, of course, use the airspace of several coun-
tries (Codding 1972: 92–95; Leive 1970: 41–42).
During the early twentieth century, an IRU system for regulating the use of
the airwaves was widely adopted. First of all, the IRU conferences allocated certain
frequency bands to particular services such as maritime communications or pub-
lic radio. Second, the conferences allotted specific bands to particular countries for
purposes connected with the safet y of international travel—that is to say, for mar-
itime and aeronautical communications. There were also some national allotment
plans that were accepted at a regional level to prevent interference among public
radio stations. Third, and most importantly, the IRU registered particular frequen-
cies for individual states if they could establish that they were not already in use.
This system of IRU registration after national stations’ successful use of them
(first-come, first-served) was a bedrock of order and hence openness in interna-
tional radio transmissions. An implicit part of the regulatory system was that na-
tional stations would adjust their use of particular frequencies if advances in
technology made it possible to use more frequencies in a particular band of the
spectrum. It was also explicitly rejected that states could maintain rights to par-
ticular frequencies after their national station ceased using them. In other words,
efficient use of a common propert y resource and openness were placed ahead of
states’ attempts to extend their territorial jurisdiction. From 1865 through 1939,
there were major technological changes and many new regulations, but interna-
tional firms and states remained committed to interconnection (Codding 1972:
113–79; Savage 1989: 32–36, 67–71).
1945–PRESENT
The fundamental normative direction of the telecommunications regime with re-

gard to jurisdictional and technical standards was established in the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries, and it has remained quite stable in the last
half of the t wentieth century despite major technological changes. The central
normative guideline has been the commitment to promote interconnection and
hence the free f low of information. This norm has shaped the development of
rules with regard to new means of communications such as satellites and fiber-
optic cables as well as new telecommunications services such as facsimile and elec-
tronic mail.
The fundamental jurisdictional development in response to the invention of
communications satellites was the acceptance of outer space as a common prop-
ert y of all nations. This was accepted in the Outer Space Treat y of 1967 which
stated that outer space should “be free for exploration and use by all states” and
should “not [be] subject to national appropriation by claim or sovereignt y.” There
were certainly some countries that wanted to appropriate particular slots in the
geostationary orbit (GSO); but the dominant consensus was that states should
have free access to stationing satellites in the GSO (first-come, first-served). How-
ever, they also agreed that states should coordinate their activities to prevent in-
tervention and provide access for all countries. Over time the satellite powers did
develop coordination planning mechanisms for locating satellites, and they also
accepted that all countries would have at least one slot. The combination of the ju-
risdictional status of outer space and various planning mechanisms has served the
goals of openness and efficient use very well (Christol 1982: 3–58).
An interesting jurisdictional issue that consumed states in lengthy negotia-
tions from the early 1970s through the early 1980s was whether states had to give
their prior consent to the beaming of signals from direct broadcasting satellites
(DBS) to their populations. Most of the developing countries pushed for the obli-
gation to obtain prior consent, while the western states opposed it. In the end the
developing countries generally gave up their political quest due to the fact that a
satellite signal’s range (footprint) covered so many countries. That is to say, consent
to broadcast by one country led to receptions of the same satellite signal in dozens
more. In addition, there was no way that states could jam satellite broadcasts in an
efficient manner, and this encouraged many states to withdraw their early support
for prior consent. Quite simply, international openness was promoted by the very
nature of the technology (Christol 1982: 648–49, 702–09; Fjordbak 1990).
While some important developments occurred on the jurisdictional front in
the last half of the t wentieth century, it was in the realm of technical standards
that states’ concern for interconnection and the free f low of information had its
greatest impact. The ITU Red Books of technical standards grew exponentially.
Perhaps the most important technological change was the integration of comput-
ers into telecommunications systems starting in the 1950s. This technological de-
velopment required that states standardize many kinds of telecommunications
equipment within their borders (e.g., cables and desktop computers) as well as at
borders (e.g., switches). The integration of computer technology with telecommu-
nications also led to two particular developments in the 1950s that required ex-
tensive international standard setting—the introduction of transoceanic telephone
cables and the use of direct dialing. These developments were soon followed by
the introduction of two new means of transmission (satellites and fiber-optic ca-
bles) and then subsequently a variet y of new or greatly expanded telecommu-
nications services. The international services include data transmission (an
immensely important service for international business), fax, videotext, video con-
ferencing, and email. These new services were built on technological standard-
ization of many t ypes of equipment throughout telecommunications net works.
The ITU Secretary-General commented in the 1990s that “Standards making
has clearly become the dominant collective activit y in the telecommunications-
information world today” (Tarjanne 1990). This comment is somewhat misleading
in the sense that standard setting has probably been the most important activit y
of the ITU since the 1920s. The other major sphere of ITU telecommunications
regulation has been control of market access and rates. Regulatory activities con-
cerning this issue tended to take place more outside the ITU than within the ITU,
and since the late 1980s, the ITU has only been marginally involved in this area.
The ITU occasionally failed in its attempts at standard setting over the last
half century, but the key failures concerned consumer products such as television,
high definition television, videotext and cell phones that are used for communi-
cation between services providers and consumers—not between commercial firms.
States and their national champion firms could maintain different standards for
such consumer products because their differences did not stand in the way of in-
ternational commercial communications. When business communications have
been at stake, users quite simply have demanded standards that permit the free
f low of information (OECD 1988: 58–61). The international commercial system
in a sense overrides states’ concerns about maintaining national distinctiveness
and policy autonomy in these spheres. Of course, states pursue standard setting
for the simple reason that their firms and their entire national economies will suf-
fer from exclusion from the global commercial information network if they do not
accept interconnection standards. As several authors commented: “companies
and countries can no longer afford to use a multitude of electronic machines in
order to be able to talk to each other” (Bar and Borrus 1987: Sec. I). Another ex-
pert from France stated that “The restructuring currently underway has given the
industry an international dimension that is incompatible with national standard-
ization” (Bressand 1988: 293, Savage 1989: ch. 4).
There is extensive literature on factors that have inf luenced states’ and firms’
success on standard setting. These factors include the domination of a particular
country or firm in an industry (Besen and Johnson 1986), the concentration of
buyers in a single state (Cerni and Gray 1983: 48–49), economies of scale (Cerni
1984: 48), and an absence of a commitment to protect national manufacturers
(McKnight 1987). These all have some relevance, but they exclude what is probably
the most central factor—the relevance of technological standardization for interna-
tional interconnection and competitiveness. The simple fact is that international
business users of telecommunications will not tolerate impediments to intercon-
nection. Of relevance is a comment in a study on technical standards: “In the
nature of telecommunications technology there exists a strong imperative for tech-
nological homogeneit y. Only in a very few instances can that imperative be over-
come by domestic economic, social, and political concerns” (Savage 1989: 217).
While the best known area of technical standard setting in international
telecommunications concerns equipment, there is another sphere of telecommu-
nication standard setting that deserves noting—the management of the use of
radio spectrum. What has happened in this sphere since 1945 is also basically
consistent with the normative thrust of the regime that evolved between 1906 and
1939; but the post-1950 regulatory arrangements have expanded tremendously in
complexit y in response to technological developments. Technological improve-
ments in transmitters permitted the use of higher and higher bands in the fre-
quency spectrum, and this led to an increase in the number of services for which
bands were allotted by ITU conferences. Also, the advent of satellite communica-
tions increased the number of telecommunication services, which meant that the
ITU had to designate a larger number of services that were allotted bands. The
conf licts over how wide a band and what band to allot to a particular service were,
and still are, a matter of vigorous international conf lict at ITU conferences, but in
the end states agree on the allotments since failure to agree entails interference
among transmissions and higher costs for commercial enterprises using the radio
spectrum. Usually most states and interest groups are accommodated reasonably
well in the spectrum plans so as to assure their support and to prevent interfer-
ence. For example, in the 1970s, the ITU began to allocate individual frequencies
within certain bands as well as particular geostationary orbital slots to developing
states so as to assure their political backing. What the developing countries re-
ceived was modest and was very much inf luenced by developed states’ views of ef-
ficiency and their self-interests. Still the frequency spectrum management system
is a remarkable political edifice that supports order and openness in international
radio communications, and all countries back it despite some reservations (Cod-
ding and Rutkowski 1982; Savage 1989: ch. 3).
A recent development in telecommunications standard-setting is that an in-
creasing number of standards are set by important national and regional bodies
(American, European and Japanese) or by private firms. For the most part the
standards are eventually approved by the ITU, but sometimes they are not. A key
reason for this development is that technology changes so rapidly now in telecom-
munications, it is difficult to obtain the consent of ITU bodies speedily enough for
the telecommunications equipment market. ITU bodies have, in fact, been re-
formed to make their decision-making quicker, but it is still not fast enough in
some circumstances. It is important, however, to recognize that the weakening of
the ITU standard-setting bodies does not mean that there is an absence of stan-
dard-setting in international telecommunications. It rather means that the stan-
dards are set by a variet y of powerful national, regional and global organizations
that coordinate their activities through a number of channels. Technical intercon-
nection and hence commercial openness are still assured by a complex network of
government and industry officials (Cowhey 1995; Rutkowski 1995; Zacher with
Sutton 1996: ch. 5).
An interesting dimension of technical standards that has arisen quite recently
is the attribution of names and numbers for Internet users. Because the Internet
was developed as a result of initiatives by the United States, the U.S. government
and U.S. firms had significant impacts on its early regulatory structure. The In-
ternet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) emerged in 1995
as the central international regulatory body, and it is a nongovernmental organi-
zation with the participation of private firms as well as governments and inter-
governmental organizations. Despite its formal non-governmental character,
states, and especially the United States, have had a strong inf luence on ICANN.
The central concern of most commercial participants is the promotion of the
global commercial transactions and the facilitation of the exchange of informa-
tion, but this commercial concern might not be realized without the leverage of
states. Governments do not allow the drive for profit by particular enterprises to
disrupt international commercial exchanges. Governments, as well as most Inter-
net firms, have been protagonists on behalf of the mandate of openness (Mueller
and Thompson 2000).
In surveying the scope of jurisdictional understandings and, more impor-
tantly, technical standards for equipment and radio and cable transmissions, it
is interesting to ask: what has driven the increasing output of regulations and
their success in promoting interconnection and damage avoidance? The volume
of regulations has to be attributed to the remarkable explosion of telecommuni-
cations technology which concerns new modes of communication, new services,
and the integration of the telecommunications industry with other industries
such as the computing, cable, and entertainment industries. Recent trends in
deregulation and U.S. assertiveness did not significantly increase the volume of
regulations although the United States did have an important inf luence on the
utilization of and hence the regulation of outer space. American preferences
were not significantly different from most industrialized states in ITU planning
conferences. When one moves from explaining the volume of regulations to ex-
plaining the consistent normative thrust of international interconnection em-
bedded in the international regime, one must look basically to international
capitalism and the incentives it provides to firms to embark on international
business ventures. If there is one thing that international firms desire, it is the
abilit y to communicate with subsidiaries and customers throughout the world.
States are, of course, responsive to the requests of their national firms and to
their success in international markets, and they have been active supporters of
rules of interconnection and damage prevention inside and outside the ITU.
The state-business alliance has seldom been seriously strained in this area.
MARKET ACCESS AND PRICES
It is debatable whether the international arrangements for managing prices of

telecommunications services and the market shares of service providers was lib-
eral or protectionist prior to the 1980s, but before this issue is discussed, it is
important to understand these arrangements that provided telecommunications
services until very recently. In all states there was a telecommunications mo-
nopoly (generally state-owned) that controlled the sending and receiving of all
transmissions. After the creation of the ITU in 1865, these state monopolies
collaborated with regard to the establishment of market shares, rates, and cer-
tain commercial practices. The cartel system assured that each state monopoly
collected fees for all international transmissions from that state. Also, the state
monopolies were not allowed to compete for business with each other, and this
was upheld by rules such as: (i) they could not alter the collection rates bet ween
t wo cities by altering the international route; (ii) they had to charge the same
transit rates to all foreign telecommunications firms; (iii) and they could not in-
terconnect with firms other than fellow state monopolies. In addition, they
agreed to maintain joint ownership of all intermediary transmission technolo-
gies such as cables and satellites so that commercial challengers could be
excluded from the industry.
The cartel system was defended by many governments and experts on the
basis that a cartel of state monopolies was the most efficient system of providing
international telecommunications services because there were economies of scale
in national and international telecommunications systems. On the other hand, it
was clear that state monopolies were charging rates for international transmis-
sions that were significantly over cost so as to subsidize their domestic telecom-
munications systems. This fact certainly constituted a serious challenge to the
economic efficiency argument. Also, it is of great importance to understand that,
within the capitalist global economy in the late nineteenth and early t wentieth
centuries, there was a strong commitment by states to maintain state control of
major infrastructure industries in communications and transportation. (An ex-
ception to this existed in the developing world where these countries could not af-
ford their own telecommunications monopolies and had to rely on foreign firms
such as Cable and Wireless and ITT to manage their telecommunications serv-
ices.) States in this era saw both that the control of these infrastructure industries
by the state was necessary for national economic development and that it also af-
forded state authorities control over intrusions by foreign states. Mercantilist
thinking (including fears of economic vulnerabilit y) had an important inf luence
on the international capitalism of the day, and definitely impeded certain dimen-
sions of commercial liberalization (Codding 1972: 14–60; Herring and Gross
1936; Headrick 1991).
The international cartel governing international communications remained
very strong in the immediate post-World War II decades. In the case of the United
States, there was not a state-owned telecommunications monopoly, but AT&T was
designated to act as the monopoly firm controlling all international telephone
communications into and out of the United States. An anomalous arrangement
in the telecommunications regime was that several U.S. telegraph companies ex-
isted, but they were not allowed to disrupt the dominance of the intergovernmen-
tal cartel. In the late 1950s and 1960s, a number of U.S. telecommunications
firms began to pressure the U.S. government to allow competition against the
monopoly providers in particular regions and services. The government accepted
limited forms of competition; however, this liberalization only concerned certain
domestic services and did not intrude into international communications (Aron-
son and Cowhey 1988: chs. 1, 2, 4; Rutkowski 1995: 229).
Some modest, but important, changes in the international telecommunica-
tions industry started in the 1970s, and almost all of them originated in the
United States. First, pressure developed from multinational corporations to lease
lines from the monopoly providers so that they could obtain cheaper and better
customized services. Firms recognized that the qualit y and price of their telecom-
munications services were crucial to their international competitive positions, and
they became increasingly unhappy with the standard fare provided by the state
monopolies. Large corporations, in particular, realized that making the most effi-
cient use of telecommunications would result in substantial savings and produc-
tivit y growth. The United States authorized leasing of lines by private firms, and
this allowed large U.S. corporations to manage de facto their own telecommuni-
cations firms. This development of leased lines was a very important first step in
firms’ recognizing the advantages of competition in telecommunications. Other
industrialized states slowly came under comparable pressure by their national
firms, and they gradually succumbed to private pressure to allow leased lines
(Johnson 1986, 60–64). Second, ways were found by some international tele-
communications firms such as AT&T to bypass the monopoly firms in foreign
countries so they did not have to accept the rate structures of those foreign mo-
nopolies. These bypass arrangements went under names such as callback and third
country calling. Despite the attempts on the part of foreign states to prevent these
bypass strategies, they had little success. Third, international consortia of firms
from different countries began to develop since the member firms judged that
they could best pursue their own interests by cooperating. These developments in
the private marketplace basically sent out signals that international liberalization
and competition were the wave of the future. These changes in the 1970s were cer-
tainly due in part to the growing popularit y of deregulation in professional eco-
nomic, private business, and government circles as well as to the leadership of the
United States. However, of central importance, was the evolution of technology,
the emergence of new or improved services, and the increasing importance of
telecommunications services to the competitive positions of firms (Zacher with
Sutton 1996: 65–70).
While international firms secured concessions on market liberalization from
the United States and some other industrialized countries, these states did not try
to undermine the traditional state monopolies and the international cartel of
these monopolies. This approach changed in 1980 with the United States’s move
to breakup AT&T into a number of regional service providers (Baby Bells) and an
international service provider which retained the title of AT&T. Also, the market
for international services was opened to competition. (MCI and US Sprint
emerged in the US market before this.) The first countries to support the Ameri-
can approach were the United Kingdom and Japan, and together these three coun-
tries led the first wave of liberalization in the early 1980s. It was not until the late
1980s that the other developed countries also accepted varying degrees of liberal-
ization, and for the most part the developing countries did not accept significant
moves toward opening their markets to competition until the 1990s. Over the
1980s, the industrialized states recognized that if they did not provide firms
within their borders with the same low-cost and sophisticated services that the lib-
eralizing states were offering, foreign firms would locate in the liberalizing states
(Horwitz 1989).
One of the remarkable developments of the 1970s and 1980s is that
telecommunications users became much more active and inf luential than they
had ever been. Price, efficiency, and qualit y of service were becoming increas-
ingly more important to large corporations in information-intensive industries,
the most notable being the banking sector (Wellenius et al. 1989: 79). Firms
that were heavily reliant on telecommunications lobbied vigorously for less ex-
pensive and more technologically refined services. They were particularly con-
cerned with enhanced services such as data processing on which multinational
firms depend a great deal, but they were also very interested in the liberalization
of basic telephone service. Under the pressure of the lobbying and commercial
practices of their firms, the developed countries began to violate the ITU rules
that were at the heart of the traditional cartel so that, by the beginning of the
1990s, the old system looked very frayed. In fact, the national monopolies
began to compete in each other’s markets through a variet y of means including
callback and third country calling. Some attempts were made by states that
favored the state monopolies and the intergovernmental cartel to enforce tight
compliance with the ITU rules, but the major liberalizing countries and multi-
national business interests would not comply (Zacher with Sutton 1996:
167–72).
A very important step in the process of telecommunications liberalization
was the conclusion of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as a
part of the Uruguay Round of the GATT (1986–94). Of considerable impor-
tance is that it required transparency with regard to states’ competition and pro-
tection policies. Also, it established that foreign firms should have access to
national telecommunications net works on reasonable and nondiscriminatory
terms, and that equal national treatment be accorded to these firms. However,
states’ obligations to apply these norms were limited to those specific spheres of
telecommunications where they made specific commitments, and in the 1994
GATS, these commitments were not very extensive with regard to telecommuni-
cations. Most states were quite simply not willing to grant open access to their
basic telecommunications markets. On the other hand, states had agreed to gen-
eral normative guidelines that pointed to an increasing acceptance of competi-
tion in their telecommunications markets (Sampson, 1996: 25–27; Nicolaides
1995; Fredebeul-Krein and Freytag 1997: 484–86). At the time of the signing of
the agreements, and immediately thereafter, the developing countries did not
support the provisions regarding telecommunications; but in the long run it is
going to be difficult for them to reject the rules. A major pressure on the devel-
oping countries is that they desperately need telecommunications infrastructure
and expertise for development purposes, and the most effective strategy for ob-
taining this infrastructure is through seeking investment by foreign telecom-
munications firms (Beltz 1996: 47). There are already marked movements
toward liberalization in Latin America with decreases in state ownership of
telecommunications firms and increases in competition among service pro-
viders, and comparable changes are occurring in Asia (Mody et al. 1995; Comor
1996; Ryan 1997; Singh 1999).
Because the GATS did not include a large number of specific commitments
in telecommunications, the United States and some other industrialized coun-
tries pushed for a supplemental accord. A committee of the new World Trade Or-
ganization met on the subject from May 1994 through February 1997 when an
agreement was finally signed. The accord, which is attached to the GATS, was ap-
proved by 54 states and the European Union. These states account for 90 per-
cent of global telecommunications services. As the negotiations progressed over
the three year period, an increasing number of states became supportive of liber-
alization in telecommunications because of pressure from their own firms and
other states as well as a result of their own intellectual understandings of the ad-
vantages of liberalization. The United States exerted considerable inf luence in
favor of competitive markets partly because the norm of open competition re-
quired that in order for foreign firms to enter the U.S. market their home gov-
ernments had to provide equivalent competitive opportunities for U.S. firms
(Beltz 1996, 45; Hufbauer and Wada 1997; Drake and Noam 1997). In the first
t wo years of the negotiations, the European Union and the developing countries
did not want to accept some of the U.S. proposals for liberalization, but by the
third year they were much more willing to adopt U.S. proposals on the liberaliza-
tion of enhanced services (e.g., data transmission) and basic services (e.g., tele-
phone) as well.
Important regulations were accepted with regard to access for firms to for-
eign markets, openness of states to foreign investment in the telecommunications
industry, pro-competition regulatory principles, and the implementation of trans-
parency policies. Most developed states accepted extensive liberalization of all
basic telecommunications services, and this, of course, involved allowing several
suppliers to operate in their market. There are still some weaknesses in the agree-
ment with regard to the specificit y of regulatory principles, the criteria that states
use in settling international accounts, and a number of other matters. In addi-
tion, state regulatory agencies are allowed to intervene in markets in order to as-
sure universal service and the technical integrit y of networks. With regard to the
developing countries, concessions were made to allow them to phase in their lib-
eralization commitments over approximately ten years. Despite these weaknesses
or loopholes, significant progress toward liberalization was achieved. Central to
the entire process was states’ recognition that in order for their multinational
firms to compete in the international economy, they must offer them low cost
and sophisticated telecommunications services. In order to do this, these states
must not only attract investment by the leading international telecommunica-
tions firms but must allow open competition among service providers (Drake
and Noam 1997: 94–97; Fredebeul-Krein and Freytag 1997: 486–91; Singh in
this volume).
While significant progress has occurred with respect to the liberalization of
international telecommunications markets in World Trade Organization agree-
ments as well as in states’ legislation and regulations, the old state monopolies are
still quite strong in many countries, and states continue to practice a variet y of
protectionist policies. In fact, some monopolies have been strengthened by enter-
ing into international alliances with each other, and in some countries like the
United States the breakup of the old monopoly has been followed by mergers of
several firms. While the old world of monopoly suppliers has persevered in vary-
ing degrees, major movements toward liberalization are under way in the devel-
oped world, and even in the newly industrializing countries, liberalization is
moving ahead. The European Union has recently allowed access by cable compa-
nies, railways, and other utilities to the public net works so that they could com-
pete against the state monopolies. It is also pushing for the elimination of all
monopolies, privatization of state administrations, and the introduction of foreign
competition. Rates in the EU countries are still twice those in the United States,
and the European Commission regards this as detrimental to the competitiveness
of European firms and European economies. Therefore it is pursuing a strong lib-
eralization policy (Beltz 1996: 46–47). The United States has pushed ahead with
its liberalization policy, and in early 1996, it passed legislation that will eliminate
the final barriers to domestic competition. It has also continued to encourage
American firms to bypass the higher priced foreign telecommunications adminis-
trations through devices such as the use of private lines, calling cards, and call-
back systems (Beltz 1996: 46; Sampson 1996: 28–29).
The pattern of international liberalization varies throughout the world, but,
as illustrated by this analysis, the direction is clear. Still, it would be foolish to ex-
pect completely open international markets and rigorous compliance with inter-
national liberalization agreements (Noam 1995; Mody et al. 1995, Sampson
1996; Ryan 1997; Xavier 1997). There are a variet y of roots of the liberalization
trend (which are elaborated on below). The increased popularit y of strategies of
deregulation, and even more the U.S. campaign for international liberalization,
exerted pressure on states to accept more competitive telecommunications mar-
kets, but it is questionable whether either was the central driving force. What has
probably been much more inf luential are the dramatic and constant technological
changes that brought about new and competitive telecommunications services, ad-
ditional modes of transmission, and overlaps with other important industries.
The incentives and pressure for international competition that are embedded in
these technologically wrought changes are tremendous. If U.S. firms had not been
at the cutting edge starting in the 1970s, the pressure would almost certainly have
come from other industrialized states.
CONCLUSION
The international telecommunications regime has constituted quite an effective

body of international regulations since the 1860s, and most of its regulations have
been directed at promoting order and openness in the international economy.
There have been both formal and informal norms and rules relating to jurisdic-
tional rights and technical standards that have shaped states’ and firms’ behavior
with regard to international telecommunications; and there has been a clear pur-
pose underlying the rules—namely, facilitating the f low of communications among
firms and countries. From the early days of the telegraph in the middle of the
nineteenth century through the multimedia era of the late twentieth century, in-
ternational commercial interests and governments have sought to assure the free
f low of information. States almost always settled conf licts over equipment stan-
dards and distributions of frequencies and GSO slots when technical problems
affected international commercial telecommunications. The body of telecommu-
nications technical standards has, in fact, been central to the operation of the
global economy. As noted above, international capitalism established a mandate
for interconnection, and this has always been embedded in the international
telecommunications regime.
States, however, did not see high prices for international telegraph, telephone
and radio services as serious obstacles to the f low of communications until the
1980s. In fact, for many years a large majorit y of states supported high interna-
tional rates because they used international revenues to subsidize domestic
telecommunications systems. It is quite likely that, until the last t wo to three
decades, the high rates did not reduce the volume of communications signifi-
cantly, but with the multiplication of services, and modes of transmission and
falling costs for all services this has changed. Pressured by their multinational cor-
porations and concerned about their firms’ international competitive advantage,
the industrialized states have moved haltingly toward liberalization despite the ef-
forts of interest groups tied to the traditional monopolies to slow the process.
While firms’ and states’ adjustments to changing technology have undoubtedly
had a major impact on the course of international telecommunications regulation,
other factors that have affected regulatory trends are the nature of international
capitalism and the international distribution of power. These latter t wo factors
have been particularly relevant in recent decades when the increasing prominence
of neoclassical economic theory, deregulation, and United States power have been
prominent in shaping the evolution of the international telecommunications
regime. These factors have probably not been as inf luential as technological
change in shaping the international regime, but they do deserve highlighting.
A recent article commented that “Consumer demands and new technology
are breaking down barriers that have protected telecommunications operators
from domestic and foreign competition” (Beltz 1996: 47). What was happening
on the technological front in the 1990s was ref lective of a trend that goes back at
least to the 1960s. Previous discussions have alluded to various technological
changes, but it is important at this point to review the basic parameters of the
technological juggernaut that has exerted such powerful pressure for liberalization.
First, trade in telecommunications services, and trade in services more gen-

erally, has experienced a dramatic rise in international economic importance.
Trade in services today accounts for close to 25 percent of international trade
(Sampson 1996: 24). The use of international telecommunications services is ris-
ing rapidly, and this is ref lective of their tremendous importance to all firms in
the global marketplace. Starting in the 1970s, large firms realized that their access
to specialized and low-cost telecommunications services would have major impacts
on their competitive success, and some of them were able to lease lines from the
national monopolies (Cowhey 1995: 176–77, Rutkowski 1995: 229). Also, gov-
ernments increasingly recognized that “Access to modern telecommunications
services is an essential condition for success in the development of national
economies and for international trade” (Sampson 1996: 19). Technological change
created important incentives for both firms and states to undermine national
monopolies and the rules of the international cartel.
Second, modern technology created a variet y of new and improved
telecommunications services that to an extent could be used interchangeably,
and providers of these services were bound to enter into competition with each
other. Perhaps of greater importance is that the varied services could be offered
by different modes of transmission and by different industries. The lines be-
t ween the services offered by wired telephone net works, cable net works, radio-
communications, satellites, video net works, and computing net works have been
blurred. Relevant to this development, Michael Porter has commented that
“Companies with net works having varying technological capabilities can be
readily redeployed to offer different kinds of services. Thus, rivalry . . . is actu-
ally intense and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future” (1992: 41). Of
course, the interrelationships bet ween these industries have been blurred in
part because of the common use of digital communications across all of them.
In the words of Peter Cowhey, in the digital age “technology has erased previous
distinctions bet ween equipment and applications” (1995: 179; Also Karlsson
1998: 2–5; Blackman 1997: 1; Noam 1995: 51–53). The increase in different
means of transmission, of course, has not ended. Internet telephone has
emerged recently, and in the words of The Economist it is “a time bomb” waiting
to explode in the international telephone market (2 May 1998: 57; Also Beltz
1996: 48). In addition, low earth-orbiting (LEO) satellite systems that will per-
mit telecommunications bet ween any t wo points on the earth without going
through hard wires will soon be in use. The Economist has noted that these new
overlapping industries are extremely difficult to regulate and that vigorous com-
petition is a natural byproduct (14 April 1998: 13; 16 May 1998: 17–18). On
top of these developments, modern means of transmission such as fiber-optic
cables, microwave, and satellites are increasing in capacit y so rapidly that there
are often incentives for firms to cut rates to increase market share (Porter 1992:
41). Looking at the massive technological changes over the past several decades,
it is difficult to imagine that some firms and their home states would not have
promoted competitive markets and consequently the demise of the traditional
international cartel.
The distribution of power and the interests of the most powerful state(s) are
always important factors in international politics. In the case of telecommunica-
tions, there is little evidence of marked divisions among the industrialized and
even the non-industrialized states from the late nineteenth century through the
1960s. All states wanted technical interconnection and financially viable state
monopolies. Starting in the 1970s, the United States and a few other states
began to support those firms that called for some liberalization of market access
and pricing (initially in the form of firms’ leasing of lines), and with the breakup
of AT&T in 1980, the United States embarked on a vigorous campaign to pro-
mote competitive international markets for telecommunications services. The
United States became the central force in promoting liberalization accords in the
GATT and WTO. It is, however, important to remember that the United King-
dom and Japan became active supporters of most U.S. policies starting in the
early 1980s, and firms in all industrialized states soon began to pressure their
governments to follow the lead of the liberalizing states. In fact, firms in many
countries violated the cartel rules of the ITU since they knew that they would suf-
fer seriously if they did not adopt more f lexible competitive stances. Firms, in a
sense, legislated the emergence of new rules by their own behavior. To quote one
telecommunications expert: “recent trends highlight the growing importance of
marketplace developments to public institutions in setting the de facto rules of
the game” (Beltz, 1996: 49). Multinational firms would have found it much more
difficult to break down the traditional cartel system without the backing of the
U.S. government, but some governments would have eventually responded to
the pressure of these firms if the United States had not done so (Aronson and
Cowhey 1989; Cowhey 1995; Rutkowski 1995).
International telecommunications have developed since the middle of the
nineteenth century, in a global economy dominated by capitalism. Through the
first half of the twentieth century mercantilist sentiments, including states’ concern
about becoming dependent on foreign states for important national economic
needs, supported national telecommunications monopolies and an intergovern-
mental cartel. The mercantilism of this era was, however, not of a highly autarchic
and isolationist character. Capitalist states felt inclined to promote beneficial inter-
national economic exchanges and investment so long as they or their nationals
maintained control of certain crucial industries. This concern for national control
over the economy has certainly not disappeared today, but it is more muted. One
reason for this is the popularit y of neoclassical economic theory with its derivative
prescription that states should promote competitive national and international
markets. These prescriptions are often conf lated with the strategy of deregulation.
(Re-regulation would probably be a more appropriate term.) Deregulation achieved
strong support in U.S. economic and policy circles in the 1970s, and it spread be-
yond the United States afterwards. A call for deregulation was, in fact, a kind of ral-
lying cry in the political battles over the breakup of the monopolies and cartels in
economic sectors such as telecommunications and air transport (Zacher with Sut-
ton 1996; Karlsson 1998: 2–5).
While the popularit y of deregulation certainly encouraged the process of lib-
eralization in telecommunications, the key question is whether telecommunica-
tions would have taken the same course without the explosion in the literature
on deregulation in the 1970s and 1980s (Breyer 1982). In other words, would lib-
eralization have occurred if the capitalism of the 1950s and 1960s continued into
subsequent decades? The argument here is that the recent changes in technology
would have had similar liberalizing effects in the pre-deregulation age. The in-
centives for firms and some states to push for liberalization would not have been
particularly different in the capitalism of the 1950s. The recent popularit y of
deregulation probably speeded the liberalization process, but liberalization was
almost certain to occur.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, international capitalism has established
the basic incentives for firms to promote international interconnection, and cer-
tain changes in its ideological orientation at least facilitated the movement toward
liberal market access and competitive pricing starting around 1980. Likewise, the
United States policy was very important in jump-starting international liberaliza-
tion over the past two decades. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine that
other countries would not have eventually supported liberalization given the in-
centives for firms to promote foreign market access and lower telecommunications
rates. The main motor for international political change in international telecom-
munications has been technological change and the evolving options it has pre-
sented to international firms.
A conclusion that can be drawn from the above analysis is that the dramatic
developments in telecommunications or information technology have reduced
the role of the state in national economies. States have judged that they should
privatize their telecommunications administrations or should permit private com-
petition to the state administrations. Inf luence over the character of telecommu-
nications markets has fallen increasingly on private firms although states, of
course, maintain certain regulatory roles. Still, there are limits to what the states
judge that they should and can do. Technological change has quite simply created
strong economic incentives to permit a significant degree of open competition
and to encourage foreign investment—and consequently, to constrain the eco-
nomic role and power of the state (For a broad perspective of this development,
see Rosenau in this volume.)
REFERENCES
Trade in Telecommunication Services. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Bar, Francois, and Michael Borrus. 1987. From Public Access to Private Connections: Network
Policy to Private Connections. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Roundtable on the Interna-
tional Economy.
Beltz, Cynthia. 1996. Talk is Cheap. Reason. (August/September): 45–49.
Besen, S.M., and L.L. Johnson. 1986. Compatibility Standards, Competition, and Innovation in
the Broadcasting Industry. Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
Blackman, Colin. 1997. Globalization, convergence, and regulation. Telecommunication Pol-
icy. 21: 1–2.
Bressand, Albert. 1988. Interconnection and the Think Net Process. Interconnection: Vol.
II. Paris: Promethee. 3–6.
Breyer, Stephen. 1982. Regulation and Its Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universit y
Press.
Cerni, D.M. 1984. Standards in Process: Foundations and Profiles of ISDA and OSI Studies.
Washington, D.C.: National Telecommunications and Information Administra-
tion, Department of Commerce.
Cerni, D.M., and E. M. Gray. 1983. International Telecommunication Standards: Issues and Im-
plications for the 80’s. Washington, D.C.: National Technical Information Ser-
vice, Dept. of Commerce.
Chapuis, R. 1976. History of Regulations Governing the International Telephone Service.
CCITT Reprint Series. Geneva: ITU
Christol, Carl Q. 1982. The Modern International Law of Outer Space. New York: Pergamon.
Codding Jr. G.A. 1972. The International Telecommunication Union: An Experiment in Inter-
national Cooperation. New York: Arno Press.
Codding Jr., G.A., and A.M. Rutkowski. 1982. The International Telecommunication Union
in a Changing World. Dedham, MA.: Artech House.
Comor, Edward A., ed. 1996. The Global Political Economy of Communication: Hegeomony,
Telecommunication, and the Interntional Economy. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Cowhey, Peter. 1995. Building the Global Information Highway: Toll Booths, Construc-
tion Contracts, and Rules of the Road. In William Drake, ed., The New Infor-
mation Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy. New York: Twentieth Century
Fund Press. 175–204.
Drake, Willam J., and Eli M. Noam. 1997. The WTO Deal on Basic Telecommunications:
Big Bang or Little Whimper? Telecommunication Policy. 21: 799–818.
Fjordbak, Sharon L. 1990. The International Direct Broadcast Satellite Controversy. Jour-
nal of Air Law and Commerce. (Summer): 55 903–38.
Fredebeul-Krein, Markus, and Andreas Freytag. 1997. Telecommunications and WTO Dis-
cipline: An Assessment of the WTO Agreement on Telecommunication Services.
Telecommunication Policy. 21: 477–91.
Headrick, Daniel R. 1991. The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunications and International Poli-
tics, 1851–1945. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Herring, J.M., and G.C. Gross. 1936. Telecommunications Economics and Regulation. New
York: McGraw Hill.
Hills, Jill. 1986. Deregulation Telecoms: Competition and Control in the United States, Japan,
and Britain. London: Pinter.
Telecommunications. Oxford: Oxford Universit y Press.
Hufbauer, Gary, and Erika Wada, eds. 1997. Unfinished Business: Telecommunications After
the Uruguay Round. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.
Johnson, Elizabeth. 1986. Telecommunications Market Structure in the USA: The Effects
of Deregulation and Divestiture. Telecommunication Policy. 10: 57–67.
Karlsson, Magnus. 1998. The Liberalization of Telecommunications in Sweden: Technology and
Regime Change from the 1960s to 1993. Sweden: Linkoping Universit y.
Leive, David. 1970. International Telecommunications and International Law: The Regulation
of the Radio Spectrum. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana.
McKnight, Lee, 1987. The International Standardization of Telecommunication Services
and Equipment. In E.J. Mestmaecker, ed., The Law and Economics of Transborder
Telecommunications. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag. 415–36.
Mody, Bella, Johannes M. Bauer, and Joseph D. Straubhhaar, eds. 1995. Telecommunica-
tions Politics: Ownership and Control of the Information Highway in Developing
Countries. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Mueller, Milton, and Dale Thompson. 2000. ICANN and INTELSAT: Global Communica-
tion Technologies and their Incorporation into International Regimes.” Paper
presented to the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Los
Angeles. (March)
Nicolaidis, Kalypso. 1995. International Trade in Information-Based Services: The
Uruguay Round and Beyond. In William Drake, ed., The New Information In-
frastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy. New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press.
269–304.
Noam, Eli M. 1995. Beyond Telecommunications Liberalization: Past Performance, Present
Hype, and Future Direction. In William Drake, ed., The New Information
Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy. New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press.
31–54.
OECD. 1988. Telecommunication Network. Paris: OECD.
Porter, Michael E. 1992. On Thinking About Deregulation and Competition. In Harvey

M. Sapolsky, et al., eds, The Telecommunications Revolution: Past, Present, and
Future. London: Routledge. 39–44.
Rutkowski, Anthony M. 1995. Multilateral Cooperation in Telecommunications: Implica-
tions of the Great Transformation. In William Drake, ed., The New Information
Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy. New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press.
223–51.
Ryan, Daniel J. ed. 1997. Privatization and Competition in Telecommunications: International
Developments. London: Praeger.
Sampson, Cezley I. 1996. Liberalisation of Trade in Telecommunications Services and the
Implication of GATS/WTO for Developing Countries. Intermedia. (October/
November): 24 19–30.
Savage, James D. 1989. The Politics of International Telecommunications. Boulder, CO: West-
view.
Singh, J.P. 1999. Leapfrogging Development? The Political Economy of Telecommunications
Restructuring. Albany, NY: State Universit y of New York Press.
Tarjanne, Pekka J. 1990. Access to 1990, Telecom Net works and Markets. Transnational
Data and Communication Report. (February)
The Economist (Weekly).
Wellenius, Bjorn et al., eds. 1989. Restructuring and Managing the Telecommunications Sec-
tor. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Xavier, Patrick. 1997. Australia’s Post-July 1997 Telecommunications Regulation in Inter-
national Context. Telecommunication Policy. 21: 533–51.
Zacher, Mark W., with Brent A. Sutton. 1996. Governing Global Networks: International
Regimes for Transportation and Communications. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sit y Press.
CHAPTER NINE
UNDERSTANDING SHIFTS IN THE FORM

AND SCOPE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
GOVERNANCE: CANADA AND THE
UNITED STATES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
STEPHEN D. MCDOWELL
INTRODUCTION
The telecommunications sector has undergone a number of significant changes

in the last decades. These include tremendous growth in business and consumer
demand for communications services and information technologies, the building
of cross-industry alliances and mergers and acquisitions among communications
and information firms previously operating only in distinct sectors, the creation
of transnational alliances and ownership relations among firms previously oper-
ating only in single countries, and the rapid introduction of new digital tech-
nologies at various points in communications net works. In order to facilitate,
accommodate, and actively promote industry and market restructuring, govern-
ments have been called upon to undertake a wide number of new policy direc-
tions and governing practices.
In addition to new policies, more fundamental alterations in the ways in which
telecommunications activities are governed have been introduced, as have changes
in the actual organizational entities that are the locus of telecommunications gov-
erning activities. The chapter addresses the nature of these changes, and discusses
different ways to understand why these changes in governance are occurring. It con-
siders these changes in Canada and the United States, where the private sector has
long been active in telecommunications, and where a variet y of governing bodies
and forms of governance have been in place throughout the twentieth century.
The numerous existing forms of telecommunications governance are accom-
panied by new public policy measures and directions, as well as by non-state
211
forms of governance. Changes in the forms of governance have occurred along-

side the reorganization of the geographic scope of telecommunications gover-
nance, with significant activit y taking place at the multilateral, regional, bilateral,
and sub-national levels, in addition to traditional nation-state governance of
telecommunications. This chapter outlines the changing role of solely national
telecommunications governance, and sets this in the context of emerging pat-
terns of supra-national and sub-national governance.
PRODUCTION, TECHNOLOGY AND GOVERNANCE
Two sets of developments are most often related to changes in governance; the or-
ganization of economic production, and the development of new information and
communication technologies. A critical political economy perspective argues that
these changes in economic patterns, technology, and governance must be related
to each other in a holistic, historical, and nonlinear fashion. New technologies
have been designed and deployed to serve the purposes and projects of powerful
organizations and social groups, such as states and transnational enterprises and
their managers. The economic, cultural, and political patterns referred to as glob-
alization also arise as a result of efforts of firms and states to compete in or more
effectively control global markets, and their efforts along these lines lead to in-
vestments in certain technical infrastructures and economic policies. Rather than
assuming a certain t ype of technical change or economic restructuring as the
starting point for exploring changes in governance, we also need to consider the
origins and determinants of those broad sets of change.
The analysis in this chapter draws from historical and critical approaches in
the study of international political economy and world order, especially that of
Robert Cox (1987) and other neo-Gramscian political economists. The paper also
draws insights regarding the spatial organization of production, governance, and
social life and cultural meanings from economic and cultural geographers dealing
with political economy and communications (Harvey 1990; Castells 1996; Gra-
ham and Marvin 1996).
State power and forms of state should be seen in historical context, rather
than abstract containers of sovereignt y. Some states and forms of state will bene-
fit from changes while others may lose out. Conventional accounts tend to assume
that state organization, goals, and relationships with civil societ y remain similar,
even if there are other new actors and even if there are new forms of power and
threats. Rather, some states are undertaking efforts to benefit from new economic
and technical patterns, and working to introduce new forms of governance that
involve relations with non-state actors and supra and sub-state governing bodies.
Although they may share the conceptual category of state, the capacities of small
FORM AND SCOPE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS GOVERNANCE 213
states and large states may differ to make them, in many respects, more different
than similar in the global order.
Governance is chosen in this analysis over a number of other possible terms
such as regulation, policy, or law. This term is selected for several reasons. Some
terms, such as regulation, although they may refer to broad sets of state activities in
the French regulation school, often are used to denote specific forms of policies or
state intervention. Most often in telecommunications, regulation refers to the prac-
tice of price and entry regulation as practiced in the United States and Canada in
the mid-twentieth century. Governance provides a way of thinking about activities
such as legislation and regulation, while recognizing that these are part of a broader
set of public activities. Secondly, the conceptual split between national law and in-
ternational activities is often so great, that terms such as law or regulation are taken
to mean very different things in the national or international context. Governance
provides a way of relating and comparing these activities as part of a global order,
without the discussion being overshadowed by national/international considera-
tions. As a broad and somewhat abstract term, governance requires further specifi-
cation in specific times and places. Hence, it encourages investigation of institutions
and practices in particular times and places. As a f lexible term, governance is also
appropriate for thinking about institutional, economic, and policy change. As a
term that can include both formal public policies as well as informal patterns of eco-
nomic and social regulation, governance allows for the consideration of state and
non-state forms of inf luencing social and economic relations.
Governance can be undertaken by public institutions, through laws, policies
and programs that guide and regulate economic and social activities. This can in-
clude direct regulation of prices of services and the entry of firms into a market (at
one end of a continuum, a long tradition in telecommunications), or simply set-
ting and supporting rules for market exchanges and propert y relations or non-
market activities, such as family law and rules governing the voluntary sector or
industry self-regulation.
Work by cultural and economic geographers is especially useful in problema-
tizing the spatial aspects of politics, culture and identit y. This spatial aspect is also
central in discussions of governance that may give rise to questions about sover-
eignt y, since this is in part a territorial concept. To what extent do policy makers,
business groups or various identit y/membership groupings understand their con-
cerns and actions to be set in a specific geographic context or scope? Or are these
cosmopolitan ideas and understandings? The spatial conception of policy prob-
lems or identit y/membership may overlap, and may not be exclusively assigned to
one scope of governing body. Hence, in addition to the spatial organization of sec-
toral policy issues—in telecommunications, the main focus of this chapter—it
would also be useful to consider ref lections on the geographic and social places
and spaces orienting cultural understandings and identit y formation.
The neo-liberal state form of governance can be seen as a response and a

contribution to globalization of economic processes and relations (Niosi 1991).
The globalization of production, trade and investment has been formalized in
new international trade and investment agreements, such as the Canada-U.S.
Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the
Uruguay Round of negotiations in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Globalization and increased integration with international trade and investment
in international political economy are also linked to state policies—such as dereg-
ulation, privatization, commodification of more social relationships—and to so-
cial changes in Canada and the United States. The liberal, out ward-oriented
state and the changing shape of international political economy are related to
new forms of state intervention in domestic political economy. Measures in trade
agreements significantly reduce the abilit y of governments to shape and direct
economic production and exchange. Foreign companies must be treated similarly
to national companies in an expanding number of sectors and there are few al-
lowable restrictions on investment.
Neoliberal governance is also very concerned with the spatial organization of
production, and how this relates to economic, political and social life. As a result
of the emergence of clusters of production centers, national economic policies may
be less appropriate than regional or even urban economic development policies.
The connection bet ween the geographic scope of a formal policy area and the
mapping of relevant economic activit y may be indistinct.
THE GOVERNANCE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Telecommunications is defined for the purposes of this chapter as electronic com-

munication at a distance, with capabilities allowing interactive information ex-
change and communications in real time or a relatively short time. The t ypes of
services this chapter is concerned with are those offered through public common
carrier networks, services available to the general public. While this definition in-
cludes voice and data communication, it is less relevant to traditional mass media
and cultural expressions, such as radio and television broadcasting or the distri-
bution of films and sound recordings.
Robert Babe’s study of telecommunications in Canada is especially helpful in
tackling the assumptions and claims of a technologically determined view of
telecommunications policy (Babe 1990). It examines the interrelationship be-
t ween industry structure, government policy, and the uses of communications
technology in Canada. Such an approach, therefore, might note the importance of
examining how the growth of patterns of regional integration (or the shifting
scope of communications policy institutions) is related to changes in industry
structure, and to the organization and use of communications technologies. One

of Robert Babe’s central arguments is that Canadian telecommunications policy,
regulatory patterns, and industry changes significantly inf luence, and are inf lu-
enced by, the uses and control of technology (but not driven by technical dynam-
ics, as is often claimed in telecommunications policy literature). The (monopoly,
oligopoly or competitive) structure of the telecommunications industry, the his-
torical forms of government intervention, and the design and uses of telecommu-
nications technology must be examined together.
Telecommunications governance intervenes in, is set in, and is inf luenced
and shaped by the organization of production and by the industry structure, and
by technology developments and uses. This might be seen as the terrain or context
of telecommunications policy and governance, and the linkages between forms of
governance and these broader developments are explored in the second part of
the chapter.
CHANGING FORMS AND NON-STATE GOVERNANCE
The key policy debates in telecommunications governance over the past t wo

decades have concerned what the goals of public bodies and agencies should be,
and what forms of intervention are appropriate. Terms such as deregulation, lib-
eralization, and technical convergence captured and held a preeminent position in
much of the debate over appropriate forms of communications governance.
Beginning the 1980s, for instance, there were pressures in numerous coun-
tries for changes in forms of regulation of the telecommunications industry (such
as deregulation) and to allow international provision of telecommunications serv-
ices through more open trade and investment. A number of policy measures have
been implemented. These include measures such as the introduction of (limited)
competition among telecommunications service suppliers, more trade and foreign
direct investment in telecommunications service and equipment production, the
privatization of state companies, and mergers among different sectors of the
telecommunications industry. Also notable are changes such as the combined use
of different communications technologies in the concept of a multimedia infor-
mation superhighway, the implementation of forms of regulation that allow
providers more price f lexibilit y, more rapid introduction of new services, and
greater public policy focus on the use of telecommunications for social and eco-
nomic development (Kahin and Wilson 1997; Kahin and Nesson 1997). How-
ever, a variet y of forms of public intervention aimed at achieving social, economic,
and political goals by directing the design and deployment of communication
technologies are also being undertaken by public bodies alongside deregulation
(Mosco 1988). These goals and programs might include promoting effective
government communications and information services, ensuring privacy protec-

tion and information securit y, supporting research in communications technol-
ogy, planning infrastructure investments, or facilitating exports, strategic
partnering or inward or outward foreign direct investment.
An emerging acceptance and institutionalization of forms of governance tar-
geted at, and limited to, supporting market economic interactions is illustrated by
these goals and programs. What is less clear is whether forms of governance are
likely to emerge to promote equit y objectives. These examples also demonstrate
that, even alongside shifting forms of regulation, deregulation, and liberalization,
governments do retain, and are using, a variet y of forms of policy intervention.
However, some of these forms of governance represent a significant contraction
in the role of the state.
A problem at the core of governance is the extent to which formal state pat-
terns of governance interact with non-state ordering of social relations and politi-
cal and economic organization in civil societ y. The widespread use of terms such
as societ y, civil societ y, social institutions, the market, self-regulation, and the
recognition of the importance of organizations such as churches, professional as-
sociation, trade association, and nongovernmental organization all indicate the
importance of non-state bodies in ordering or governing a variet y of social and
economic activities at the national and international level.
One conscious and direct method of control of behavior is self-regulation by
groups. It has been used by professionals and by industry sectors at different
times as a mechanism to resolve possible political problems and to preempt the
perceived need for public governance. Often working alongside public licensing
bodies, certain groups, such as doctors, lawyers, and engineers are mandated and
expected to regulate their own members’ behavior and services to the public. Self-
regulation is often sanctioned or sought by the state, in that state managers and
the public perceive a significant lightening of the volume and burden of adminis-
trative actions and decisions as a result of professional self-regulation.
For instance, technology standard-setting now involves extensive industry
participation in North America and Europe. In some cases, such as the digital
television technology, the public sector has declined to set any standard, even
after extensive negotiations among the industry and the public sector. In tele-
communications net work standard-setting, industry representatives may be for-
mally recognized at the national level through self-regulatory bodies, through
consultation in public sector standard-setting exercises, or through participation
in national delegations or industry groups at the international level. Therefore,
in considering the emerging forms of telecommunications governance, proce-
dures and practices wherein public governance is significantly constrained or del-
egated to self-regulatory bodies should be examined closely (Cutler et al 1999;
Vogel 1996).
Self-regulation is mode of governance that has been increasingly proposed for

communications networks. The V-Chip technology in the United States depends
on the use of a ratings system that is designed largely by industry groups and will
be implemented by industry groups. Concerns about children’s access to certain
t ypes of internet content, initially met by an attempt to include the so-called
“Communications Decency Act” in the United States Telecommunications Act of
1996, are now being responded to by suggestions that services be labelled and reg-
ulated by the industry. Governance of the Internet has been presented by some as
an example of spontaneous or conscious self-regulation.
Although industry self-regulation and participation in technical standard-
setting are not central themes in the study of international politics, another set of
actors in of non-state governance—non-governmental organizations—have been
widely recognized as important actors in the post-1945 system of international or-
ganization and governance. As Ness and Brechin (1988: 250) note, the United
Nations has the capacit y “to grant formal recognition to nongovernmental or-
ganization.” Similarly, studies of international civil societ y and its relation to
forms of state and international organizations also highlight the importance of
non-state bodies and social linkages in the form and practice of governance.
The variet y of non-state organizations and the range of participants in forms
of telecommunications governance pose several conceptual issues and theoretic
questions for political economy and governance. Despite an acceptance of a grow-
ing role for non-state corporate and civil societ y groups and organizations, neo-
realist international theorists still see the defining characteristic of the modern
world as being the preeminent role of states and the interstate system as deter-
mining specific outcomes and as defining the unique and essential characteristics
of the global system. Pluralist and critical approaches use terms such as global gov-
ernance or world order to explore the ways in which world politics are developing
and changing without deciding a priori that the state and the interstate system
remain the unchanging centerpiece of world politics.
The consideration of non-state forms of governance introduces the possibilit y
of unlike units in the field of analysis. This complicates the study of international
or world politics, which is premised on the existence and primary important of the
interstate system. The problems encountered are significant in trying to deal, not
just with differing forms of telecommunications governance by states, but also with
a configuring of governing institutions composed of unlike units that cannot be
given, a priori, any set ordering of importance.
Several theorists have looked to politics and societ y prior to the modern state
system to begin to conceptualize how the emerging system and global societ y
might be organized. Hedley Bull has called this a “neo-medievalism”, what Barry
Buzan calls a “label for a system of unlike units.” In his discussion of international
societ y, Buzan argues:
there is no logical reason why neomedieval versions of anarchic systems

could not develop international societies. In such a system, shared iden-
tit y as a similar t ype of unit is by definition not a basis for societ y. In a
medieval international system, the only possibilit y for shared identit y is
not acceptance of likeness of units but in acceptance of a set of rules that
legitimize responsibilities among functionally differentiated actors.
Compared with the primitive possibilit y of shared identit y among like
units, this is a complex and sophisticated form of international societ y.
It is difficult to examine such an arrangement coming about from
scratch. . . . Nevertheless, the neomedieval form is worth keeping in
mind as an evolutionary possibilit y for highly developed international
societies (1993: 335–336).
As quoted in Fischer, John Gerard Ruggie argues, “The feudal state, if the con-
cept makes any sense at all, consisted of chains of lord-vassal relationships. Its basis
was the fief, which was an amalgam of conditional propert y and private authorit y.
Propert y was conditional in that it carried with it explicit social obligations . . .
Moreover the prevailing concept of usufructure meant that multiple ties to the
same landed propert y were the norm. As a result, the medieval system of rule re-
f lected ‘a patchwork of overlapping and incomplete rights of government’ which
were ‘inextricably superimposed and tangled,’ and in which ‘different juridical in-
stances were geographically interwoven and stratified, and plural allegiances, asym-
metrical suzerainties and anomalous enclaves abounded’” (1992: 432).
More recently, Stephen Kobrin (1998) addressed this concept directly in a
discussion of telecommunications governance by linking “neomedievalism and
the postmodern digital world economy.” In this period of “turbulent, systemic
change in the organization of the world economic and political order,” Kobrin ar-
gues that the “medieval metaphor should be seen as an inter-temporal analog of
comparative political analysis. It allows us to overcome the inertia imposed by our
immersion in the present and think about other possible modes of political and
economic organization.” Kobrin’s discussion of this metaphor in the context of
contemporary political economy points to a number of elements, including geo-
graphic space and borders, the ambiguit y of authorit y, multiple loyalties, transna-
tional elites, shifting distinctions bet ween public and private propert y, unifying
belief systems, and supranational centralization.
The use of the medieval case as an example of a specific historical form of
governance, is introduced here, as Kobrin suggests, as a conceptual frame that
can assist in forming questions and thinking about forms of governance of tele-
communications that may be emerging in the early t went y-first century. Specifi-
cally, to what extent do patterns such as industry self-regulation and self-governing
communications user organizations represent the introduction of unlike units as
complements or collaborators alongside state and public bodies in telecommuni-

cations governance? What theoretic and historical importance will these new
forms and new configurations of various modalities have for telecommunications
governance?
THE SCOPE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS GOVERNANCE
A second question this chapter will explore regarding the new telecommunica-
tions policy environment is the possibilit y of a reconfiguration of the spatial scope
of telecommunications governing bodies. The scope of jurisdiction of communi-
cations governance refers to the geographic range of particular public organiza-
tions in formulating telecommunications policy and in using telecommunications
technology to promote social and economic development. Although the power of
states and their rights of sovereignt y are often claimed to be indivisible in the
modern period, in practice telecommunications governance in the twentieth cen-
tury has moved through a variet y of orders. As is argued below, some, such as the
ITU regime from the nineteenth century to the 1980s, were very supportive of the
nation-state competence. In a federal system, governing responsibilities and juris-
diction are sometimes divided among different levels of government, or in many
cases shared among different levels of government. Apart from any abstract mod-
els, public policy and the overall role of states evolve historically, a result of strug-
gles at specific times and places among different social groups and institutional
actors. The discussion below emphasizes the importance of telecommunications
activities of cities, states and provinces in federal systems of governance, nation-
state agencies, regional trade agreements and organizations, and multilateral
organizations (Aronson, Diebert, both in this volume).
Sub-national units, such as cities, states or provinces, and sub-national re-
gions, increasingly are seen by businesses and economic planners as possessing
the appropriate geographic scope for organizing certain industrial infrastructure
and economic activities, and responding through state policy, planning or coordi-
nating nongovernmental social organization (Brunn and Leinbach 1991; Drache
and Gertler 1991; Kellerman 1993; Pool 1990). Cities or urban conglomerations
are, in the view of some economic geographers, the key unit for understanding
economic and social development, rather than making reference solely to national
economies or national development.
While conf licts in federal systems of governance are most often perceived as
legal and juridicial questions to be decided by constitutional interpretation by the
courts and by precedent, a political economy analysis would suggest that the t ypes
of issues that emerge in state-federal government debates, and the roles which
each level of government is called upon to pursue, should be related to economic
organization and to the uses of technologies. James Carey (1988), for instance, ar-
gues that among the implications of the development and use of the telegraph in
the nineteenth century was the creation of regional and then national markets in
the United States. As well, firms began to manage production and marketing on a
national basis (Beniger 1986).
Regional integration has generally been understood as a shift of state func-
tions, especially for particular policy areas, to suprastate organizations composed of
geographically contiguous nation-states. Both as an historical process and an area
of theoretical ref lection, regional integration poses a number of difficulties for
thinking about nation-states, international political economy and international or-
ganizations. Contemporary political institutions (both the nation-state and the
global international organization of economic activities and policy areas) are some-
times seen to be under challenge both from new and longstanding regional insti-
tutions and bodies. In the post-1945 period, while there was much investigation of
the possibilit y of the formation of a European securit y and economic communit y
(Pentland 1973), international organizations operating at a global level were seen,
in a functionalist sense, to have the scope of competence more appropriate to deal
with specialized economic relations and technical coordination (i.e., finance, trade,
transportation, communications).
Paul Taylor’s discussion of regionalism relates its usage to functionalist/
sectoral and to geographical approaches to understanding the role of interna-
tional organization as a process in world politics. Sectoral approaches to region-
alism are “concerned with individual problems and hold that they can be solved
in their own terms” by focusing on an issue area or problem (Taylor 1993: 7). A
sectoral approach can be contrasted with geographical understandings (which
focus on the appropriate spatial dimensions of problems, institutions or political
projects) of political economy: “One recurrent theme, however, is a concern with
that particular scale of geographical area which is best fitted to the performance
of tasks judged crucial for the welfare of individuals, or for the advantage of gov-
ernments” (Taylor 1993: 7). Taylor argues that sectoralism has emerged as the
main conceptual competitor to regional understandings of international organi-
zation, in part because the spatial “alternatives to regionalism [have] an extreme
form—the exclusive nation state or the organic globe” (1993: 8). Taylor’s discus-
sion is useful in highlighting the conceptual difficulties encountered in the pres-
ent study.
Again, the neo-medieval metaphor illuminates the possibilit y that the rela-
tionship bet ween governing bodies with different geographic scopes should not
be seen only as being competitive (an either/or of global versus regional versus
national jurisdiction). These roles may be seen as complementary pieces of an
overall global institutional order. These arrangements might include, for in-
stance, state institutions and policies supporting international institutions and
practices at a regional and global level, or net works of bilateral relations among
states. While regional or international inf luences are often seen as offering in-
vasions or threats to national sovereignt y—whether seen as the control of bor-
ders, national decision processes, and a central and shared identit y or public
space—it is important to note that international rules and institutions may both
empower and limit powerful state and non-state actors and may define the
sphere of state action in particular issue areas. They can serve not only to en-
hance the scope of state action and the achievement of particular interests, but
also to constitute the sphere of national and state decision making. If state sov-
ereignt y is historically constituted by shared practices and beliefs in interna-
tional relations, then international governance can be seen as more than a strict
subsidiary of state power or as a competitor for state power. To draw out this
analysis, the overall structure of the relationships among sub-state, nation-state,
regional, and international organizations involved in communications policy
should be considered as contributing to or constituting the role and responsi-
bilities of each particular policy body.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS GOVERNANCE IN NORTH AMERICA
Can the spatial reorganization of communications policy institutions—across the

sub-national, national, and international levels of policy change—be connected
with a general contraction in the policy role of various public bodies in certain
areas (i.e., less commitment to universal service and greater discussion of the use
of telecommunications to enhance economic development)? The historical ac-
count here argues that the reorganization of national forms of telecommunica-
tions regulation and policy in contemporary policy is consistent with increasing
regional integration and global coordination in telecommunications policy.
Hence, the historical changes in the form of telecommunications governance and
the scope of telecommunications governance may be understood as arising from
similar strategies or dynamics.
This section provides historical evidence to support the claim that there is
an ongoing recasting—or perhaps a diminishing—over the late t wentieth century
of the sole governance of telecommunications by nation-states. Telecommunica-
tions governance was formulated in the late nineteenth century in an environ-
ment of European imperial rivalry. In the mid-t wentieth century, governing
practices ref lected the preeminence of national goals and purposes, and were de-
termined primarily by nation-state institutions. International organizations
served to coordinate net works while respecting and reinforcing this aspect of na-
tion-state sovereignt y. In the 1980s and 1990s, new multilateral, regional, and bi-
lateral trade agreements and commitments ref lected a surge of institution
building at the supra-state level. The primary role of the national government
has been recast by greater state commitments to continental bodies in North
America, and to multilateral agreements in which national governments have
agreed to constrain certain t ypes of policy measures. At the same time, other
public organizations have began to deal more extensively with telecommunica-
tions policy issues, including cities, counties, regional development authorities,
and provinces or states (at the sub-national level). States and cit y/local govern-
ments are paying greater attention to telecommunications infrastructure plan-
ning and deployment, and to the role of telecommunications in social and
economic development.
COMPETITION AND CONSOLIDATION IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
In the telecommunications sectors in the late nineteenth century, there was ex-
tensive private investment in international telegraph cable construction, and this
was set in the context of imperial competition among European powers and U.S.-
Europe competition in Central and South America. According to Graham
Thompson (1990), Canada acted as a subimperial power in the British empire in
international telecommunications networks, even though the Canadian telephone
industry was owned by American companies (see also Fortner 1979). Sir Sanford
Fleming took a lead role in constructing an undersea telegraph cable from British
Columbia to Australia (for which he preferred public ownership), which linked
the farthest parts of the British empire. As well, Canadians also invested in
telecommunications and electricit y companies in central and South America
(Armstrong and Nelles 1988).
Similarly, a United States company—the International Ocean Telegraph
company—sought to construct cable connections bet ween Brazil and the islands
of the West Indies. However, a monopoly over cable landing rights in Brazil was
won by a British consortium, the Western Telegraph Company. The Mexican
Telegraph Company (a New York company) constructed cables from Texas to
points throughout Mexico in 1878, and its promoter—a Mr. Scrymser—in 1882
financed a cable running through Central America and South America to Lima,
Peru. These cables later became part of All-American Cables Inc. One American
commentator, Elihu Root Jr., viewed the competition among British and United
States cable companies as “a death struggle on for the control of the South Amer-
ican communications situation” (Tribolet 1929: 42–45). Leslie Bennett Tribolet
noted that “the British claim that the United States has an iron-clad communi-
cations monopoly in Mexico at present,” and that “British political control in
the various regions of the earth seems to coincide almost in direct ratio to the ex-
tent of the communications and propaganda monopolies in those same regions”
(1929: 45–46). This imperial rivalry conducted by proxy companies was at one
time complicated by the possibilit y of a cooperative arrangement bet ween West-
ern Union of the United States and the British company (Western Telegraph
Company), t wo of the four companies competing in South America for the de-
velopment of communications (Tribolet 1929: 60). One partner, the Radio Cor-
poration of America, also appointed a chair who held an effective veto, “thus
carrying the principle of the Monroe Doctrine into the field of communications
in the Western Hemisphere and giving the Americans effective leadership”
(Ibid.:61).
The International Union of American Republics (now called the Organization
of American States) was founded in 1890. Canada was not part of this organiza-
tion, which consisted of the United States, Mexico and other Latin American and
South American countries. The dominant position of the United States in the re-
gion and its claims of a sphere of inf luence under the 1820 Monroe Doctrine (and
the practices of annexing territory, invading countries whose administrations pur-
sued their own objectives, and the support of oppressive governments favorable to
the Americans, which t ypified United States foreign policy) mitigated against the
OAS as being a regional international organization presenting a strong voice inde-
pendent of the United States’s purposes.
While participating in the OAS, the United States did not join in all of the
relevant treaties for international telecommunications (see Zacher, this volume).
Along with Canada, the United States was not a signatory to the International
Telegraph Convention of St. Petersburg of 1875, which reorganized the Interna-
tional Telegraph Union. George Codding states that the reason for the lack of di-
rect participation in the Telegraph Union was that the United States’s telegraph
lines were privately owned, “a private enterprise not subject to the control of gov-
ernment,” rather than nationalized (Codding 1952: 42). This policy arose “be-
cause of opposition of American companies to what they consider undue
international control and regulation” (Tribolet 1929: 10–11). The United States
did attend the St. Petersburg convention as an observer delegation. George Cod-
ding cites one United States participant in the 1875 conference who ref lected:
“The interests of the public who use the telegraph seemed to be entirely subordi-
nated to the interests of the state and to the administrations; that is, to a fear lest
improvement might produce less revenue than is got at present, and lest it might
throw more work on the telegraph bureau” (1952: 65). However, American com-
panies attended subsequent Telegraph Union conferences, as “they found it expe-
dient to accept the International Telegraph Regulations in their international
communications” (Codding 1952: 43).
The United States did sign the International Radiotelegraph Convention of
London (1912), with the reservation that “its government is under the necessit y
of abstaining from all action with regard to rates, because the transmission of
radiotelegrams as well as of ordinary telegrams is carried on, wholly or in part, by

commercial and private companies” (Tribolet 1929: 21). In the 1920s, the United
States and Canada both objected to proposals which would have linked the In-
ternational Telegraph Union and the activities of International Radiotelegraph
Conventions at the 1930 Brussels International Telegraph conference. The
United States also pursued this policy in the Inter-American Committee on Elec-
trical Communications in 1924, despite the opposition of all other countries
except Argentina (Tribolet 1929: 22–23).
Several developments during this period are instructive. Firstly, as Robert
Babe argues, the development of the industry structure followed as much from
the use of financing strategies and the goal of obtaining monopoly licenses as it
did from the dynamics of technological innovation. The level of continental in-
tegration bet ween the United States and Mexico through telegraph combines
was high (with Canada event ually building national telegraph net works con-
trolled by the railways). United States companies’ investment in Central and
South America was set in the context of imperial rivalr y, a contest the isola-
tionist United States did not abstain from in the Americas. In the telephone in-
dustry, the Canadian and United States systems were very closely tied together
through the Bell company. Secondly, these industr y developments took place
while the public policy mechanisms for guiding the development of national
telecommunications systems were still weak. In Canada, the federal govern-
ment supported the Bell telephone company by defending it from municipali-
ties and provinces, only developing national regulator y legislation in 1917 in
response to much populist protest. In the United States, debates about the di-
vision of governance in federalism have a long history, with disputes since the
late nineteenth cent ur y centering around the role of the federal and state
governments in regulating commerce, transportation, and financial services
(Horwitz 1989; Teske 1994). Thirdly, the interlocking relationships bet ween
national industry structures and policy institutions, and among national insti-
t utional patterns and regional organizations and multilateral forums were
already forming in the late nineteenth centur y. Canadians pursued cable con-
struction as a sub-imperial power in the British empire, while increasingly
linked into the growing North American telephone net work. The United
States noted in international conferences that telegraph rates were a private
matter, and resistance by private sector companies to state intervention pre-
vented the United States and Canada from joining the International Telegraph
Union. It is significant, however, that the International Telegraph Union did
have provision for private sector operators’s participation, an exceptional limi-
tation on the scope of state representation of national interests in international
bodies (where states are often the only participants and sole legitimate repre-
sentatives of industry groups in their territory).
STRONGER NATIONAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNANCE IN THE

MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY
From 1920s to the 1970s a stable national/monopoly governing order developed

in Canada and the United States. This was t ypified by greater national ownership
of monopoly service providers or a shifting mix of public and private ownership,
national equipment providers, public interest regulation of rates and services, and
strict distinctions among different communications activities (Mosco 1988). Key
communications policy issues that raise questions of the federal division of re-
sponsibilities in the United States include the consideration of technologies used
for local and long distance services, accounting conventions for charging for the
use of the network by numerous different t ypes of services and users, and the ap-
propriate role of state and federal governments in regulating intra-state and inter-
state services. Telecommunications governance in the mid-t wentieth century
institutionalized the relationships among different levels of government, with rep-
resentatives of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (state level
regulators) participating in numerous joint boards with the Federal Communica-
tions Commission.
In this period, international traffic was coordinated through interconnection
agreements, with less competition among international providers. Extensive work
programs of global committees of the International Telecommunication Union
negotiated technical standards (Codding and Rutkowski 1982). The Organization
of American States also began forming a series of radio conventions in the 1930s.
The first four Inter-American Radio Conferences of the OAS were held in 1937,
1940, 1945, and 1949. At the First Inter-American Radio Conference in Havana,
November 1–December 3, 1937, accords were signed to explore setting up an of-
fice (Inter-American Radio Conference 1937). Canada was represented at this
meeting by a t wo-person delegation. The problem of sovereignt y and interna-
tional representation was also raised. It was agreed that one vote should be ac-
corded in the meeting to each government or body that met the qualifications of
having a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and capacit y
to enter into relations with other states. Colonies or administered territories
would thus be excluded from voting, and other bodies that did not fit these crite-
ria could have a voice at meetings, but not a vote. In addition to questions about
the allocation of radio-magnetic frequencies and the suppression of interference
among signals, one key area of discussion concerned the press use of telecommu-
nications at low rates and with open access. It was resolved that “such economies
be extended to and embrace all forms of telecommunications, including all meth-
ods of transmission now in use, such as telegraph, telephone, cable and point-to-
point radiocommunication, including image, telephoto and facsimile, as well as
proper forms hereafter to be developed, such, for example, as television” (Ibid.: 4).
As George Codding notes, the meeting illustrated a significant extent of regional

coordination: “[c]oming as it did one year in advance of the next scheduled Inter-
national Radio Conference, the Inter-American Radio Conference gave the coun-
tries of the Americas the chance to achieve a degree of solidarit y with which to
enter discussions at Cairo [in 1938] that no other region, or group of countries,
could claim at that time” (Codding 1952: 160).
The third meeting of the Inter-American Radio Conference was held in Rio
de Janeiro from September 3 to 25, 1945. It resulted in the conclusion of an
Inter-American Telecommunication Convention on September 27, 1945 (Inter-
American Radio Conference 1945). The signatories of the convention included
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Do-
minican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States of America, Uruguay and
Venezuela. Observers from Newfoundland, the Bahamas, and the British
Caribbean colonies were also present. The convention recognized that “the
public has a right to use public telecommunications services. The service, rates
and guarantees shall be equal for all users in each category . . . without any pri-
orit y and preferences” (Inter-American Telecommunications Convention 1945:
20). Rates for international services would be “fair, reasonable and equitable,
and shall correspond to the service actually rendered.” These pricing agree-
ments and the priorit y placed on the open use of telecommunications by news
services ref lected to only non-technical aspects of the discussions, even in the
context of the end of World War II.
In 1962, a proposal was discussed for the establishment of an Inter-American
Telecommunications Commission (CITEL), which would “be responsible for pro-
moting and facilitating Inter-American cooperation in the field of telecommuni-
cations [and] be a specialized inter-American organization” (OAS 1974: 1–2). This
organization finally held its first meeting in 1965. Meetings of the Inter-American
Telecommunications Commission (CITEL) continued, and with the sixth meeting
of CITEL held in Caracas, Venezuela on September 5–6, 1971. This also coincided
with the First Inter-American Telecommunications Conference held in the same
cit y from September 5–11, 1971. This meeting, therefore, represented a signifi-
cant reinvigoration of regional efforts in telecommunications. While Canada was
not a member of the OAS or CITEL, it participated as an observer at these meet-
ings at least since the 1970s.
Almost all of the resolutions of the 1971 meetings relate to technical matters
and issues of system operations and coordination. What is also notable about the
resolutions of the 1971 meeting is the focus on indigenous manufacture of “equip-
ment, supplies and components for telecommunications systems in Latin Amer-
ica” (OAS 1974: 63–65). Resolution CITEL-I/47-71 noted that to promote and
organize the industrialization of Latin American countries, to coordinate network
development with equipment production, to reduce the dependence on foreign

technology and large expenditures on imported equipment, and the promotion of
the “fast growth of national net works in the years ahead justifies the establish-
ment of new plants with potential economic benefits, and failure to do so would
further increase the degree of technological dependency.” The resolution argued
that “the development of national manufacture of telecommunications equipment
favors the attainment of national objectives and interest[s] of the Latin American
countries” and would permit “comprehensive planning of the telecommunications
sector,” favor the adoption of more complex technologies and the beginning of ap-
plied technological research, foster investment and savings of foreign exchange by
import substitution, and more balanced dealings with foreign suppliers.
This focus on technical issues and network development was also present in
the 1975 meeting (OAS 1975). That meeting recommended the drafting of an
Inter-American Telecommunications Development Plan, “to give countries of the
region a framework that will incorporate in their development plans timely and
adequate measures that will permit an efficient, economical, and coordinated
f low of telecommunications traffic bet ween countries of the region.” This pro-
posal was premised upon the view that countries needed a regional network, that
the regional network would be an extension of the national development plans of
each country, and that each country should specify and contribute its intra-
regional objectives. In the 1960s, the focus of CITEL was on efforts to create an
Inter-American Telecommunications Network, “the result [of which] was the es-
tablishment of a telecommunications infrastructure based on microwave net-
works. . . . CITEL concentrated also [sic] its efforts on rate setting and exploitation
aspects and the study of spatial communications as a complement to the infra-
structure began to take on importance” (OAS 1987: 7–8).
The telecommunications sector was somewhat unique in comparison to
wider patterns of state-industry relations in the political economy of Canada and
the United States. The state maintained a strong role as long as telecommunica-
tions were seen as public utilities. This uniqueness was especially marked in this
sector, given the growing internationalism of corporations in the post-1945 pe-
riod, which saw greater continental integration in manufacturing. Telecommuni-
cation was a national monopoly industry which was regulated by the state (or
owned by public bodies in some cases). In an era of mass production of industrial
and consumer goods, telecommunications was often seen as utilit y, providing
services for the wealth-creating sectors of the economy. Technical and engineering
problems rather than market and economic issues were the main questions in aca-
demic and policy enquiry.
Although supportive of open trade and investment in other sectors, the
United States was able to support a strong role for regional organizations in plan-
ning infrastructure investment and development, as well as a strong role for the
nation state in promoting industrialization. This policy was consistent with the
regulatory and policy order at the national level in the United States, and was
maintained despite the presence of dominant equipment export companies in the
United States. Regional coordination and technical integration was consistent
with—rather than in competition with—a strong role for national governance in
telecommunications network planning.
The first ref lection emerged in 1979 of the more political issues that were being
discussed in other international organizations in the late 1970s, and the breakdown
of the historical relationship between the role of states in national telecommunica-
tions and strong regional international organizations (OAS 1979: 6).
LIBER ALIZATION AND REDEFINED REGIONALIZATION IN THE 1980S AND 1990S
During the 1980s, several processes began to significantly restructure telecom-

munications policy, planning and regulation. These took place at the national
level in many nation-states, at the global level, as well as in the patterns of regional
cooperation and coordination in Canada, the United States, and the Americas.
The development of more regional governance activities in North America oc-
curred alongside the development of multilateral agreements in the WTO and
ITU. In addition to developing rules to facilitate international trade in telecom-
munications services and information technology, states were also making com-
mitments to changes in national telecommunications rules and regulations, and
to limitations of foreign ownership of telecommunications service providers.
In Canada, telecommunications governance, although set in a federal system,
is seen, since the Supreme Court decision in 1987 of Regina v. AGT, to reside
solely with the central government. The federal parliament, government, and its
agencies were particularly active in communications the 1990s, enacting new
telecommunications legislation, undertaking a review of telecommunications reg-
ulatory structure and pricing in the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission), as well as promoting the development and
uses of new communications infrastructure and services. At the same time, other
levels of government in Canada have considered the role of communications tech-
nologies and services in social and economic development, and have taken their
own initiatives to advance the use of telecommunications. These activities suggest
that a solely national program of communications regulation and policy is not seen
as appropriate to meet the communications and development needs of all parts of
the country. Although the federal organization of communications regulatory au-
thorit y differs between Canada and the United States, the analytic literature and
the actions of various levels of government suggest that questions about the fit be-
tween various scopes of governance are still relevant to the Canadian situation.
The liberalization in the United States began in the early 1980s with na-
tional initiatives (divestiture of AT&T, competition in long distance telephone
service). In Canada, efforts to promote more open trade in informatics and
telecommunications services in the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement preceded
national efforts, and were used to prompt efforts at national regulatory restruc-
turing in the early 1990s. These processes continued with the signing of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which included Mexico, the
United States, and Canada. Protection of basic telecommunications services for
national carriers continued in the NAFTA agreement. Mexican barriers to trade
in enhanced services were eliminated, and access to contracts offered by govern-
ment telecommunications services in Mexico was also granted. Access to and use
of telecommunications networks in the three countries is guaranteed. Equipment
standards would be made compatible over time. Mexico would immediately re-
move tariffs on most telecommunications equipment, and phase out other tariffs
over five years (Canada 1992).
The United States also undertook a number of initiatives over the late 1980s
and early 1990s designed to encourage economic and telecommunications devel-
opment in the Central American region. Beginning in 1982, the United States
Telecommunications Training Institute offered free courses on various technical
specialities (as did Canada through its own institution, for which it also provided
OAS scholarships). The Caribbean Basin Initiative in the 1980s gave tariff con-
cessions and access to the United States market for Caribbean countries. United
States President George Bush’s Enterprise of the Americas program was planned to
encourage economic growth and economic policy reform. A cooperative arrange-
ment between the OAS secretariat and the U.S. Trade and Development Program
also led to the preparation in the late 1980s of a study on the modernization of
the telecommunications systems and companies in five CITEL countries (OAS
1987: 5).
The activities of the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission
(CITEL) of the OAS grew in the 1980s and 1990s, as did their importance in the
view of industry actors and policy-makers in the United States and Canada. How-
ever, the organization was, according to at least one major member country ad-
ministration, hampered by resource and organizational problems. These were
already noted in the 1980s, but were exacerbated in 1991 “when the OAS decided
to suspend funding for several activities of the Organization, including specialized
conferences, such as CITEL. . . . Fortunately, some CITEL member countries, such
as Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Uruguay, funded meetings held in
their countries, providing their own funds for items that were usually covered
with funds allocated by the OAS to CITEL” (OAS 1991a, 2).
A special effort was made in the late 1980s to build relationships between
CITEL and many public and private organizations. It was reported in 1987 that
“Relations have been established with the following organizations: the Asociacion
Hispanoamericana de Centros de Investigacion y Estudio de Telecomunicaciones
(AHCIET), the Asociacion de Empresas de Telecomunicaciones of the Andean Sub-
regional Pact (ASETA), the Comision de Telecomunicaciones de Centro America
(COMTELA), the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), the International
Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), the Pacific Telecommunciation Council (PTC),
and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with the closest possible
relations existing in the case of the latter” (OAS 1987: 2–3). A resolution
(COM/CITEL RES. III (XVII-86)) recommended the participation of public telecom-
munications service operating companies in the work of Permanent Technical
Committee I as special guests, with no limit to the number of companies that
might participate. They could participate in all activities except voting, and would
be expected to make voluntary contributions to cover additional costs of participa-
tion. This direction was also confirmed in 1991, which noted increasing links be-
tween CITEL’s activities and private telecommunications companies (OAS 1991b:
2). CITEL would aim to “strengthen the required interaction between CITEL and
all the subregional and non-regional entities that are also engaged in activities
aimed at the development of regional telecommunications, and, as a necessary step
for CITEL to become coordinator of this development” (OAS 1991b: 2).
Many of the activities of CITEL during this period, following a decision of
CITEL V, were to prepare common positions for ITU meetings: “to concentrate its
efforts for this period on activities to achieve the coordination and harmonization
of the region’s countries in regard to technical criteria and standards, planning cri-
teria and methods when in order, regulatory aspects, and so forth. It[s] aim was to
arrive at common viewpoints and stands that would take account of this region’s
needs and better equip it to defend our interests successfully in other interna-
tional fora with a view basically to having decisions adopted contribute to the
development of telecommunication in the Americas” (OAS 1987, 3).
After 1994, CITEL was made up of the CITEL Assembly, which is the highest
body in the organization, the Permanent Executive Committee, the Permanent
Consultative Committees, and the Secretariat. The participants in CITEL meetings
include delegations from OAS member countries, from states that are permanent
observers in the OAS, observers from other OAS organs or Inter-American regional
bodies, and observers from the United Nations and its specialized agencies. As
well, subject to the approval of the Permanent Executive Committee of CITEL
(COM/CITEL), observers may also include “international, regional, subregional
and national agencies who have asked to participate in the meeting” (OAS/CITEL
1994b, 9–10).
In addition to the CITEL members which are state representatives, associate
memberships are also open “to any recognized operating agency, industrial or-
ganization, or financial or development institution related to the telecommunica-
tions industry, with a legal personalit y, provided such membership is approved by

the corresponding CITEL member state.” Associate membership is said to offer
“access to abundant first-hand strategic information on . . . the state of telecom-
munications in the countries, development and investment needs, and project ini-
tiatives (not yet announced) . . . an unparalled opportunit y for joint participation
in, and contribution to, the development of programs and projects in the Ameri-
cas” (OAS/CITEL 1994d). The inclusion of private sector members was seen as a
way of “adjusting [CITEL’s] structure and working methods to meet the challenges
of the future . . . [and] an essential step if CITEL is to have a significant role in
telecommunications in the Americas” (OAS/CITEL 1994f).
Regional connections and concerns are also recognized in the Americas Re-
gion meetings of the International Telecommunication Union. CITEL encourages
an ITU regional presence, especially in the ITU work on telecommunications
development. Similarly, meetings of the Permanent Consultative Committees in
Ottawa in August 1994 included formal discussion of issues which would arise
in the then forthcoming 1994 ITU Plenipotentiary meetings in Kyoto, Japan
(OAS/CITEL 1994e).
In the United States, telecommunications policy and planning continues to
pursue primarily national objectives. However, a number of issues were addressed
at the local level of government during the passage and implementation of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996. Attempts were made to introduce competition
in local telephone service, to support local institutions such as schools and li-
braries in providing access to enhanced communications services, and to intro-
duce new wireless communications technologies. These objectives entailed a
reworking of the roles and relationships with state and federal governments, and
with firms providing telecommunications services. While the local/cit y govern-
ment controls the ground, the radiomagnetic spectrum is a national resource con-
trolled by the federal government. A number of issues have arisen in this context,
including the applicabilit y of the franchise fees charged for the use of municipal
rights of way to various service providers, zoning authorit y over the siting of tow-
ers to provide wireless services, state and municipal taxation of communications
services, the provision of telecommunications infrastructure and services by cit y
governments, and the role of local institutions—schools, libraries, and hospitals—
in efforts to promote access to advanced telecommunications services. Addition-
ally, local governments have become actively involved in the cable industry
because of their role in licensing and granting rights-of-way for communications
companies.
Most importantly, the contemporary industry restructuring—a process t ypi-
fied by corporate mergers, by dissipating boundaries in the use of different com-
munications, and by massive investment plans and alliances to capture a piece of
the information highway—places extreme pressure on the policy and regulatory
bodies in North American nation-states and in the region. The Canada-United

States Free Trade Agreement and the NAFTA ref lect the shrinking of nation-state
policy competence, and are consistent with domestic programs of privatization
and deregulation which also scale back certain roles for the state vis-a-vis the econ-
omy and social relations. Similarly, regional bodies are also responding to private
industry calls for change. The permeabilit y of the state and interstate organiza-
tions to private business purposes is also ref lected in CITEL’s inclusion of private
sector organizations as associate members.
The contemporary structuring of relations among different levels of policy
bodies in North America could be seen to ref lect a quasi-feudal overlapping of
forums, issues and membership. This can be juxtaposed with an ideal of a func-
tionally organized hierarchy of sub-state, state, regional or multilateral organiza-
tions, each having their special niche of well-defined problems and specific
geographic scope of responsibilit y. Rather than seek an exclusive geographic
scope as a body to promote regional integration and cooperation, CITEL wel-
comes participation from any sort of sub-state, state or interstate organization,
public or private, which wishes to attend. This strategy is perhaps one way to gain
and maintain relevance in an era of rapid policy and industry change.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
This chapter has argued that it is important to examine the changing forms and
scopes of practices and institutions when trying to understand changes in
telecommunications governance. It has provided a group of categories to ground
investigation of these changes, and an historical account of how the relationships
among the sub-national, national and international telecommunications gover-
nance bodies and their roles and responsibilities have been significantly redefined
and remade in successive historical periods in Canada and the United States.
In the late nineteenth century, policies which protected large capital combi-
nations, promoted privately owned infrastructure construction, and provided
patent protection to private companies, were the main instruments of state inter-
vention. The United States initially stayed out of the International Telegraph
Union because it was seen as serving state interests rather than the interests of the
users of communications and private industry. For the United States, the extent
of participation in regional Inter-American Radio Conferences grew alongside in-
creased participation in multilateral bodies. The International Telecommunica-
tion Union’s structure and goals throughout much of the twentieth century were
compatible with strong national policy bodies, rather than competing with these
forms. With increased international trade and investment in telecommunications
services and national regulatory restructuring in the 1990s, the geographic scope
or level of public governance seen to be appropriate has again shifted, but this
time towards a pluralit y of forums. North American policy integration is not or-
ganized exclusively in one institution, but takes place in many t ypes of public or-
ganizations: NAFTA, CITEL, ITU, and private industry forums all coexist and
interact.
What sort of relationships can be identified between the organization of eco-
nomic production and the form and scope of telecommunications governance? In
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, national patterns of monopoly
capitalism and industrial combinations were also ref lected in international com-
binations for radio communications in South America. Imperial expansion and
rivalry was manifest in corporate strategies and also in the international gover-
nance of telecommunications. The integration of national and world markets
through the use of transportation and communication technologies was driven
both by interstate rivalry among European powers on one hand and private sec-
tor objectives on the other, resulting in a strange mix of coordination in interna-
tional telecommunications bodies and competition in private telecommunications
consortia. The United States combined political efforts to protect the regional
sphere of inf luence it claimed with a reluctance to use state power on the domes-
tic level to control monopolies. State institutions were stronger in undertaking in-
ternational coordination than in national policy intervention (see Zacher, this
volume).
The relationship between the national industry organization and nation-state
telecommunications governance was clearer and cleaner in the mid-twentieth cen-
tury. National and regulated telecommunications monopolies in the t wentieth
century could depend on a guaranteed rate of return on capital, allowing for sta-
ble growth and capital accumulation in the form of fixed telecommunications in-
vestment. They generally respected technological divisions imposed bet ween
different segments of the industry by regulation. The national borders fixed equip-
ment and service production markets, and national policy spaces were recognized
by international institutions. There was a close fit bet ween the national and in-
ternational governance orders, and this relationship was stable through the
growth of mass production economies until the 1970s.
In the late twentieth century, the f lexible organization of production and eco-
nomic globalization have contributed to pressures for a fragmentation of any clear
demarcation of policy spaces for different public bodies, and greater overlapping
and integration of governing responsibilities. The strengthening of patterns of
f lexible production is being expressed in shifting user needs and in the reorgani-
zation of telecommunications goods and services markets and ownership struc-
tures. The impacts of the economic restructuring on governance, and the efforts
of states to respond to new conditions are seen not only in the shifting forms of
state regulation, but also in the shifting forms of regional coordination. Current
developments in trade agreements and national regulation shift the autonomy

and scope of state intervention in shaping of the telecommunications industry in
the public interest. The United States to a great extent (Comor 1997), but Cana-
dian state officials also, has been actively seeking changes in international gover-
nance in order to expand and institutionalize national advantages. Other states
that might have opposed these changes to the global telecommunications policy
order, find their telecommunication policies, industrial sector, or technology
strategies less and less appropriate to the new forms of governance and industrial
and technical deployment in global telecommunications.
REFERENCES
Armstrong, Christopher, and H.V. Nelles. 1988. Southern Exposure: Canadian Promoters in
Latin America and the Caribbean 1896–1930. Toronto: Universit y of Toronto
Press.
Babe, Robert E. 1990. Telecommunications in Canada: Technology, Industry and Government.
Toronto: Universit y of Toronto Press.
Beniger, James R. 1986. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the
Information Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universit y Press.
Brunn, Stanley D., and Thomas R. Leinbach, eds. 1991. Collapsing Space and Time: Geo-
graphic Aspects of Communication and Information. London: Harper Collins.
Buzan, Barry. 1993. From International System to International Societ y: Structural Real-
ism and Regime Theory Meet the English School. International Organization. 47
(3): 327–352.
Canada, Info Export. 1992. “NAFTA—Telecommunications”, Ottawa: EAITC. (August)
Carey, James. 1988. Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Boston: Unwin
Hyman.
Castells, Manuel. 1996. The Rise of the Networked Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Codding, George A. Jr., and Anthony Rutkowski. 1982. The International Telecommunica-
tion Union in a Changing World. Dedham, MA: Artech House.
Codding Jr., George Arthur. 1952. The International Telecommunication Union: An Experi-
ment in International Cooperation. Leiden: E.J. Brill (reprinted 1972).
Comor, Edward A. 1997. The International Implications of the United States Telecommu-
nications Act. Journal of Economic Issues. 31: 549–556.
Cox, Robert W. 1987. Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of His-
tory. New York: Columbia.
Cutler, A. Claire, Virginia Hauf ler, and Tony Porter, eds. 1999. Private Authority and Inter-
national Affairs. Albany: State Universit y of New York Press.
Drache, Daniel, and Meric S. Gertler, eds. 1991. The New Era of Global Competition: State
Power and Market Policy. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s.
Drake, William J., ed. 1995. The New Information Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy.
New York: Twentieth Century Fund.
Fischer, Markus. 1992. Feudal Europe, 800–1300: Communical Discourse and Conf lict-
ual Practices. International Organization. 46 (2): 427–466.
Fortner, Robert. 1979. The Canadian Search for Identit y: 1846-1914—Part I Communica-
tion in an Imperial Context. Canadian Journal of Communication. 6 (1): 24–31.
Graham, Stephen, and Simon Marvin. 1996. Telecommunications and the City: Electronic
Spaces, Urban Places. London: Routledge.
Harvey, David. 1990. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural
Change. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
Telecommunications. New York: Oxford Universit y Press.
Inter-American Radio Conference. 1937. Final Act of the First Inter-American Radio Confer-
ence. Havana. (November 1–December 13)
Inter-American Radio Conference. 1945. “Minutes of the Final Meeting of the III Inter-
American Radio Conference Convened in Rio de Janeiro from September 3 to
25, 1945.”
Inter-American Telecommunications Convention. 1945. Concluded September 27, 1945.
Kahin, Brian, and Charles Nesson, eds. 1997. Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and
the Global Information Infrastructure. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kahin, Brian, and Ernest J. Wilson III, eds. 1997. National Information Infrastructure Ini-
tiatives: Vision and Policy Design. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Kellerman, A. 1993. Telecommunications and Geography. London: Belhaven.
Kern, Stephen. 1983. The Culture of Time and Space 1880–1918. Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
versit y Press.
Kobrin, Stephen J. 1998. Back to the Future: Neomedievalism and the Postmodern Digital
World Economy. Journal of International Affairs. 51.
Mosco, Vincent. 1988. Toward a Theory of the State and Telecommunications Policy. Jour-
nal of Communication. 38 (1): 107–124.
Ness, Gayl D., and Steven R. Brechin. 1988. Bridging the Gap: International Organization
as Organizations. International Organization. 42 (2): 245–273.
Niosi, Jorge, ed. 1991. Technology and National Competitiveness: Oligopoly, Technological Inno-
vation, and International Competition. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Universit y Press.
Organization of American States. 1974. First Inter-American Telecommunications Conference,
Caraca, Venezuela, September 5–11, 1971: Final Act. Washington, D.C.: OAS.
(OAS/SER. C/VI.4.7).
Organization of American States. 1975. Final Report, Inter- American Telecommunications
Conference, November 19–27, 1975, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Washington, OAS.
(OEA/Ser. K/VI.8 CITEL/ 134 rev. 1).
Organization of American States. 1979. Final Report, Third Inter-American Teelcommunica-
tions Conference, 5-9 March 1979, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Washington, D.C.:
OAS. (OEA/Ser. C/VI.4.9).
Organization of American States. 1987. Final Report, Fifth Inter-American Telecommunica-

tions Conference, 10–14 August 1987, Lima, Peru. Washington, D.C.: OAS. (OEA/
Ser. K/VI.II.I).
Organization of American States. 1991a. “Report of the Chairman of the Permanent Exec-
utive Committee of CITEL”, CITEL /doc.01/91. (September 23)
Organization of American States. 1991b. “CITEL Plan of Action for the Period
1991–1995”, (CITEL/doc.33/add.1/rev.1). (September 25)
Organization of American States. 1994a. Inter-American Telecommunication Commis-
sion, “Regulations of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission
CITEL”, (OEA/Ser.L/XVII.1). (January 1994)
Organization of American States, Inter-American Telecommunication Commission.

1994b. “Associate Members in the Work of the Permanent Consultative Com-
mittees of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission”, (PCC-III.5.95).
(August)
1994c. “Associate Members in the Work of the Permanent Consultative Com-
mittees of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission”, (PCC-III.5.95).
(August)
1994d. “Introductory Remarks by Roberto Blois, Executive Secretary of CITEL”,
(OEA/Ser.L/XVII.4.1). (August 22)
Organization of American States, Government of Canada. 1994e. “Preparing the Path for
Progress in the Americas: Meetings of the Permanent Consultative Committees
of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission”, Government Confer-
ence Centre, Ottawa, Canada. (August 22–31)
Organization of American States. 1994f. Inter-American Telecommunication Commission,
“Summary of Activities in the Telecommunications Sector Developed by the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the General Secretariat of

Organization of American States”, 1994 (OEA/Ser.L/XVII.4.1, WGDEV.06/94).
(August 25)
1994g. “CITEL Temporary Working Group, Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference,
Issue Analysis”, (OEA/Ser.L/XVII.4.1). (August 28)
Pentland, Charles. 1973. International Theory and European Integration. London: Faber and
Faber.
Pool, Ithiel de Sola. 1990. Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a
Global Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universit y Press.
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1986. International Regimes, Transactions and Change—Embedded
Liberalism in the Post-War World. International Organization. 36: 379–415.
Taylor, Paul. 1993. International Organization in the Modern World. London: Pinter.
Teske, Paul, ed. 1995. American Regulatory Federalism and Telecommunications Infrastructure.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Thompson, Graham. 1990. Sandford Fleming and the Pacific Cable: The Institutional Pol-
itics of Nineteenth Century Imperial Telecommunications. Canadian Journal of
Communication. 15 (2): 64–75.
Tribolet, Leslie Bennet. 1929. The International Aspects of Electrical Communications in the
Pacific Area. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
United States. 1996. Telecommunication Act of 1996. Public Law 104-104. (February 8)
Vogel, Steven Kent. 1996. Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Indus-
trial Countries. Ithaca: N.Y: Cornell Universit y Press.
CHAPTER TEN
NEGOTIATING REGIME CHANGE:

THE WEAK, THE STRONG AND THE
WTO TELECOM ACCORD
J. P. SINGH
The WTO telecommunications accord signed on 15th February, 1997 formalizes

the new regime in telecommunications.1 This regime, signed by 69 countries in-
cluding 40 less developed countries (LDCs), accounts for over 90 percent of the
world’s telecommunications revenues.2 Historically, telecommunications sectors
were controlled or operated according to domestic priorities. The new regime, ef-
fective since January 1, 1998, allows this sector to be governed by global rules un-
derlying WTO processes. Among other things, cross-national investments in
telecommunications are allowed (or hastened given that this process precedes
1997), and trade in basic and many value-added telecommunications services are
governed by free trade norms, both features backed by WTO rules of trans-
parency and Most Favored Nation.3 Sixt y-three of the 69 governments will also
introduce ‘regulatory disciplines’ to observe the WTO rules.
An examination of the North-South negotiations included in the WTO
Telecom accord is important for many reasons in the context of this volume.
First, in the so-called information age, governance issues in telecommunications
are themselves ref lective of the emerging patterns of governance in other issue-
areas. They allow us to see how businesses, states, international organizations
and other transnational groups come together. Second, telecommunications in-
frastructures are crucial to the global political economy. Zacher (chapter 8) and
McDowell (chapter 9) also underscore the importance of examining telecommu-
nications governance.
Third, telecommunications serve as a crucial case for investigating the claim
that developing countries stand to gain very little in their negotiations with the de-
veloped world in the emerging global economy, especially in high-tech issue
239
areas.4 If it can be shown that developing countries effected concessions in least

likely issue areas such as telecommunications, then we may conjecture that they
would perhaps gain even more significant concessions in such low-tech issue areas
such as agriculture and textiles. Either way, the issue is more complicated than
popular wisdom regarding these negotiations which presents the developing coun-
tries as having struck a Faustian bargain when they purportedly sacrificed some-
thing in issue areas such as telecommunications to get concessions in textiles and
agriculture at the Uruguay Round. Fourth, if international negotiations allow de-
veloping countries to effect changes in global rule formation, then they deserve at-
tention as we analyze the emerging global information economy and the dynamics
on which it rests. Analyses of international negotiations, as Aronson (chapter 2)
also shows, illustrate important components of the direction and shape of the
global information economy. Taken together, the four points made above, allow
us to re-examine notions of instrumental and structural power as they affect the
developing world. Not only do negotiations allow developing countries to inf lu-
ence the structure, but also open possibilities for the exercise of instrumental
power which were unavailable to them earlier.
This chapter examines two sets of questions and related answers to examine
the claims noted above.
1. Do the WTO telecom rules only ref lect the preferences of great powers?
This chapter shows that the increased availabilit y of alternatives and
strategies allows developing countries to get their interests articulated in
global rule formation.
2. Do these rules contradict domestic preferences of developing countries? It
is shown here that, in most cases, the commitments made by the develop-
ing countries at the international level are consistent with their domestic
agendas.
This chapter thus shows that developing countries are not so badly off in terms
of the emerging global rules in telecommunications. The denouement of the story is
as follows: the WTO telecommunications accord also ref lects the negotiating strate-
gies and domestic preferences of developing countries. While domestic actor in-
volvement in shaping state preferences varies according to the degree of pluralism
ref lected in state’s decision-making, it is not so minuscule as to rule out micro pres-
sures completely. Although a few of the domestic pressures may themselves be in-
ternational in as much as they come from international actors such as multinational
corporations, they are nonetheless arbitrated by states in LDCs, often with stiff op-
position from various groups, and thus they are presented as domestic here. The
telecom accord also ref lects preferences of all kind of user groups from the develop-
ing world including business users and urban/rural residential users.5
NEGOTIATING REGIME CHANGE 241
The arguments made here allow us to arbitrate among two bold claims about
the developing world in the information age. One claim contends that dissemina-
tion of telecommunications will allow developing countries to leapfrog, allowing
individuals and groups to empower themselves and allow them a voice in the de-
velopment process.6 In this scenario, LDCs might willingly adjust to global liber-
alization processes (Zacher chapter 8). The other claim portends an ominous
future for developing countries. Developing country populations become pawns
in the manipulations of powerful actors (rich states and multinational corpora-
tions, for example), and are disempowered from any kind of participatory rule-
making (McDowell chapter 9). In the extreme case, control over the manufacture
and dissemination of information allows these powerful actors to constrain any
preferences other than their own (Comor chapter 7; Kim and Hart chapter 6).
The first story is subscribed to by neoliberals and, in varying degrees, by social
constructivists.7 The second story is offered by neorealists, neo-Marxists, and also
by many social constructivists.8 The versions summarized here are, of course, sim-
plified hybrids. This chapter shows that the truth is somewhere in between.
The substantiation of the claims made in this chapter lies in examining the
negotiation processes underlying the WTO telecommunication accord. These ne-
gotiation processes, which make up the nitt y-gritt y details of international poli-
tics, are central to examining the bold claims mentioned above, which are often
asserted rather than substantiated.9 These processes in particular help to show
how outcomes can not be specified ex ante and that the way global actors interact
over specific issue areas makes a difference. Negotiations matter.
Developing countries made several gains through the negotiation process
and the WTO accord in general. First, by participating in the negotiations, they
avoided the take it or leave it option of the earlier negotiations. Second, as later sec-
tions show, many of the developing countries had recognized that their inward-
oriented investment policies did not work. Signing on to the telecom accord would
allow them access to global finance and investment for their prioritized telecom-
munications sectors. Third, by allowing phased in commitments, developing
countries could adjust their domestic policies to international ones more slowly
than if all countries had to agree to the same time frame. Fourth, the accord
framework was such that commitments could be made in several sub-issue areas.
This feature allowed for further tailoring of commitments instead of one size fits
all which would disadvantage some. Developing countries thus negotiated care-
fully on the sub-issue areas and the time frames most suitable to them.
The next section develops the conceptual arguments followed by three em-
pirical sections. Empirically, a brief overview of GATT’s Uruguay Round is pro-
vided first as it posits the historical context for the WTO telecommunication
regulations. The February 1997 accord is in fact embedded in the General Agree-
ment on Trade in Services (GATS) which was negotiated during the Uruguay
Round. Second, the WTO telecommunications negotiation process is described to

show how developing countries were able to employ specific strategies in their
favor. Finally, the domestic liberalizations of specific countries are described to
show how the rules developed at the global level may not be inconsistent with do-
mestic agendas even when they are shaped by elite preferences alone.10
THE ARGUMENTS
Developing countries are now favored by two circumstances in their negotiations

with the developed world. First, power configurations in the world may now be
more favorably disposed toward the developing world than they were earlier, giv-
ing them advantages in their bargaining. Second, the developing world is emerg-
ing from the shadows of its erst while inward oriented growth strategies and
adjusting to neo-liberal ones, which makes their development trajectories, to a
large extent, consistent with the GATT/WTO agenda in general. In terms of
regime change, one can argue that the developing world in effect has already ac-
cepted the principles and norms of the neo-liberal regimes. What we are seeing at
present are negotiations about the rules and decision-making procedures.11 Each
of these scenarios is described in detail below.
AVAILABILITY OF STR ATEGIES AND ALTERNATIVES TO DEVELOPING WORLD
Negotiation outcomes vary from one historical context to another. Most of the
analyses to date on North-South negotiations belong to one particular global con-
text captured by the term distribution of power. Krasner (1985, 1991), for example,
shows that global rules are written by the strong even in the telecommunications
issue-area. Distribution of power implies a hierarchical distribution of resources
and abilities simultaneously across many issue areas which almost always result in
outcomes favorable to those at the top of the hierarchy. Distribution of power the-
ories which constrain the win sets for developing countries are based on a histori-
cal conception of international political economy, in which securit y issues and
great powers played a key role. However, Keohane and Nye (1977) stipulated the
need, in a seminal work more than two decades ago, to distinguish between struc-
tures and processes, and positing particular issue-areas, as opposed to outcomes
being stipulated by macro structures across all issue areas. In a negotiation context,
Zartman also noted that distribution of power scenarios affix the weak in a “defini-
tional inferiorit y” (Zartman 1971: IX).
As chapter 1 showed, the present world economy is characterized by t wo
t ypes of pluralities, multi-actor pluralit y and multi-issue pluralit y, both of which
are captured by the term diffusion of power, in that the exercise of power at the
global level is not constrained to one set of actors (the state) around the salient
issue of securit y. The presence of many actors f lattens the power distribution at
top, allowing for several t ypes of coalitions and interests to be ref lected, while the
multiplication of issues also allows for linkages, trade-offs, technocratic skills, and
other bargaining strategies which were unavailable to the developing world earlier.
All in all, the set of options and strategies available to developing countries is
greater now than ever before. In such a diffused context, coercive strategies on the
part of the strong, or confrontational strategies on the part of the weak (which
characterized many of the North-South negotiations of the past), become increas-
ingly irrelevant. As Keohane and Nye point out, power becomes less and less fun-
gible across issue areas as we move away from a securit y dimension (1977). Thus,
we see that actual power is often different from potential power. Keohane and Nye
call for positing and examining issue-specific structures of power in this case.
Agencies of power are usually not replaced, but overlapped, by other agencies
wielding the same or other forms of power.12 Negotiations no longer take place in
a context defined solely by states and their (authoritative) power maximization
prerogatives, but in a world overlapped by many actors in pursuit of many goals
and issues, and exercising different forms of power. In the postcolonial era, the au-
thoritative power of dominant state actors has given way to the multiple inf lu-
ences of international organizations, market-oriented actors, and domestic interest
groups. Strange (1991) notes that state-state negotiations of the past are now re-
placed by three dimensional negotiations in the international economy. The two
other dimensions are: state-firm and firm-firm negotiations. This chapter adds a
fourth actor: international organizations. Strengthening international organiza-
tions to provide a more neutral (less hierarchical) means of negotiations allows
many developing countries to or draw upon many more options.
Part of the reason that negotiations are becoming so important is precisely be-
cause of the diffusion of information networks in the global economy. As argued
in many chapters of this volume, information exchange and diffusion has allowed
for group empowerment and concerted action to take place around the world. No
longer are states the only well-informed actors in global politics. Well-informed
strategies are allowing a host of other actors to better their alternatives and posi-
tion in the global political economy.13
The availabilit y of varying alternatives and strategies defines the range within
which negotiations may be settled as the alternatives affect the lowest or the high-
est values for a negotiation that an actor may expect, depending on whether the
negotiator is a seller in which case the minimum is important, while the maximum
is important for a buyer. It is no accident that the concept of bargaining power is
related to actors’ alternatives and in essence illustrates the value of the negotiation
to each actor, which in turn, depends on the actors’ alternatives (Odell 1993:
19–20). Related to the concept of alternatives is also that of reservation price or

the lowest or minimum value that an actor will expect. Availabilit y of good alter-
natives would then raise the reservation price (White and Neale 1991). Therefore,
what is termed the zone of agreement or the difference among the negotiating par-
ties reservation prices is contingent upon each part y’s alternatives. Fagre and
Wells note that the greater the competition among multi-national corporations for
a developing country, the lower the MNC bargaining power (Fagre and Wells
1982). Grieco (1982) notes that the “emerging assertive upper tier” of developing
countries has gained much from the increasing competition among developed
world firms for their markets. He shows how the Indian computer industry went
from a position of dependency to improving its terms as the international market
structure of the computer industry enlarged to include many firms.
The next section will explore if developing countries gave in to global rules
or were able to inf luence these rules in liberalizing their telecommunications sec-
tors. Either way, the increasing number of alternatives and strategies is important.
Some of these alternatives and strategies can be taken as given at the start of the
negotiations while others arose as negotiations proceeded due to the specific de-
ployment of many bargaining strategies by the developing countries.14 The fol-
lowing bargaining strategies generally unavailable to developing countries in a
state-centric, securit y-driven world may be noted:
A) Inclusion and Agenda-setting. There is growing recognition, especially in global

multilateral fora, following developing countries’ pressures, that they cannot be ex-
cluded from the negotiations or added on later as an addendum. The inclusion also
results from global interdependence which accords developing countries strategies
for inclusion across many issue-areas. Inclusion in the negotiation process allows
the developing countries a chance to inf luence the agenda, in turn allowing actors
to translate their potential power into results (Bennet and Sharpe 1979). During
the Uruguay Round and later the WTO telecommunication negotiations, develop-
ing countries not only were included but made many changes in the agenda (in-
cluding asking for a separate group for negotiating services) as a condition for their
inclusion. The telecommunications negotiations almost broke down in 1996
because not enough developing countries had come on board and made offers.
B) Trade-offs/Issue-linkage. Several actors and many issues make negotiations in-

creasingly complex, in turn increasing the risk of no agreement. However, several
actors and many issues can also allow for many trade-offs and issue-linkages.
Agreement can come about through either compromising on one issue for gains
in another or vice versa (trade-offs), or bringing in potentially related issues to in-
crease one’s bargaining power (issue-linkage). The fact that countries were making
several different t ypes of sub-offers within the rubric of the WTO telecom negotia-
tions, which themselves were part of the GATS framework allowing several t ypes
of commitments and exemptions, allowed them to tailor the agreement to their
context to a large extent.
C) Coalitions. Issue specific and multilateral negotiations in particular provide de-

veloping countries with the abilit y to form coalitions and increase their bargain-
ing power. In the 1960s and 1970s, the developing countries deployed coalitional
tactics in a confrontational fashion, but since the 1980s, coalitions have been
used for very specific purposes by them. During the WTO telecom negotiations,
developing countries often found allies in the European Union countries to
counter the demands made by the United States.
D) Technocratic and Legalistic Strategies. Negotiations are now increasingly biased

toward persuasion. The t ype of persuasion most likely to effect an accommodating
response from the other actor is usually one which is based on knowledge and ef-
fected by technically competent negotiating teams. Developing countries are also
often able to prevail over developed countries because the former send their best
negotiators to these countries while, for the latter, these countries are relatively
less important in terms of staff commitments (Yoffie 1983: 22). In general, be-
cause of information diffusion, developing country experts may explore their al-
ternatives thoroughly and base their strategies in superior technical knowledge.
Negotiators in developing countries are likely to have been educated in the finest
schools in the West and, apart from speaking a vocabulary which the North un-
derstands, they are able to forcefully articulate their strategies and persuade their
partners across the table.15 Finally, as international norms and rules deepen, and
institutional enforcement sets in, many developing countries are employing legal-
istic strategies. The use of WTO dispute settlement procedures or the courts in
the developed countries are examples. Braman (chapter 4) also notes how indige-
nous groups in the developing world have used legalistic strategies in order to get
patents for their common propert y resources.
In summary, the increased availability of alternatives and strategies available to
developing countries in international negotiations should allow them to increasingly get
their interests articulated in global rule formation (argument one). Obviously, this ar-
gument is incorrect if LDCs have no alternative but to either accept or not accept
rules framed at the global level. In other words, if negotiations do not matter.
THE NEOLIBER AL DEVELOPING WORLD
The razzle-dazzle arena of international negotiations is often merely an icing on

the cake of individual country interests, the latter themselves rooted in economic
conditions of particular countries. The latter need not be characterized as do-

mestic interests, as what happens domestically in individual cases may itself be a
result of global inf luences. However, we may say safely that negotiations carried
out at the international level must find, to use Putnam’s phrase, domestic reso-
nance to be effected and/or implemented (1988, 450). Such resonance can de-
velop from bottom-up in terms of interest group alignments in developing
countries or top-down in terms of global interdependence which might have pro-
duced changes in the developing countries prior to international negotiations
(which in turn might be aimed at producing similar changes themselves). While
such top-down or bottom-up inf luences are hard to separate, such a separation is
effected below for analytical purposes with special reference to telecommunica-
tions. What this separation shows is that by the time of the WTO negotiations,
developing countries had already come a long way in making telecommunica-
tions a development priorit y due to domestic and international pressures. Sec-
ond, this prioritization had occurred in the context of liberalization in terms of
backing away from government led initiatives and in effecting links with the de-
veloped world markets.16 All of this was rooted in the effects of erst while inward
oriented or import substitution industrialization (ISI) strategies, the economic
shortcomings of which are all too often now forgotten in many current analyses
of the shift toward global liberalization.
A. Moving Beyond Import Substitution Industrialization. The slow economic gains

effected through ISI among LDCs called the efficacy of the entire strategy into
question by the 1980s. The low level of investment in telecommunications in
developing countries did not meet the high demand for even basic telecommuni-
cations services and continued to be low despite high rates of return in telecom-
munications.17 Moreover, the number of telecommunications services demanded
by domestic and international users multiplied manifold. In the meantime, tech-
nological change and globalization of markets broke down the traditional natural
monopoly argument which called for high levels of investment usually taken up by
LDC states. It was becoming apparent to policy makers that, not only was
telecommunications of utmost importance to development, but that the tradi-
tional ISI model which rested on the state run monopolies or Post Telegraph and
Telephone was inappropriate to meet the growing demand for telecommunica-
tions services.
Three factors were crucial in the developing world in their move away from
an inward-oriented strategy in the case of telecommunications and moves toward
liberalizing their telecommunication sectors and, in many cases, privatizing their
telecommunication monopolies. First, no matter how elaborate the central plans,
capital resources remained scarce for sectors included in the plans while others
had to be excluded due to lack of resources. Second, drawing upon the studies
linking telecommunications to development, national planning agencies (while

making telecommunications a priorit y) realized the inabilit y of their resource-
constrained state-run telecommunications sectors to provide enhanced invest-
ments or better services. Third, telecommunications became important as the
services or tertiary sector, heavily dependent on informational exchanges, began
to gain importance. Development strategies of LDCs were once preoccupied with
primary and secondary sectors. However, in spite of the low importance given to
services, their dynamism and productivit y lies in the fact that the biggest growth
rates in LDCs (as well as developed countries) in the postwar era were recorded in
the services sectors. These sectors constitute areas such as banking, finance,
travel, tourism, distribution networks, telecommunications, and media. Services
are now estimated to account for 66 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in
high income countries, 35 percent in low income economies, 52 percent in mid-
dle income economies and 63 percent in the world as a whole (The World Bank
1997, 236–237).
B) Global interdependence. It is now readily acknowledged that telecommunications

is a way for developing countries to connect with the world markets and adjust to
the emerging global rules governing these markets. The term globalization cap-
tures this dynamic. At an economic level, globalization, which picked up pace in
the late 1970s, signifies the emergence of international markets, the associated
beneficiaries, patterns of interdependence/dependence, and the sociopolitical
processes sustaining these markets. Globalization implies that, given the rapid
changes taking place in production, LDCs must improve their telecommunications
sectors if they are to play any role in world markets. Globalization is also directly
connected with interdependence, defined as “situations characterized by reciprocal
effects among countries or among actors in different countries” (Keohane and Nye
1977, 18). Thus, in a world of emerging or existing tightly knit markets, telecom-
munications are a key to smooth information f lows which are crucial for the mar-
kets to work efficiently.18 Three major aspects of globalization (not mutually
exclusive) necessitate the improvement of telecommunications sectors in LDCs.
First, the coordination of the current complexit y of the international division of
labor, sometimes termed Post-Fordism, depends on rapid f lows of information
which makes telecommunications a necessit y.19 Second, information technologies
can help to reduce costs, improve qualit y, and provide value-added and competitive
intelligence. These intra-firm tasks, most of which require tremendous coordina-
tion, are dependent on information networks. Third, telecommunications are im-
portant for the producing firms, not just to keep in touch with f luctuations in
world demand (or elasticities), but also to keep the distribution channels efficient.
Gereffi (1995, 113) notes that the rise of global commodit y chains “are rooted in
transnational production systems, which link the economic activities of firms
to technological, organizational, and institutional networks that are utilized to

develop, manufacture, and market specific commodities.”
The context of globalization is important for understanding the preferences
of domestic and international actors in telecommunication restructurings. Inter-
national actors such as GATT/WTO, ITU, International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (significant in the LDC context), transnational enterprises, and
other international and large users are thus modeled as interest groups (or user
groups as the case may be) which impact upon domestic political processes.20
Taken together the domestic and international economic conditions and in-
terests thereof, paint the picture of a developing world which was well on its way
to liberalizing its economies even before the Uruguay Round of negotiations had
been concluded. The preceding section then qualifies the top-down approach to-
ward global liberalization. Theoretically, the emphasis in this subsection is con-
sistent with the now emphatic tradition in world politics which combines
domestic and international politics.21 It should come as no surprise that one of
the first attempts in this case, namely Putnam’s (1988) famous piece on t wo-level
games referred to above, is on negotiations. A recent empirical evaluation of Put-
nam’s work (Evans et al. 1993), Double-Edged Diplomacy, confirms and extends
his arguments regarding the constraints faced by states vis-a-vis domestic and in-
ternational actors. In terms of developing countries, the study concludes that
democratic states in the developed world face more constraints than the non-
democratic world. This does not mean that LDC states can act autonomously but
that they might have more room to maneuver because their base of support may
lie in smaller inf luential minorities. Conversely, we would find that the more
democratic the state from the developing world, the more constrained it might
feel at the negotiating table. However, Double-Edged Diplomacy shows that it is
rare to find states in the developing world which act without taking domestic or
international factors into account.
Eventually what the developing countries bring to the negotiating table will
ref lect not just their base of support but the economic underpinnings of this sup-
port, what Gourevitch (1986) calls the production profile. Of course, economic
conditions by themselves (as outlined above) do not point us toward the con-
straints on the state. What is needed is, in Kindleberger’s words, “the relationship
bet ween economic interests and political power” (1978, 30–31). For simplicit y,
this paper assumes that the negotiating positions taken by LDC states ref lect their
underlying bases of support but it does delve a little more deeply later to examine
the state of liberalization schedules in each country (as a proxy variable for the ex-
tent to which the pro-liberalization coalitions have impacted the industry struc-
ture in each case).
We should then expect that developing countries will make strong offers for telecom-
munication liberalization when the domestic impetus for liberalization is strong (argu-
ment two). This argument is incorrect if developing countries make strong offers
without domestic liberalization programs already in place, or make weak offers
even though liberalizations are significantly under way. The argument also allows
us to substantiate whether the WTO telecommunication accord is consistent or in-
consistent with sectoral policies within LDCs. It also contextualizes other argu-
ments which may be made about the seeming inconsistency of global rules with
development efforts.
It may be useful here to note that domestic preferences of developing coun-
tries may not be limited to a few elite groups alone (Singh 1999). The emerging
telecommunications sectors in the developing world can ref lect societal (rather
than elite) preferences in t wo ways. First, the provision of these services is im-
portant for states in constructing their legitimacy. The high densities of tele-
phones to households in the East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries
resulted directly from states’ abilit y to maintain their legitimacy through prom-
ising a high standard of living to its population. Second, civil societ y may be
directly involved in telecommunication policy-making. A focus on civil societ y
and state decision-making is therefore necessary to observe the development
impact of telecommunications.
Debates on telecommunications are not only a part of formal political
processes like the emergence of interest groups and their coalitions or the con-
struction of such coalitions by part y systems in the country, but also that of the
interplay of civil societ y and states. Civil societ y in its traditional definition con-
veyed the abilit y of societ y to participate in governing processes through informal
net works, solving of common problems, and building a level of social trust and
mutual support.22 Now foci on civil societ y are increasingly showcasing the grass-
roots activism among any country’s societal groups and their synergy and/or con-
f lict with other governing processes such as the state. Inasmuch as these groups
involve themselves in the formal or informal governing processes in these coun-
tries, they are part of the common problem solving and social trust aspects of civil
societ y that the traditional definitions attended to. They in fact modify our views
of economic restructuring being an elite process only.
Current work on civil societ y and development has focused on contexts
under which civil societ y threatens the state, complements its role, or works inde-
pendently of it. The relationships between state and civil societ y in fact “allow us
to assess the extent to which state involvement facilitates developmentally effective
collective action by common citizens in a diverse collection of settings around the
globe (both in the Third World or in what used to be called the Second World)”
(Evans 1996, 1034).23
The interplay between civil societ y and the state is directly relevant to the case
of telecommunications restructurings in examining the extent to which the latter
will involve and benefit the societ y at large. Unfortunately, telecommunications
restructurings in developing countries have been too elite-driven so far to docu-

ment civil societ y involvement effectively. That does not mean either that counter
examples do not exist or that the trend is not changing. The provision of telecom-
munications services to the societ y at large in countries like South Korea and Sin-
gapore, the provision of telecommunications services in rural areas of India or
Malaysia, and, in general, the construction of state legitimacy in the emerging dem-
ocratic societies of the developing world provide examples of civil societ y-state con-
f licts and synergy.
The discussion assumes that participatory development, involving framing
of policies at the behest of societal groups, is necessarily beneficial. Arguably,
this is a normative position but, in one way or the other, LDCs have moved to-
ward allowing societal groups a voice in the development process. This follows
their (often critiqued) experience with inward-oriented development policies
which were invariably accompanied by top-down central planning initiatives.
Thus, the experience with moving away from ISI and accepting global liberal-
ization must be weighed against participatory development processes in LDCs to
measure the effects of telecommunications among nonelite societal groups. In
as much as global telecommunication rules and LDC participatory development
processes are consistent, global rules will not negate pro-development efforts
in LDCs.
THE GATT/WTO NEGOTIATIONS AND INTERESTS
While the main purpose of this section is to describe the WTO telecommunica-
tion negotiations, a brief foray first into the history of previous trade rounds, par-
ticularly the Uruguay Round, helps us make sense of the developing country
positions during the WTO Telecommunication negotiations. Special attention is
paid to the negotiation of services during the Uruguay Round which provided the
framework for WTO telecommunications negotiations.
THE URUGUAY ROUND AND BEFORE
Traditionally, the GATT rounds had been an advanced country club. The py-
ramidal pattern of negotiations ensured that those countries with the strongest
economies dictated the initial proposals which were then multilateralized by in-
clusion of other parties (Winham 1986). Developing countries, since GATT for-
mation in 1947, did benefit from those GATT rules which allowed them
preferential treatment. However, they stayed at the bottom of the negotiation
pyramid.
Hoekman and Kostecki characterize the period from 1986 onward as inte-
grating developing countries into the GATT and marked by reciprocation (as op-
posed to confrontation or demanding special treatment)24 (Hoekman and
Kostecki 1995). The integration of the developing countries into the global eco-
nomic processes can be seen in the pre-negotiation phase of the Uruguay Round
(Sjostedt 1994, 44–69). By the end of the Tokyo Round, it was apparent that nei-
ther could the concerns of developing countries be ignored nor could all these
countries be lumped under one label (concern about NIC graduation was salient
in this regard). Furthermore, due to a host of economic and ideational inf luences,
developing countries were now acceding to the liberalizing push of the global
economy. In the meantime, as the economic capabilities of Western Europe and
Japan increased, the United States was no longer able to call the shots. This made
the pyramidal configuration of power distribution in the world f lat at the top with
a number of important players and their domestic and international lobbies miti-
gating against extreme concentration of power to a select few or a preponderant
power. The latter feature had actually made agreement on many issues difficult
among developed countries in the Tokyo Round.
During the pre-negotiation phase of the Uruguay Round, developing coun-
tries made their weight felt. They adopted strategies which may have been remi-
niscent of prior periods but, in this case, were less revolutionary in that their
purpose was to inf luence the agenda. They introduced their demands for bring-
ing textiles and clothing in to the GATT agenda while stalling moves on the part
of developed countries to bring in services, investment and intellectual propert y.
A group of developing countries, known as Coalition of 20, led by India and
Brazil played a key role in bringing recognition to these subjects and for bringing
these countries effectively into the Round. It is significant that the Round itself,
after several false starts, began in Punta del Este, where the agenda was not dic-
tated by the developed or the dissident countries but the Swiss-Colombian text of
the middle of the road group (de la Paix group) which included several developing
countries and was in fact a compromise position.
The Uruguay Round illustrates several other sophisticated tactics employed
by the developing countries. Their pragmatism is apparent from the fact that,
even with occasional outbursts of militancy, most of them chose to work through
the negotiation process to get their demands met. For the first time in the GATT
process, developing countries were able to inf luence the agenda and bring recog-
nition to themselves. They followed increasingly well-informed and technocratic
strategies, in fact leading many of the negotiating sub-groups of the Round. Apart
from the dissident and de la Paix coalition mentioned above, they joined or
formed coalitions in specific issue areas (such as the Cairns Group on agricul-
ture). In the end the trade-offs made by developing countries on the new issues
came from getting concessions on issues like textiles and clothing which were
important to them. Even the fact that GATT’s Group on the Negotiation of Ser-
vices (GNS) was technically separate from the GATT framework was a concession
to developing countries. International Organizations such as the GATT/WTO itself
offer avenues for developing countries to negotiate with the strength that they did
not posses earlier (Conybeare, 1985).
It must also be mentioned that transnational social/NGO coalitions came
about during the Uruguay Round to put direct pressures on WTO and the govern-
ments involved. Perhaps, the strongest here were agricultural and labor groups. For
example, at a November 1993 protest in Bengalore, India, half a million Indian
farmers were addressed by both farm and non-farm organizations from Brazil,
Ethiopia, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thai-
land, and Zimbabwe (Brecher and Costello 1994, 7).
NEGOTIATING SERVICES DURING THE URUGUAY ROUND
What the GNS put forth during the Uruguay Round is important in the context
of this chapter. While the GNS agenda applied to many service industries (includ-
ing financial services and shipping), the agreement which emerged from their de-
liberations, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), is particularly
important in the case of telecommunications and has been called “the focal point
for discussion about governance in the global information economy” (Nicolaides
1995, 269). Formally, GATS consists of 29 articles, 8 annexes and 130 schedules
of commitments. The annexures cover specific sectors, including telecommunica-
tions. GATS is enforceable by the newly-created dispute settlement body of the
WTO and overseen by one of three new councils established, the Council for
Trade in Services.
The developing world was initially opposed to the inclusion of services in the
Uruguay Round. While it realized that it could gain from concessions made in
agricultural and industrial issue-areas, there was also a feeling that by giving in, it
would trade away any participation in the evolving global service economy (Drake
and Nicolaides 1992, 57). However, after initial hostilit y, cracks began to develop
in the monolithic coalition that the developing world presented. The moderates,
led by Colombia, began to see gains through participation in service negotiations
while the hawks, like India and Brazil, held out. Eventually at Punta del Este, the
developing world would agree to service negotiations but the GNS was created in
deference to the opposition by LDC to the service negotiation issue. A negotiating
text was produced by 1989 after preliminary negotiations designed to cover the
basic framework of how to negotiate major issues. LDCs’ deft diplomacy is re-
vealed in the fact that, while they favored this 1989 text, the US and other devel-
oped countries were disappointed by it. This was a far cry from the initial
misgiving about these negotiations that LDCs had. By then, the United States had
offered a major concession in terms of introducing the concept of ‘special treat-
ment’ which would later form the basis of allowing tailored commitments and
schedules from individual countries in the GATS framework (Woodrow 1991,
336). A revised text, more agreeable to the United States and European Commu-
nit y, emerged in 1990; now the various sectoral negotiations could proceed. Ac-
cordingly, in May, the Working Group on Telecommunications Services was
established by the GNS and initially involved 25 countries.
It is useful to examine how the three major parts of the GATS framework,
adopted at the April 15, 1994 Marrakesh meeting, affect telecommunications.
First, the general obligations and disciplines (GODs) provide the framework to ex-
tend GATT clauses such as most favored nation, transparency and the standard
safeguards and exceptions to the service industries (a few amendments to these
clauses were allowed to tailor them to services). Second, the specific commitments
allow market access and national treatment in the sectors committed to by enter-
ing parties. This is a bottom-up approach, as opposed to a top-down agreement,
which covers all sectors until exceptions are allowed (Jackson 1997, 309). Third,
two thousand pages of “specific commitments” which pertain to progressive lib-
eralization (market access and national treatment) schedules were tabled by coun-
tries. Like the schedules of tariffs under GATT, these commitments are considered
legally binding upon member states. They pertain to eight sectoral annexes, in-
cluding one on value-added or specialized telecommunications (others include
those on financial services, transport, audio-visuals, and labor mobilit y).25 The
benefits of GATS are only allowed for signatory countries (there were 106, of
which 77 are LDCs) but member states may ask for exceptions. MFN exceptions
are granted for ten years to allow favorable treatment to some countries. Coun-
tries can choose the services for, and limit the amount of, market access and
national treatment.
It is often assumed that developing countries acquiesced to the developed
world at the Uruguay Round when it came to GATS and high-tech items. Overall,
this evaluation only considers the hostilit y in the developing world to inclusion of
such items in the Multi-lateral Trade Negotiations prior to the Round and does
not take into the account the process and the outcome of the Round. First, devel-
oping countries were able to delay the start of the Uruguay Round precisely be-
cause of their opposition to the inclusion of these items. The major concession
that they extracted was that services would be negotiated under a separate um-
brella (Group on the Negotiation of Services) which allowed them to deviate from
general GATT principles and led to the framework agreement for GATS. The ses-
sions leading to inclusion of services in the GATT agenda and the GNS was
headed by a developing country negotiator, Felipe Jaramillo, Colombia’s ambassa-
dor to the GATT.
As far as the telecommunication annex of GATS goes (in which 67 govern-

ments made commitments or 56 schedules given the common offer by EU), de-
veloping countries were able to get concessions here, too. The informal coalition
that came about among the developing countries and the European Union, in op-
position to the push by the United States, is significant. Initially, the telecommu-
nication annexure was to have included basic services.26 Developing countries
found coalitional partners among the Europeans who were averse to basic services
being negotiated just then. Thus, the Marakesh agreement only covered value-
added services. Second, the U.S. wanted to impose cost-based pricing schemes in
telecommunications. Developing countries, whose cause was spearheaded by
India in Geneva, would lose important revenue bases if these schemes were intro-
duced immediately. Again, the Europeans helped the LDC cause by not agreeing.
Third, important issues on satellite uplinks and downlinks (which would later al-
most derail the WTO telecom negotiations) were not negotiated because of LDC
opposition.
WTO TELECOM NEGOTIATIONS
This section examines the role played by developing countries in the WTO Ne-
gotiations on Basic Telecommunications. A summary of the issues involved is
first given, followed by details of the negotiation process with a view toward the
strategies employed and concessions gained by LDCs. The domestic liberaliza-
tion schedules of the developing world are then correlated with the relative
strengths and weaknesses of the offers made by LDCs to ascertain the symmetry
bet ween the WTO roles and the domestic telecommunication trajectories of the
developing world.
THE SCOPE OF NEGOTIATIONS
The agreement signed on February 15, 1997 in Geneva concluded nearly three
years of efforts, begun in May 1994, to liberalize basic telecommunication under
the auspices of NGBT (Negotiation Group on Basic Telecommunications) which
was constituted in April 1994 when it was clear that the Uruguay Round would
not be able to deal with basic service issues. NGBT was reconstituted as GBT
(Group on Basic Telecommunications) by the Council on Services when the ear-
lier deadline of April 1996 had to be extended because no agreement had been
reached. GATT/WTO had never held sectoral talks before and thus these negotia-
tions were “closely watched as a bellwether for the WTO’s abilit y to conclude sec-
toral negotiations more broadly.”27
Telecommunications negotiations, like their other service counterparts, in-

volve t wo tricky issues. The delivery of services requires the presence of foreign
operators, and, given that telecommunications services are consumed by a host of
users (such as banking) with their own networks, it is necessary that these users
are able to obtain fair access to telecommunications net works. The t wo things
mean that WTO Negotiations on Basic Telecommunications involved market ac-
cess (to operators and users) in terms of making these markets competitive, lifting
of restrictions on foreign investment and, most important of all, the transparency
of regulatory institutions. The latter issue is particularly important because his-
torically the telecommunication industry grew up with a mixture of regulatory
privileges and protections which took on country specific characteristics over
time. Nicolaides (1995, 270) notes that “the GATS does not address the central
obstacle to effective governance of the global information economy: the problem
of regulatory fragmentation among national jurisdictions.”
The WTO telecommunication service negotiations were thus about the appli-
cation of MFN and national treatment to the basic telecommunication industry
and the regulations covering this industry in various countries. Basic telecommu-
nication services themselves ran the entire gamut of service provision including
voice, data, telex, telegraph, fax and dedicated networks, and a host of other spe-
cialized services (like paging, teleconferencing, video transmission). Each of these
services can be further subdivided into: user groups needing them or providing
them (involving issues of public/non-public use, closed user groups, lease and re-
sale of facilities); the distance they would cover (local, domestic long-distance, in-
ternational); and the media used to convey these services (terrestrial, wireless,
cable, satellite). Two other issues of importance involved the push by the United
States toward cost-based pricing principles and the issue of the rights to uplink
and downlink from satellite which were important for the United States based
satellite operators (such as Motorola) to be able to provide telecommunication
services globally.
In terms of this chapter, the negotiations not only involved multiple issues
but also a variet y of actors which would allow developing countries to define at-
tractive alternatives. While the WTO negotiations may seem to be about state-
state negotiations, two other t ypes of actors of importance were present. The first
t ype involved other international organizations. In the shadow was the Interna-
tional Telecommunication Union, with its wealth of information and expertise,
which directly and indirectly inf luenced the talks. Initially opposed to telecom-
munication negotiations, the ITU, especially under its new Secretary-General
Pekka Tarjanne from November 1989 onwards, moved toward the GATT/WTO
position. UNCTAD was involved in the GATS process in general. In fact,
UNCTAD’s and ITU’s slow but sure moves toward accepting some of the tenets of
neoliberalism allowed many developing countries to do the same. In the case of
the developing world, the role played by the World Bank in creating and guaran-
teeing pro-market policies is also of importance. Second, telecommunication op-
erators, large users and, to some extent, equipment manufacturers, were involved
in direct lobbying either through their home governments or directly in Geneva.
The presence of multiple actors and multiple issues would provide developing
countries with attractive alternatives and several bargaining strategies. In fact, mul-
tilateral negotiations are generally recognized to be favored by the LDCs precisely
for these reasons. Within the framework of the GATS’s individual commitment
schedules and exceptions, it meant that countries could make bottom-up offers tai-
lored to their individual contexts and still participate in the global rule formation.
In summary, the number of market segments involving user groups and operators
literally allowed several hundred t ypes of sub-commitments by countries.
THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS
The basic telecommunication agreement can be broken down into t wo phases.

The first phase of NGBT negotiations, lasting from April 15, 1994 to April 15,
1996, resulted in no agreement, and full offers from only 11 countries (even
though 48 made some kind of offer and 28 participated as observers). The second
phase, lasting from April 15, 1996 to February 15, 1997, and featuring the re-
constituted GBT, concluded an agreement with offers from 69 governments (or
55 commitments given that the European Union made a single offer).
The talks were off to a slow start in 1994 mostly because the European
Union dragged its heels and the developing world made either very restrictive of-
fers or none at all. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) Mickey Kantor
announced in January 1996 that the U.S. would not sign unless a critical mass of
countries made offers. The critical mass was assumed to be including many de-
veloping countries which were important to the negotiation process. Although
the United States, Japan and the European Union accounted for nearly three-
fourths of the world’s total revenue, many developing countries did account for a
significant portion of revenues and traffic.28 The top ten telecommunication rev-
enue states included Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina (in that order) followed
by Hong Kong, India, South Africa, and Indonesia (in the 11th, 12th, 13th and
15th positions respectively). Hong Kong, Mexico, and Singapore ranked among
top ten countries for international telephone traffic; Korea, Argentina, and India
among the top for telecommunication investment; Korea, Turkey, Brazil, and
India ranked among the top ten in terms of total number of telephone main lines.
Furthermore, in terms of total main lines, the rate of growth in the developing
world tends to be higher, 13.8 percent annual average growth rate during the
1990–95 period in the developing world as opposed to 3.5 percent in the devel-
oped world at that time. Similarly, telecommunication revenues grew at an average

annual rate of 9.7 percent during the 1990–95 period in the developing world as
opposed to 4.2 percent in the developed world.
By April 1996, key developing countries had either not made any offers (as in
Indonesia and Malaysia) or had made very restrictive offers (like Singapore and
Hong Kong) (Petrazzini 1996, 7). Furthermore, the developing countries could hide
behind the shadow of the European Union, Canada and Japan whose offers vis-a-vis
that of United States had been equally less forthcoming. At that time, the United
States also withdrew its open market access to satellites. It was widely believed to
have been at the behest of Motorola. The official reasoning was that if other coun-
tries did not open up their satellite markets then foreign competitors could come
into the United States markets, while United States firms were shut out of theirs.
On April 30, 1996, the Deput y USTR Jeff Lang, who was leading the United
States team, walked out of the talks. WTO then played a key role in extending the
talks by another 10 months until February 1997 while leaving the accord imple-
mentation date intact for January 1, 1998. WTO made its case on the basis of do-
mestic politics in many countries which included India and the United States
with their election campaigns underway or countries such as Brazil, South Africa,
and Thailand with domestic telecommunication legislation in progress (Petrazzini
1996, 8).
The talks were restarted in July 1996 and the GBT met monthly after that,
including informal meetings held at the 1996 WTO Ministerial Meeting in Singa-
pore. While issues bet ween the United States and the European Union domi-
nated the agenda, getting LDCs to participate was also of utmost importance.
Many of them were explicitly courted. When the accord was signed on February
15, 1997, sixt y-nine governments participated with 39 making improved offers
over their April 1996 ones and 25 making new offers.
Aronson notes the key role played by specific U.S. agencies and many devel-
oping countries in pushing toward a close.29 Top officials in Washington from the
USTR and the FCC, and even the President himself would get involved. The No-
vember 1996 meeting in Singapore is especially significant in this regard because
it involved the developing world. As noted before, one of the obstacles in April
1996 had been limited or no offers from the East Asian countries. FCC Chairman
Reed Hundt and the new USTR Charlene Barshefsky called forth a special meet-
ing in Singapore involving trade and telecommunication officials, especially from
East Asia, to convince them to make credible offers. Malaysia, Indonesia, and Sin-
gapore were brought to the table with these tactics.
Many developing countries played a leadership role, in turn, convincing oth-
ers to join in the process. In Peter Cowhey’s words they became, “living-breathing
points of reference” (interview, April 28, 1999). Singapore would become a leader
in persuading other Association of South East Asian Nations, while countries like
Korea and Hong Kong led the efforts in terms of designing or accepting regulatory
principles. Hong Kong’s Alex Arena was instrumental in designing several regu-
latory features which developing countries found acceptable. In Latin America,
Aronson notes, Peru was an early leader, while Brazil was quite forthcoming even
though its domestic legislative battles were not settled as yet. By April 1996,
Venezuela had already made a full offer to open its markets by 2000, while Mex-
ico had come close to offering what its national laws would permit (Petrazzini
1996, 13). With Mexico, Venezuela, and Peru on board, other Latin American
countries joined in.
The February 15, 1997 accord was hailed by the United States and WTO as a
major victory. Ninet y-five percent of world trade in telecommunications at an es-
timated $650 billion would fall under WTO purview beginning January 1, 1998,
the date of implementation (TechWeb News: accessed February 17, 1997). Most
of the signatories agreed to open up their markets one way or the other and adopt
some kind of commitment to the regulatory principles (drafted by NGBT as a Ref-
erence Paper on April 24, 1996). Many analysts dubbed the accord as a victory not
only for the United States, but for other developed countries, their telecom oper-
ators and large users.
Developing countries fared well. It is useful to describe their advantages in
terms of the four t ypes of strategies mentioned in the beginning of the paper: in-
clusion and agenda setting, trade-offs and linkages, coalitions, technocratic and
legalistic strategies. (Please remember that the availabilit y of these strategies is it-
self a result of multiple actors and multiple issues involved.) First, whereas earlier
trade rounds including the Uruguay Round when it was being planned, often
overlooked developing country claims, the WTO telecom talks made developing
countries crucial in terms of their inclusion. As noted, USTR Mickey Kantor per-
ceived many of them to be part of the critical mass needed to get an agreement.
These countries had been able to set or inf luence the agenda during the GATS
negotiations. They did the same during the telecom negotiations. In February
1997, their opposition to certain items on the agenda was most visible on ac-
counting matters where they remained extremely reluctant to deviate from his-
torical cost structures. (One of the results of the LDC position was that, after the
talks, the FCC had to take unilateral action to correct the outf low of telecommu-
nication revenues to many in the developing world under an historically skewed
accounting scheme known as settlement rates which conferred significant ad-
vantages upon the developing world. In as much as developing countries were
not forced to undertake politically unpopular measures to change their entire
cost structures, this can still be construed as a concession for them. Many regu-
latory officials in the developing world realized that the settlements system was
outdated but naturally were reluctant to suggest to policy-makers to scrap the
cash cow.)
Second, trade-offs and linkages came into the picture in many ways. The
whole notion of phasing in successive liberalizations in the markets and taking
specific exemption for MFN and National Treatment can be seen in this regard. In
this way, these countries could be signatories to the accord without undue com-
promise. Of special note are offers made by many Caribbean countries: Do-
minica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Together they account for less than 0.15 percent of the world’s telecommunication
revenues, but all of them, with the exception of the Dominican Republic, were
able to plan phasing in their market opening after 2007. It was important for the
WTO (and the United States) to show numbers on board and so did not object to
the delay. Third, coalitional tactics were obvious in many ways. Countries like Sin-
gapore played a key role in convincing major Asian powers. Positions taken by
Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru may have had a similar affect upon other
LDCs. In an indirect way, LDCs could also hide behind coalitions in the developed
world, the European Union in particular, when many contentious issues affecting
them both came up. Finally, many developing countries showed considerable
savvy in presenting their country schedules and in designing the rules them-
selves. Many of these countries are involved in domestic liberalization and regula-
tory exercises and this experience helped them at the international level. We now
turn to examine domestic liberalizations to determine if the offers the developing
world made were inconsistent with its domestic experience.
DOMESTIC LIBER ALIZATIONS
The contention that the developing world compromised away its future to global
multinational corporations and large users from the developed world is easily
tested by comparing LDC offers with the domestic lineup of liberalization in these
countries. This comparison is important for t wo reasons. First, as noted earlier,
many LDCs made telecommunications a development priorit y in the 1980s for a
number of reasons and adopted neoliberal policies precisely because of the re-
source constraints that they faced. Thus, it can be assumed that the developing
world was going into these negotiations knowing the strategic importance of
telecommunications. Second, the adoption of telecommunications as develop-
ment priorities and the accompanying market liberalization have been attended by
significant political battles.30 Two powerful coalitions, one opposing liberalization
(including domestic monopolies and their employees, government agencies, and
protected businesses) and the other favoring it (large users, MNCs, and interna-
tional organizations), have helped to define the particular resolution of these
battles in these countries. It is hard to find a case where an LDC merely acquiesced
to international demands in defining the terms of their domestic liberalization. In
sum, the state of liberalization underway in each country is a good proxy variable
for the trajectory taken by telecommunication coalitions of each country.
Table 10:1 correlates the strength\weakness of offers made by 31 developing
countries with the state of liberalization in each of these countries. For the pur-
poses of offers, the summary of offers available at the WTO website on the World
Wide Web were used. Strong offers were taken to be those which were going to
open up markets in a considerable number of market segments (including voice te-
lephony) within two years of the 1998 implementation date and would observe the
regulatory principles fully or partially. Reasonably strong offers were those seeking
to adopt market opening measures in several segments within 2–4 years and in-
cluding a commitment to observe regulatory principles in the future. Weak offers
delayed implementation more than four years and had a weak commitment toward
regulatory principles. For the purposes of domestic liberalization, the description
of individual countries as presented in an important study by the World Bank car-
ried out by Wellenius and Stern published in 1994 was used (nine of the WTO sig-
natories are not described in this book, therefore, not included here) (Wellenius
and Stern 1994). While published in 1994, future predictions are included
throughout the book allowing us to make reasonable estimates of telecommunica-
tion markets in these countries in 1996–97 when they made offers at the WTO.
Strong domestic liberalization is taken to mean private competition in voice (thus
precluding cases which may have privatization but feature a monopoly operator)
and other services and significant presence by foreign operators. Reasonably strong
liberalization is taken to mean at least liberalization of markets in value-added and
specialized services with some foreign entry for operators and users allowed. In
some cases, such as India, liberalization in voice telephony might also be underway.
Weak liberalization is taken for those countries still waiting to introduce any sig-
nificant competition in any market segment of telecommunications and waiting to
pass major laws changing the role of their monopoly operators.
The correlations in the table provide significant comparisons. Strong offers
were made mostly by those countries which had undertaken significant liberaliza-
tions of their domestic markets. Similar correlations can be observed between rea-
sonably strong offers and reasonably strong liberalizations, and weak offers and
weak liberalizations. The deviant cases (shown in the middle row) are easily ex-
plained. All countries making strong offers but possessing reasonably strong lib-
eralizations had actually put in place strong liberalization schedules to be effected
in the future anyway. On the other hand, India was constrained by elections in
1996 and then a fragile coalition in power after June 1996 which constrained the
government’s hand in making even a reasonably strong offer. Indonesia was on its
way to a reasonably strong liberalization program but it had not really taken off as
yet. While making a weak offer, it committed itself to the possibilit y of allowing
additional suppliers in the future. It was noted earlier that the Caribbean coun-
TABLE 10.1
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE WTO TELECOMMUNICATION
LIBER ALIZATION OFFERS AND DOMESTIC TELECOMMUNICATION
LIBER ALIZATION PROGR AMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
WTO LIBER ALIZATION OFFERS

REASONABLY
STRONG OFFER STRONG OFFER WEAK OFFER
Strong Argentina
D
Liberalization Chile
O Program in Place Dominican Rep.
M Korea
E Peru
S
Reasonably Strong Colombia Bolivia Indonesia
T Liberalization Malaysia Brazil India
I Program in Place Mexico Hong Kong
C Philippines Sri Lanka
Singapore
L Venezuela
I Weak Liberalization Antigua &
B Program in Place Barbuda
E Bangladesh
R Belize
A Brunei
L Cote d’Ivoire
Dominica
I
Ghana
Z
Grenada
A Jamaica
T Morocco
I Pakistan
O Thailand
N Trinidad &
Tobago
tries acted more like fillers for the numbers game involved in calling the negotia-
tion a success, but what about large countries like Thailand, Turkey, and Pakistan?
Thailand and Turkey committed themselves to review after pending national leg-
islation while Pakistan, another country facing domestic political uncertaint y, al-
lowed only weak competition in telex and fax and delayed market access to 2004.
Domestic politics also inf luenced the offers in terms of state autonomy and
legitimacy in developing countries. India was constrained by elections and its
democratic politics in making any kind of strong offer. Brazil, on the other hand,
under the strong leadership and window of opportunit y given Cardoso, used its
reasonably strong offer to put pressure toward passing its domestic legislation. Pe-
ruvian officials used their WTO offer to break out of a political deadlock at home
on the liberalization issue. Such a move was in fact suggested to visiting Peruvian
regulatory officials on a trip to the FCC in Washington, DC. (Cowhey interview
April 28, 1999). Many states, in making telecommunication a development prior-
it y, are also using the sector as a way of maintaining their legitimacy. Telecommu-
nication operators and equipment manufacturers from Singapore, Malaysia, and
Korea are at the forefront of telecommunication service exports in the developing
world and the governments promote these sectors as paving the way for these
countries for the future. Singapore, touting itself as an intelligent island, is the
most noticeable here. This may account for the leadership role or improved offers
by these East Asian countries.
The oft-made argument that the domestic of the developing world is actually
international (MNCs, international organizations) should be most obvious in the
weakest among the weak countries and least obvious in ones with well developed
telecommunication sectors. In other words, the MNCs would find it easy to bull-
doze the weak countries into making strong liberalization offers. The opposite
seems to be true from the correlations given in table 10.1. The weakest offers were
made by the weakest countries, including countries where many MNCs already op-
erate. On the other hand, the strong offers were made by countries like Korea,
Mexico, Singapore where the telecommunications infrastructures are relatively so-
phisticated and nationally driven.
A few comments about civil societ y participation, the other side of the do-
mestic spectrum, may also be made. Evidence of telecommunications policy
framed on the behest and/or behalf of the masses continues to pour in.31 Resi-
dential users are particularly important for two t ypes of states: ones whose legiti-
macy rests on delivering high rates of economic growth (East Asian NICs) and
those with relatively pluralistic domestic politics (India, Malaysia). A cursory look
at the rates of growth of telecommunication services provided to rural areas
would serve as the first confirmation belying an urban/elite claim. Second, as a
wealth of studies on telecommunications and development show, rural and urban
residential users, small business and social delivery systems use telecommunica-
tion services for a variet y of purposes including such things as cutting down of
business costs for small scale enterprises, market searches for farmers, improving
administrative efficiency in local and provincial administrations, delivery of
health care, education, and emergency services, among other things.32
Most developing country states now find themselves in the midst of multiple
coalitional pressures, both of the elite and non-elite variet y. In fact, the variation
in the middle row of table 1 may be explained by the strength of pressures to lib-
eralize (as in those making strong offers) and hedging among plural pressures (as
in countries like India). With multiple coalitions, restructurings may be slow and
piecemeal, but there is also a positive side to the story. Articulated coalitional de-
mands, especially plural ones, are forms of restraints on political systems. In as
much as political systems now begin to respond to wider demand pressures, they
are moving away from exclusive considerations rooted in the supply-driven Post
Telegraph and Telephone model. Second, these coalitions are often part of other
nationwide processes and might in the long run turn out to be not so elitist at all.
Third (controversial as this claim may be but consistent with this chapter’s nor-
mative position), in as much as these coalitions help to make telecommunication
sectors market-driven, it may be expected that telecommunication carriers will
find it hard to marginalize demands to the extent that state driven PTTs did.
CONCLUSION
The arguments of this paper were explained at two levels: systemic and domestic.
At the systemic level, the WTO telecom accord negotiations were examined. The
paper compared the initial hostilit y of the developing world to telecommunication
negotiations when first made part of the Uruguay Round agenda with the out-
come in February 1997 when the hostile reactions were few and far between and
many developing countries tabled reasonable offers. Specifically, it examined the
WTO negotiation process after May 1994 when special attention was paid to spe-
cific bargaining strategies employed by developing countries to effect outcomes in
their favor.
The validation of the first argument about increased alternatives to develop-
ing countries points toward two things. First, international relations are in a state
of f lux. The varying combinations of actors and issues allow many alternatives
and strategies to developing countries to effect bargains in their favor. Second, in
such a state of f lux, negotiations matter. If we are to reach an understanding of
how actors exercise power at the systemic level, an enquiry into the negotiation
processes is essential.
Furthermore, it was found that the domestic liberalization schedules of spe-
cific countries were consistent with the offers that they made at the international
level. This validates the second argument about the consistency of domestic pres-
sures and international liberalization schedules. The WTO accord can then be
seen as business as usual for developing countries. In fact, it may be argued that
these countries would have continued on this trajectory even if the accord had not
taken place.33 The corollary argument about civil societ y participation and bene-
fits is harder to evaluate. It requires a more in-depth examination of interest group
alignments in developing countries than this chapter offers. One can say that the
accord, in as much as it is consistent with domestic liberalization policies of these
countries, does not completely contradict all bottom-up development initiatives in
these countries. Combined with the history of this sector given at the beginning
of this paper, we can not then argue that these countries would have been better
off without theses international negotiations.
In the context of this volume, and more broadly the information age, this
chapter makes the following contribution to our understanding of power and gov-
ernance. Power in this chapter revolves around notions of power as capabilit y, but
not necessarily one in which the developing world is completely disadvantaged.
When examining power within a specific structure in an issue area like telecom-
munications, developing world actors are not constrained from effecting things in
their favor. Instrumental power then takes a new life here, as formerly weak actors
exercise it. In terms of governance, a neorealist position on the weak always suf-
fering ultimately depends on the weak having no alternatives but to suffer. In a
multiperspectival world, the weak have alternatives, and governance thus be-
comes much more pluralistic and advocacy driven. Finally, this chapter does not
delve deeply into meta-power issues because its aim is to explain a short period of
negotiations between 1994 and 1997. When writing of North-South issues over
the long run, meta-power issues would need to be taken into account.
Global telecommunication rules are emerging in a pragmatic international en-
vironment quite distinct from the kind of North-South hostilit y, which marred
most negotiations until the early 1980s. International negotiations are key for deci-
phering the rival claims made by paradigms in international relations. This chapter
builds on the important tradition in world politics, which combines domestic and
international politics to explain negotiation outcomes. Milner and Keohane (1996,
6) rightly note that international economic exchanges can only be understood by a
“dialogue between international political economy, heavily inf luenced by economic
models, and comparative politics, driven these days by ‘new institutionalism’.” As
noted earlier, one of the first attempts in this case, namely Putnam’s (1988) famous
piece on two-level games, is on negotiations.
Most importantly, this paper has allowed us a starting point to evaluate the
development potential of information technologies for developing countries in
an increasingly globalized international political economy. It does so by investi-
gating the propositions offered above, but also by placing these propositions
within the overall context of the rival claims made about these technologies as
noted earlier. At the systemic level, the current scenario is different from negoti-
ations involving the North and South in the immediate postcolonial era when
the South could be silenced, ignored, or completely marginalized. But a major
caveat against too much optimism regarding the emerging global rules is neces-
sary. Participatory development processes are only now beginning to emerge in
the developing world as a whole. In as much as pluralistic pressures within de-
veloping countries are hard to resolve, international negotiations and/or the im-
plementation of global rules for developing countries are bound to be quite
messy and prolonged. In other words, the potential or actual benefits of interna-
tional negotiations may be constrained by the increasingly messy domestic poli-
tics of many developing countries.
NOTES
I thank Karen Litfin, Debora Spar, Virginia Walsh and Mark Zacher for their comments on
earlier drafts and Peter Cowhey for sharing his firsthand knowledge of the WTO telecom
negotiations in a detailed interview.
1. The definition of regimes offered by Krasner (1985, 4) is relevant here: “Regimes
are principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actor expecta-
tions converge.” Regimes rules (“specific prescriptions for behavior in clearly defined
areas”) are discussed at length here.
2. Others joined later. As of May 1, 1999, 86 governments had signed on
(http://www.wto.org/wto/services/tel08.htm); accessed May 1, 1999.
3. Basic services leave the content of the message, as sent originally by a user,
unchanged during transmission. Valued-added services change the content or add value to
enhance the information. A simple example is voicemail.
4. The description of the crucial case as being least likely follows the convention de-
veloped by Lijphart (1971). However, in as much as this case itself is made up of several ob-
servations of negotiations, the analysis below endorses the critique of the case study
method of counting N=1 (instead of by the number of observations within a case) given by
King, Keohane, and Verba (1994, 52).
5. Many telecommunication analyses divide societies into user groups which in-
clude: urban residential users, rural users, large users, government administrations, pub-
lic/private social delivery systems, and exporters. See Singh (1999) for an analysis of LDC
telecommunications based on user groups. Other user group analyses include Noam
(1992) and Mansell (1993).
6. It might be argued, that if extrapolated to the issue of concern here, both Deibert
(chapter 5) and Litfin (chapter 3) could be seen as supporting this claim.
7. For the neoliberal viewpoint, see Saunders et al. (1994). For the social construc-
tivist, see Litfin (1994).
8. For the neorealist viewpoint, see Krasner (1991). For the neo-Marxist viewpoint,
see various essays in Comor (1994).
9. The weak are neither absolute winners nor do the strong do what they can to
make them suffer. This chapter builds upon negotiation analyses which show that weak
powers can effect outcomes more favorable to themselves by following strategies such as
taking advantage of the negotiation sequences and procedures (Zartman 1987), playing off
one great power against another (Wriggins 1976), by following well-informed and techno-
cratic strategies (Odell 1985), by finding loopholes in great power protectionism towards
them (Yoffie 1983), by taking advantage of competitors for their resources or markets
(Grieco 1982) or by possessing critical resources themselves (Knudsen 1973). However, it
also diverges from these analyses by positing that developing countries may now be in-
creasingly effecting favorable outcomes for themselves because of the current diffusion of
power (see Singh, 2000a).
10. Olson (1993) argues that even autocrats might have an encompassing interest in
providing public goods (in this case, telecommunications) for reasons to do with their
legitimacy or to increase their revenues and taxes.
11. See Zacher in this volume for a discussion of the principles, norms, rules, and
decision-making procedures in the telecommunication regime historically.
12. This point is made in different contexts and language by Ruggie (1993: 139–174)
and Rosenau (1990).
13. See chapters by Aronson, Litfin, Deibert, Zacher and Rosenau.
14. Negotiations is usually taken to be a broader term referring to a complete episode
of t wo or multipart y give and take while bargaining usually refers to specific strategies
deployed by the parties during the negotiations.
15. This point is consistent with Rosenau and Fagen’s (1997) and Rosenau’s
(chapter 11) assessment of increasingly skillful and emotionally capable technocratic
elites being able to make effective foreign policy decisions and designing suitable alter-
natives.
16. The normative position of this chapter is consistent with neoliberal analysis.
17. Estimates of economic rates of return vary bet ween 17 and 50 percent. The
World Bank also estimated internal financial rates of return on 13 projects in telecommu-
nications it funded as ranging between 13 and 25 percent and averaging 20 percent. The
projects were able to draw internally upon 60 percent of the funds needed (Saunders et al.
1994, 15).
18. The positing of efficiency here is more than just an academic exercise. Informa-
tion f lows are crucial for any economic transaction to take place and, in this sense, a well
functioning telecommunications infrastructure reduces transaction costs by eliminating

the barriers to information f lows.
19. The international division of labor is noted by any standard text in international
political economy. For its application in terms of Post-Fordism, especially in the context of
telecommunications, see various articles in Journal of Communication (1995) especially Bar-
rera (1995) and Mody (1995).
20. The approach I have taken here is consistent with Strange’s assertion that we can
capture the dynamic character of “who-gets-what” of an international economy by looking
not at the surface but underneath, at the bargains on which it is based. See Strange (1982,
496).
21. See, for example, Caporaso (1997), Rosenau (1997) and Keohane and Milner
(1996).
22. Such traditional definitions form the backbone of writings by Tocqueville
(1835/1945), Almond and Verba (1963) and Putnam (1993, 1995).
23. This article provides a nice summary of the debates leading up to this issue. Also
see Migdal, Kohli and Shue (1984) for a broad ranging discussion of involvement of societal
actors in state policy-making in the developing world. They note that state-societ y relations
are relatively ignored in development studies as compared to the dominance of institution-
alist approaches.
24. Zartman (1987) notes the presence of this more pragmatic issue-focused scenario
for all North-South negotiations by the 1980s.
25. GATT members could not reach agreement on basic services, therefore, the sectoral
annex on telecommunications during the Uruguay Round only covered value-added services.
This was, in fact, the basis of the WTO telecommunications negotiations (1994–97).
26. This paragraph borrows from Nicolaides (1995).
27. Fred C. Bergsten. Preface to Petrazzini (June 1996, viii).
28. This paragraph cites statistics from WTO www.wto.org/wto/services accessed
(February 17, 1997).
29. This paragraph borrows from Aronson (1998, 16–27).
30. See Singh (2000b and 1999) for details on these battles in many LDCs.
31. See Singh (1999) for examples drawn from eight different LDCs.
32. There is a vast literature on telecommunications and development. Seminal
works include Saunders et al. (1984/1994), DRI/McGraw Hill (1991), Pierce and Jecquier
(1983), Hudson et al. (1979).
33. A similar argument is now made by other authors, too. See Tuthill (1996), Drake
and Noam (1998), and Hufbauer and Wada (1998). Blouin (2000) disagrees.
REFERENCES
Aaron, David L. 1995. After GATT, U.S. Pushes Direct Investment. The Wall Street Journal.
(February 2): A14.
Almond, Gabriel A., and Sidney Verba. 1963. The Civic Culture. Princeton: N.J.: Princeton
Universit y Press.
Aronson, Jonathan D. 1998. Telecom Agreement Tops Expectations. In Gary Clyde Huf-
bauer and Erika Wada. Unfinished Business: Telecommunications After the Uruguay
Round. Washington DC: Institute for International Economics.
Trade in Telecommunications Services. The American Enterprise Institute.
Belassa, Bela. 1989. New Directions In The World Economy. Washington Square, New York:
New York Universit y Press.
Bennet, Douglas C., and Kenneth E. Sharpe. 1979. Agenda Setting and Bargaining Power:
The Mexican State versus Transnational Automobile Corporations. World Poli-
tics. 32.
Berrera, Eduardo. 1995. State Intervention and Telecommunications in Mexico. Journal of
Communication. 45: 107–124.
Blouin, Chantal. 2000. The WTO Agreement on Basic Telecommunications: a Reevalua-
tion. In Telecommunications Policy. 24: 135–142.
Brecher, Jeremy, and Tim Costello. 1998. Global Village and Global Pillage: Economic Re-
construction from the Bottom Up. Boston, MA: South End Press.
Caporaso, James A. 1997. Across the Great Divide: Integrating Comparative and Interna-
tional Politics. International Studies Quarterly. (December) 41(4): 563–591.
Chowdhary, T.H. 1989. An Indian Perspective on Sector Reform. In Bjorn Wellenius,
Peter A. Stern, Timothy E. Nult y, Richard D. Stern. eds. Restructuring and Man-
aging the Telecommunications Sector: A World Bank Symposium. Washington D.C.:
The World Bank.
Comor, Edward. ed. 1994. The Global Political Economy of Communication: Hegemony,
Telecommunication and the Information Economy. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.
Conybeare, John. 1985. Trade Wars: A Comparative Study of Anglo-Hanse, Franco-Italian,
and Hawley-Smoot Conf licts. World Politics. 38.
Drake, William J., and Kalypso Nicolaides. 1992. Ideas, Interests, and Instituionalization:
‘Trade in Services’ and the Uruguay Round.” International Organization. (Winter)
Drake, William J., and Eli M. Noam. 1998. Assessing the WTO Agreement on Basic
Telecommunications.” In Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Erika Wada, eds. Unfinished
Business: Telecommuncations After the Uruguay Round. Washington, D.C.: Insti-
tute for International Economics.
Evans, Peter B., Harold K. Jacobson, and Robert D. Putnam, eds. 1993. Double-Edged Diplo-
macy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics. Berkeley: Universit y of Cali-
fornia Press.
Evans, Peter. 1996. Introduction: Development Strategies across the Public-Private Divide.
World Development. 24: 1033–1037.
Fagre, Nathan, and Louis T. Wells. 1982. Bargaining Power of Multinationals and Host
Governments. Journal of International Business Studies. (Fall): 9–23.
Gereffi, Gary. 1995. Global Production Systems and Third World Development. In Bar-
bara Stallings, ed. Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Con-
text of Development. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Gourevitch, Peter. 1986. Politics in Hard Times: Comparative Responses to International Eco-
nomic Crises. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Grieco, Joseph M. 1982. Bet ween Dependency and Autonomy: India’s Experience with
the International Computer Industry. International Organization. (Summer) 36:
609–632.
Hoekman, Bernard M., and Mitchell M. Kostecki. 1995. The Political Economy of the World
Trading System: From GATT to WTO. Oxford: Oxford Universit y Press.
Hudson, Heather E. et. al. 1979. The Role of Telecommunications in Socioeconomic Develop-
ment. Report prepared for the International Telecommunication Union and pub-
lished by Boston: Information Gatekeepers Inc.
Hufbauer, Clyde B., and Erika Wada, eds. Unfinished Business: Telecommunications after the
Uruguay Round. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.
Jackson, John H. 1997. The World Trading System: Law and Policy of International Economic
Relations. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Keohane, Robert, and Helen Milner, eds. 1996. Internationalization and Domestic Politics.
Keohane, Robert, and Joseph Nye. 1977. Power and Interdependence. Boston: Little, Brown.
Kindleberger, Charles. 1978. Economic Response: Comparative Studies in Trade, Finance and
Growth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universit y Press.
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Enquiry: Scientific
Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Universit y Press.
Kundsen, Olav. 1973. The Politics of International Shipping: Conflict and Interaction in a
Transnational Issue-Area 1946-1968. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books.
Krasner, Stephen. 1985. Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism.
Berkeley: Universit y of California Press.
———. 1991. Global Telecommunications and National Power. International Organization.
43: 336–366.
Lijphart, Arend. 1971. Comparative Politics and Comparative Method. American Political
Science Review. (September) 65(3): 682–98.
Litfin, Karen. 1994. Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in International Environmental
Negotiations. Columbia Universit y Press.
Mansell, Robin. 1993. The New Telecommunications: A Political Economy of Network
Evolution. London: Sage Publications.
Migdal, Joel S., Atul Kohli, and Vivienne Shue, eds. 1994. State Power and Social Forces:
Domination and Transformation in the Third World. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versit y Press.
Milner, Helen V., and Robert O. Keohane, eds. 1996. Internationalization and Domestic Pol-
itics. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Mody, Asoka. 1989. Information Industries in the NICs. In Robert W. Crandall and Ken-
neth Flamm, eds. Changing the Rules: Technological Change, International Compe-
tition and Regulations in Telecommunications. Washington D.C.: The Brookings
Institution.
Mody, Bella. 1995. State Consolidation through Liberalization of Telecommunications Ser-
vices in India. Journal of Communication. 45: 70–88.
Nicolaides, Kalypso. 1995. International Trade in Information-Based Services: The
Uruguay Round and Beyond. In William J. Drake, ed. The New Information
Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policy. New York: The Twentieth Cent ur y
Press.
Noam, Eli. 1992. Private Networks and Public Objectives. Aspen Quarterly. (Winter)
Odell, John S. 1993. International Trade Bargaining Under Uncertaint y: Cognitive
Hypotheses and Evidence,” Universit y of Southern California, Prepared for the
Project on Fairness Claims, Harmonization, and Gains from Trade. (July)
———. 1985. The Outcomes of International Trade Conf licts: The US and South Korea,
1960–1981. International Studies Quarterly. 29: 263–286.
Ohmae, Keniichi. 1990. The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy.
New York: Harper Business.
Olson, Mancur. 1993. Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development. In American Political
Science Review. (September) 87.
Petrazzini, Ben. 1996. Global Telecom Talks: A Trillion Dollar Deal. Washington, DC: Insti-
tute for International Economics. (June)
Pierce, William, and Nicholas Jacquier. 1983. Telecommunications for Development. Geneva:
International Telecommunication Union.
Putnam, Robert. 1988. Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: the Logic of Two-Level Games.
International Organization. (Summer) 42: 427–460.
———. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton Universit y Press.
———. 1995. Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. Journal of Democracy. 4.
Rosenau, James N., and W. Michael Fagen. 1997. A New Dynamism in World Politics:
Increasingly Skillful Individuals. International Studies Quarterly. (December) 41.
———. 1990. Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity. Princeton:
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1993. Territorialit y and Beyond: Problematizing Modernit y in Inter-
national Relations. International Organization. 17.
Saunders, Robert J., Jeremy Warford, and Bjorn Wellenius. 1994. Telecommunications and
Economic Development. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Singh, J.P. 1999. Leapfrogging Development?: The Political Economy of Telecommunications Re-
structuring. Albany, NY: State Universit y of New York Press.
———. 2000a. Weal Powers and Globalism: Impact of Pluralit y on Weak-Strong Negotia-
tions in the International Economy. International Negotiation. 5: 449–484.
———. 2000b. The Institutional Environment and Effects of Telecommunication Privatiza-
tion and Market Liberalization in Asia. Telecommunications Policy. 24: 885–906.
Sjostedt, Gunnar. 1994. Negotiating the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade. In I. William Zartman, International Multilateral Negotiation:
Approaches to the Management of Complexity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publish-
ers. 44–69.
Stallings, Barbara, ed. 1995. Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Con-
text of Development. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Strange, Susan. 1982. Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis. International
Organization. 2.
———. 1991. An Eclectic Approach. In Craig N. Murphy and Roger Tooze, The New Inter-
national Political Economy. Boulder, Colo: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1835/1945. Democracy in America. Translated by Henry Reeve.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Tolan, Sandy. 1994. Against the Grain. Los Angeles Times Magazine. (July 10)
Tuthill, Lee. 1996. Users’ Rights?: The Multilateral Rules on Access to Telecommunica-
tions. Telecommunications Policy. 20: 89–99.
Tyson, Laura D’Andrea. 1992. Who’s Bashing Whom? Trade Conflict in High-Technology
Industries. Washington DC: Institute for International Economics.
Tyson, Laura D’Andrea, and John Zysman, eds. 1983. American Industry in International
Competition: Government Policies and Corporate Strategies. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
Universit y Press.
Vernon, Robert. ed. 1990. The Promise of Privatization: A Challenge for American Foreign Pol-
icy. Council on Foreign Relations.
Wellenius, Bjorn, and Peter A. Stern, eds. 1994. Implementing Reforms in the Telecommuni-
cations Sector: Lessons from Experience. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
White, Sally Blount, and Margaret A. Neale. 1991. Reservation Prices, Resistance Points,
and BATNAs: Determining the Parameters of Acceptable Negotiated Outcomes.
Negotiation Journal. (October): 379–389
Winham, Gilbert R. 1986, International Trade and the Tokyo Round Negotiation. Princeton:
Woodrow, Brian R. 1991. Tilting Towards a Trade Regime: The ITU and the Uruguay
Round Services Negotiations. Telecommunications Policy. (August): 323–342.
The World Bank. 1997. World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World.
Washington DC: The World Bank.
Wriggins, Wriggins. 1976. Up for Auction: Malta Bargains with Great Britain, 1971. In
I. William Zartman, The 50% Solution: How to Bargain Successfully with Hijackers,
Strikers, Bosses, Oil Magnates, Arabs, Russians, and Other Worthy Opponents in This
Modern World. New Haven: Yale Universit y Press.
Yoffie, David B. 1983. Power and Protectionism: Strategies of the Newly Industrializing Coun-
tries. New York: Columbia Universit y Press.
Zacher, Mark with Brent A. Sutton. 1996. Governing Global Networks: International Regimes
for Transportation and Communications. Cambridge: Cambridge Universit y Press.
Zartman, I. William. 1971. The Politics of Trade Negotiations between Africa and the European
Economic Community: The Weak Confront the Strong. Princeton: Princeton Uni-
versit y Press.
Zartman, I. William, ed. 1987. Positive Sum: Improving North-South Negotiations (New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER ELEVEN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND THE

SKILLS, NETWORKS, AND STRUCTURES
THAT SUSTAIN WORLD AFFAIRS
JAMES N. ROSENAU
It is more permissive than dismissive to argue that information and information

technologies are essentially neutral. They do not in themselves tilt in the direction
of any particular values—neither toward good or bad, nor left or right, nor open or
closed systems. They are, rather, neutral, in the sense that their tilt is provided by
people. It is people and their collectivities that infuse values into information. For
better or worse, it is individuals and organizations that introduce information into
political arenas and thereby render it good or bad. Accordingly, the neutralit y of
information technologies is permissive because it enables the democrat as well as
the authoritarian to use information in whatever way he or she sees fit.
There is, in other words, some utilit y in starting with the premise that infor-
mation and the technologies that generate and circulate it are neutral. It enables
us to avoid deterministic modes of thought in which people are seen as being de-
prived of choice by the dictates of information technologies. Put more positively,
the neutralit y premise compels us to focus on human agency and how it does or
does not make use of information technologies.
This is not to imply, of course, that consequences do not follow from the de-
gree to which information and information technologies are available. Clearly,
their availabilit y can serve as either opportunities or constraints and, clearly, both
the opportunities and constraints inf luence the way people conduct their politi-
cal affairs, with the opportunities clarifying and facilitating the choices to be made
and the constraints inhibiting and narrowing the choices. To posit the choices as
facilitated or constrained by information availabilit y is not to specify independent
variables. Information and its technologies are about the contexts within which
decisional alternatives are considered. They set the range within which ends and
means are framed, alternatives pondered, and choices made.
275
As range-setting factors, information and its technologies may be forms of

power, as several of the preceding chapters suggest—especially those by Braman,
Comor, Deibert, and Kim and Hart—but variations in the power possessed by
human agents cannot predict the outcomes—the reactions evoked by the uses of a
technology’s power. Reactions and outcomes derive from the audiences toward
whom the power is directed and they can vary as widely as the circumstances of
the audiences and their relations with those who employ the technologies. To be
sure, as indicated in Aronson’s chapter, different information technologies can de-
liver information in different forms that, in turn, can underlie variations in the
way issues are structured and debated. Still, and to repeat, such differences are
best regarded not as causal determinants, but as setting different ranges within
which human agents make choices.
Viewed in this way, it is misleading to analyze information technologies in
causal terms. Causalit y accounts for the choices that are made and why informa-
tion is interpreted in one way rather than another. By treating information tech-
nologies as neutral, we cast them as background conditions and not as immediate
stimuli to action—as second-order dynamics that inf luence, contextualize, facilitate,
permit, or inhibit courses of action, but not as first-order dynamics that change,
transform, foster, impose, or shape courses of action. The distinction between the
two t ypes of dynamics is important; it differentiates between the operation of
structures and those of agents. Put more forcefully, the distinction prevents the an-
alyst from mistaking second-order for first-order dynamics, for treating information
technologies as an unseen hand that somehow gets people, groups, or communities
to pursue goals and undertake actions without awareness of why they do what they
do and, accordingly, without taking responsibilit y for their conduct.
A good illustration of the dangers of positing information technologies as
first-order causal dynamics is evident in the adaptation of vertical business organ-
izations in the 1980s to the horizontal f lexibilit y required by the globalization of
national economies. When diverse enterprises first seized upon the new tech-
nologies, they treated them as labor-saving devices and as means to control labor
rather than as mechanisms for organizational adaptation. The result was an ag-
gravation of their vertical bureaucratic rigidities. It was only after they made the
necessary organizational changes in order to keep abreast of their operational en-
vironments that the information technologies “extraordinarily enhanced” the suc-
cess of their enterprises (Castells 1996, 169). For all practical purposes, the
restructuring of businesses away from hierarchical and toward network forms of
organization preceded the considerable impact of information technologies, even
as the latter then facilitated eye-catching growth on the part of the former.
In the same way, the notion of information as neutral does not ignore the con-
vertibility of information into knowledge and, thus, into power. More accurately, in-
formation and its technologies facilitate the exercise of what has been called soft
SKILLS, NETWORKS, AND STRUCTURES THAT SUSTAIN WORLD AFFAIRS 277
power, a concept that differentiates information from the conventional dimensions

of material power such as oil production, troops in uniform, military hardware, and
agricultural production. (See Nye and Owens 1996, 20–36; Rosecance 1996,
45–61; Henry and Peartree 1998; Libicki 1998, 411–28.) As clearly demonstrated
during the Gulf War and the Kosovo Conf lict, military capabilities today are highly
dependent on advanced information technologies; the targeting of missiles and the
distribution of ideas through shortwave broadcasts and the dropping of leaf lets
over cities exemplify the application of information to modern securit y strategies.
Yet, despite the innumerable ways in which soft power can be used, it is nonetheless
the case that information technologies on which it is based are neutral. To repeat,
what counts is how officials and governments generate and employ the technologies
and how publics interpret the information and knowledge that comes their way. If
such were not the case, if information and information technologies were causative
dynamics, then levels of knowledge in communities would be uniform and the
knowledge gaps among communities would not exist.
Needless to say, as conditions with which humans must cope, information
technologies are crucial dimensions of the political scene. As they change, so do
the contexts in which choices are made. As new technologies are developed, so is
the range of plausible choices altered. Among other things, for example, techno-
logical innovations pose the question of how the range of choice is expanded by
the availabilit y of information for those who are, so to speak, informationally rich
and how it is narrowed for those who are informationally poor—and, indeed, how
the discrepancies bet ween the rich and the poor configure the context within
which the two perceive each other and interact.
As indicated in Singh’s introductory chapter, these contextual factors have
not been a preoccupation of political scientists who study world affairs, a neglect
the ensuing pages seek to highlight by addressing three of the main ways in which
information technologies contribute to the context within which world affairs un-
fold. More specifically, the analysis explores (1) how the technologies may be al-
tering the skills of individuals; (2) how they may be affecting the circumstances
whereby the gap between the informationally rich and poor is undergoing trans-
formation; (3) how they may be changing the conditions under which individuals
and groups interact; and (4) how they may be contributing to the evolution of new
global structures.
THE SKILL REVOLUTION
While the world’s present population may not be more skillful than earlier gener-
ations, there are good reasons to presume that the skills of today’s person in the
street are different than was the case for his or her predecessor. The latter may
have been more skillful in building fireplaces or cathedrals, but today’s citizenries
are more skillful in linking themselves to world affairs, in tracing distant events
through complex sequences back into their homes and pocketbooks. These
changes seem so extensive as to warrant labeling them as a skill revolution, as a
transformation that has three basic dimensions—an analytic dimension, an emo-
tional dimension, and an imaginative dimension—all of which have been greatly
facilitated by the recent advent of technologies that bring ideas, information, and
pictures into the lives of people in ways that had not previously been possible.
Global television, the VCR, the fax machine, fiber-optic cable, and the computer
have all enabled people to alter their skills in such a way as to adapt more effec-
tively to the demands of an ever more complex world.1
Some have argued that people tend to adapt to the information age by turn-
ing away from the realm of ideas and politics. However, quite the opposite proved
to be the case in a systematic survey of Americans who make extensive use of at
least four of five information technologies and were classified as connected or
superconnected to the digital world:2
Despite the national lament that technology undermines literacy,

Connected Americans are . . . more likely to spend time reading books
than any other segment of the population broken down in this survey.
Sevent y percent of the Connected say they spend 1 to 10 hours reading
a book during a t ypical week; another 16 percent read for 11 to 20 hours
a week. Far from being distracted by the technology, Digital Citizens ap-
pear startlingly close to the Jeffersonian ideal—they are informed, out-
spoken, participatory, passionate about freedom, proud of their culture,
and committed to the free nation in which it has evolved (Katz 1997).
Furthermore, the dynamics of change fueling the skill revolution are likely to
accelerate as increasingly e-mail and computer-literate generations of children and
adolescents move into adulthood. For example, it is portentous, or at least note-
worthy, that a 1999 survey of young people bet ween 13 and 17 in the United
States resulted in 63 percent who reported using a computer at home (compared
to 45 percent in 1994) and 42 percent who said they have e-mail addresses (Gold-
berg and Connelly 1999, A1). These findings suggest that the ranks of the super-
connected and the connected are likely to swell with the passage of time and the
advent of new generations, thus adding to the ways in which the skill revolution
is a powerful source of change in world affairs.
While the acceleration rate of the skill revolution elsewhere in the world
may not match or exceed the rate in the United States, it is important to stress
that the changing skills of people everywhere matter. As indicated in the ensuing
analysis, the newly acquired analytic, emotional, and imaginative skills have
enabled individuals to join and participate in organizations appropriate to their

interests and thereby to know when, where, and how to engage in collective ac-
tion. In addition, as will also be seen, the enhanced public affairs oriented skills
of people have contributed to a major transformation of the global structures
that govern world affairs.
BRIDGING THE INFORMATION GAP
There is little question that the benefits of the information revolution have been
enjoyed by only a small proportion of the world’s population and that the gap be-
tween those who are rich and poor with respect to their access to information is
huge. For example, while North America and Western Europe had, respectively,
43.5 and 28.3 percent of the world information technology market in 1995, the
comparable figures for Latin America on the one hand and Eastern Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa on the other were 2.0 and 2.6 percent. Put even more
starkly, while the number of personal computers per 1,000 people in 1995 resid-
ing in low-income and lower-middle-income economies was 1.6 and 10.0, the
comparable figures for those in newly industrialized economies (NIEs) and high-
income economies were 114.8 and 199.3. Consider Internet users per 1,000 peo-
ple in 1996: for the former two t ypes of economies, the number was 0.01 and 0.7
respectively, whereas the number in the latter t wo t ypes of economies was 12.9
and 111.0 (World Development Report 1998/99, 63).
Not withstanding the importance of these huge gaps bet ween the informa-
tionally rich and poor—gaps which provide the rich with advantages and oppor-
tunities not available to the poor—such data tell only part of the story. Most
notably, they do not depict the trend line, which readily allows for the assertion
that not only are the informationally rich getting richer, but the informationally
poor are also getting richer. The gap remains huge, but it is nonetheless the case
that, in a variet y of ways, the information revolution is also unfolding in the de-
veloping world and that, along several dimensions, the gap is narrowing and
likely to continue to narrow in the years ahead. This shrinking of the gap stems
from several sources. One is the enormous decline in the costs of information
technologies, a decline that is brilliantly suggested by the fact that, for diverse
reasons, “computing power per dollar invested has risen by a factor of 10,000
over the past 20 years” and that the “cost of voice transmission circuits has fallen
by a factor of 10,000 over those same 20 years” (World Development Report
1998/99, 57). Another source of the narrowing gap involves the capacit y of de-
veloping countries to “leapfrog the industrial countries by going straight from
underdeveloped net works to fully digitized net works, bypassing the traditional
analog technology that still forms the backbone of the system in most industrial
countries” (World Development Report 1998/99, 57). Likewise, while most of

the developing world has yet to be wired, its peoples can get a cellular phone
and do not have to wait for the installation of fixed lines. It is noteworthy, for
instance, that the
Number of cellular phones per fixed line is already as high in some

low- and middle-income economies as in some industrialized countries;
some developing countries with low densit y in both traditional tele-
phone service and cellular phones have recently invested in cellular tech-
nology at a very fast rate. . . The Philippines, a country with low
telephone densit y (only 2.5 main lines per 100 people), has a higher
ratio of mobile phone subscribers to main lines, than Japan, the United
Kingdom, the United States, or several other industrial countries with
densities of more than 50 main lines per 100 people (World Develop-
ment Report 1998/99, 57).
Of course, the rise in the trend line in developing countries is especially no-
ticeable among their elite and educated populations. Once the Internet was intro-
duced into Kuwait in 1992, for example, scientists, scholars, and students came
online in increasing numbers. Within six years their ranks had increased to some
45,000. Many of these are younger people who hang out in any of seven Internet
cafes in Kuwait Cit y, where they escape the heat and at the same time use the In-
ternet for chatting, dating, or otherwise reinforcing their local culture (Wheeler
1998, 359–76). The information revolution has also reached the small villages of
the Middle East: in the case of Al Karaka, Egypt, there was only one home with
electricit y and telephone in the 1970s, but less than t wo decades later all its
houses had electricit y and “there are also 20 telephones and more than 55 televi-
sion sets . . .” (Schmidt 1993, A4).
Nor are authoritarian countries able to hold back the information revolution.
China, for example, has some 1.2 million Internet accounts, many of which are
shared by several users, and it would appear that the number of accounts and
users grows continually (Eckholm 1998, A8). Likewise, Iran has an estimated
30,000 people with Internet accounts even as it also seeks to control the f low of
information to and among them (MacFarquhar 1996, A4). Whether such con-
trols can ever be adequately established is, however, problematic.
In sum, while there are billions of persons who do not have access to the In-
ternet, their numbers are dwindling as more and more people and organizations
everywhere are coming online. Put differently, and to recast a commonplace
metaphor, to focus on those who lack access may be to see the glass as nineteen-
t wentieths empt y, but the trend line is in the direction of it being increasingly
more than one-twentieth full.
INTER ACTIVE CONTEXTS
Perhaps the single most important consequence of the newer information technolo-
gies—and probably the consequence that justifies a continuing reference to the in-
formation revolution—concerns the impact on the modes through which individuals
and organizations interact. Until the advent of the most recent technologies, and es-
pecially the Internet, the vast proportion of these interactions were hierarchical in
nature, both within organizations and across organizations engaged in similar pur-
suits. The former hierarchies tended to be formally established, with ranks and po-
sitions that allowed for top-down f lows of authority and policy directives, whereas
the across-organization hierarchies were also marked by top-down arrangements but
were more in the nature of, so to speak, pecking orders—informal but widely shared
rankings of prestige, inf luence, and power. Both the formal and informal hierar-
chies, however, have been supplemented by the horizontal networks that the newer
technologies permit. As a consequence of the capacities for networking facilitated by
the newer information technologies, the present era is marked by a veritable explo-
sion of organizations and associations, an explosion so vast that fully tracing and
documenting it is virtually impossible. At every level of community in every part of
the world new organizations are continuously being formed that are preponderantly
sustained by network rather than hierarchical structures (Salamon 1994, 109–22).
Note that hierarchies are being supplemented and not replaced by networks.
To stress that networks have become a central form of human organization is not
to imply that hierarchies are headed for extinction. There will always be a need for
hierarchy, for authorit y to be arrayed in such a way that decisional conf licts can
be resolved and policies adopted by higher authorities when consensual agree-
ments prove unachievable in any t ype of organization. The present period of dy-
namic transformations is likely to be one in which many hierarchies are f lattened,
perhaps even disrupted, but such a pattern is not the equivalent of anticipating the
demise of hierarchical structures.3
This is not to imply that horizontal networks are new forms of organization.
The networks that f low from horizontal communication have long been features
of human endeavor. Such interactions have always been possible, say, by steamship
and letters during most of the nineteenth century and by wireless and telephone
during the first half of the twentieth century. But these earlier technologies were
available only to elites. Others could not afford them. What is new today, however,
is that horizontal exchanges are not only rendered virtually simultaneous by the in-
formation revolution, but their cost has been reduced to nearly nothing. As a re-
sult, horizontal networking is no longer confined to the wealthy and the powerful;
instead, it is now available to any ordinary folk who have access to the Internet.
Stated in terms of the new technologies, “the growth of a vast new information
infrastructure including not only the Internet, but also cable, cellular, and satellite
systems, etc., [has shifted] the balance . . . from one-to-many broadcast media (e.g.,
traditional radio and television) to many-to-many interactive media. A huge in-
crease in global interconnectivit y is resulting from the ease of entry and access in
many nations, and the growing interest of so many actors in using the new infra-
structure for all manner of interactions” (Ronfeldt and Acquilla 1999, 4).
The networking potential that f lows from the easy availabilit y of information
technologies is perhaps especially conspicuous in the United States. Not only has
Internet usage in the United States more than doubled in the last four years,
(Chandrasekaran 1996, A4) but 9 percent of those in the aforementioned survey
of the usage of diverse information technologies were classified as either con-
nected or superconnected to the course of events (Katz 1997, 71). That this high-
usage stratum of the public is capable of extensive net working can be readily
deduced from a central finding of the survey:
The Internet, it turns out, is not a breeding ground for disconnec-

tion, fragmentation, paranoia, and apathy. Digital Citizens [the Con-
nected and the Superconnected] are not alienated, either from other
people or from civic institutions. Nor are they ignorant of our system’s
inner workings, or indifferent to the social and political issues our soci-
et y must confront. Instead, the online world encompasses many of the
most informed and participatory citizens we have ever had or are likely
to have (Katz 1997, 71).
Clearly, then, the significance of virtually free access to the Internet by ever
greater numbers of people can hardly be underestimated. Already it has facilitated
the formation and sustenance of networks among like-minded people who in ear-
lier, pre-Internet times could never have converged. The result has been the afore-
mentioned organizational explosion, a vast proliferation of associations—from
environmental to human rights activists, from small groups of protesters to large
social movements, from specialized interest associations to elite advocacy net-
works, from business alliances to interagency governmental committees, and so
on across all the realms of human activit y wherein goals are sought. This web-like
explosion of organizations has occurred in territorial space as well as cyberspace,
but the opening up of the latter has served as a major stimulus to the associational
proliferation in the former. Indeed, the trend toward network forms of organiza-
tion “is so strong that, projected into the future, it augurs major transformations
in how societies are organized—if not societies as a whole, then at least parts of
their governments, economies, and especially their civil societies” (Ronfeldt
1996). (See also Sawyer 1999, 42–6 for a skeptical view).
A stunning measure of the shift from hierarchical to network organizations
facilitated by the new information technologies can be seen in innovations
adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps. In a recent exercise conducted on the Califor-
nia coast and called “Urban Warrior,” a unit of Marines comprised of all ranks
from generals to privates launched an invasion with the lower ranked personnel
that hit the beaches all carrying handheld computers that linked them to all the
others in the unit and collectively provided all concerned with a picture of how
the battle was unfolding. In effect, they operated as a network in which rank and
hierarchy were irrelevant, an arrangement that the Marine Corps plans to apply
on a larger scale in the future (Garreau 1999, 1).
While the large extent to which the Internet underlies the trend toward net-
working in government, business, and military organizations cannot be over-
stated, its relevance to the world of voluntary associations and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) is even more profound. In effect, it has facilitated a step-
level change in what is called civil societ y, that domain of the private sector where
people have not had the resources, to widen their contacts and solidify their col-
laborative efforts, that have long been available to governments, corporations, and
armies. Now it is possible to inform, coordinate, and mobilize like-minded indi-
viduals in all parts of the world who have common goals to which they are willing
to devote time and energy. Equally important, NGOs and the advocacy networks
they sustain are proliferating. In 1979, for example, only one independent envi-
ronmental organization was active in Indonesia, whereas by 1999 the number of
such organizations had risen to more than 2,000 linked to an environmental net-
work based in Jakarta. Likewise, registered nonprofit organizations in the Philip-
pines grew from 18,000 to 58,000 between 1989 and 1996; in Slovakia the figure
went from a handful in the 1980s to more than 10,000 today; and in the United
States 70 percent of the nonprofit organizations—not counting religious groups
and private foundations—filing tax returns with the Treasury Department are less
than 30 years old and a third are less than 15 years old (Bornstein 1999, B7).
Clearly, then, the proliferation of advocacy networks is altering the landscape
of world affairs and having substantial consequences for the course of events.
Whether or not a global civil societ y will ever evolve, it is certainly the case that
transnational networks of private citizens have become pervasive and central actors
on the global stage (See, for example Keck and Sikkink 1998.) It is not an exaggera-
tion, in other words, to note that the global stage is becoming ever more dense as a
huge variet y of NGOs acquire the new technologies and thereby extend their reach
and coherence. Indeed, as indicated in the following section, it is a densit y that has
altered the structures through which world politics are conducted.
In sum,
Our exploration of emergent social structures across domains of human

activit y and experience leads to an overarching conclusion: as a histori-
cal trend, dominant functions and processes in the information age are
increasingly organized around net works. Net works constitute the new
social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic
substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of pro-
duction experience, power, and culture. While the networking form of
social organization has existed in other times and spaces, the new infor-
mation technology paradigm provides the material basis for its pervasive
expansion throughout the entire social structure (Castells 1996, 469).
NEW GLOBAL STRUCTURES
With people in both developed and developing countries becoming more skillful
in relating to public affairs, with organizations proliferating at an eye-catching and
accelerating rate, it is hardly surprising that information technologies have con-
tributed to transformations in historic global structures. Stated most succinctly,
as the global arena has become ever more dense with actors and networks, the tra-
ditional world of anarchical states has been supplemented by a second world of
world politics comprised of a wide variet y of nongovernmental, transnational,
and subnational actors, from the multinational corporation to the ethnic minor-
it y, from the professional societ y to the epistemic communit y, from the advocacy
net work to the humanitarian organization, from the drug cartel to the terrorist
group, from the local government to the regional association, and so on across
the whole range of collective endeavor. Despite its diversit y and cross-purposes,
this multi-centric world is seen as having a modicum of coherence such that it co-
exists with the state-centric world. In effect, global structures have undergone a bi-
furcation in which the t wo worlds are conceived as sometimes cooperating and
often conf licting but at all times interacting.
Needless to say, this interaction between the worlds has been facilitated and
intensified by the information technologies, thus collapsing time, deterritorializ-
ing space, and rendering traditional boundaries increasingly obsolete. Indeed, the
more the technologies advance, the more have they facilitated the opening up of
both governments and nongovernmental organizations to the inf luence of their
members, to bottom-up and horizontal processes that have greatly complicated
the tasks of governance on a global scale (Smith and Guarnizo 1998; see also
chapters by Litfin and McDowell in this volume). For national governments, these
changes—and the vast proliferation of interconnections they have fostered—have
confounded the traditional practices of diplomacy and the long-standing premises
of national securit y, thereby necessitating a rethinking of how to pursue goals in
relation to the demands of both other states and the innumerable collectivities in
the multi-centric world (See Solomon, Wriston and Schultz 1997; and Center for
Strategic and International Affairs 1998). For the latter the increased connectiv-
it y has provided opportunities as well as challenges as they seek to network and

build coalitions with like-minded actors and contest the coalitions that stand in
the way of their goals.
In short, the bifurcation of global structures has led to a vast decentralization
of authorit y in which global governance becomes less state-centric and more the
sum of crazy-quilt patterns among unalike, dispersed, overlapping, and contradic-
tory collectivities seeking to maintain their coherence and advance their goals.
More than that, the interconnection of these patterns “is likely to deepen and be-
come the defining characteristic of the 21st Century. The information revolution
is what makes this possible; it provides the capabilit y and opportunit y to circuitize
the globe in ways and to degrees that have never been seen before. This is likely to
be a messy, complicated process, rife with ambivalent, contradictory, and para-
doxical effects” (Ronfeldt and Arquilla 1999, 19–20).
The information revolution may be neutral in the sense that it permits the
application of diverse and competing values, but clearly it underlies extensive con-
sequences in every realm of global affairs. Since there is no end in sight to the de-
velopment of new information technologies, clearly the full ramifications of their
impact are yet to be experienced as people and their collectivities seek to keep
abreast of the complexities of the dynamic transformations that are altering the
human condition.
NOTES
1. An extensive discussion of the skill revolution can be found in Rosenau (1990,

Chapter 13; 1997, Chapter 14–15). Newly generated empirical materials that affirm the hy-
pothesis that skills in the realm of public affairs have advanced in recent decades are pro-
vided in Rosenau and Fagen (December 1997, 655–86).
2. The Superconnected were those in the survey of 1,444 randomly selected Amer-
icans who exchange e-mail at least three days a week and use a laptop, a cell phone, a beeper,
and a home computer, whereas the Connected were those who exchange e-mail three days
a week and use three of the four other technologies.
3. For an analysis that stresses the limits of net works and the necessit y of hierar-
chies, see Fukuyama (1996).
REFERENCES
Bornstein, David. 1999. A Force Now in the World, Citizens Flex Social Muscle. New York
Times. (July 10)
Castells, Manuel. 1996. The Information Age: The Rise of the Network Society Vol. I. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers.
Center for Strategic & International Affairs. 1998. Reinventing Diplomacy in the Information
Age. Washington, D.C.
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. 1996. Politics Finding a Home on the ‘Net’. Washington Post.
(November 22)
Eckholm, Erik. 1998. A Trial Will Test China’s Grip on the Internet. New York Times. (No-
vember 16): A8.
Fukuyama, Francis. 1996. Social Networks and Digital Networks. Paper presented at the
Workshop on the Future of the Internet, Palo Alto, California. (May 6)
Garreau, Joel. 1999. Point Men for a Revolution: Can the Marines Survive a Shift from
Hierarchies to Networks? Washington Post. (March 6)
Goldberg, Carey, and Marjorie Connelly. 1999. Fear and Violence Have Declined Among
Teen-Agers, Poll Shows. In New York Times. A1. (October 20)
Henry, Ryan, and Edward C. Peartree, eds. 1998. The Information Revolution and Interna-
tional Security. Washington, D.C.: CSIS Press.
Katz, Jon. 1997. The Digital Citizen. Wired. (December) 71.
Keck, Margaret E., and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks
in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell Universit y Press.
Libicki, Martin C. 1998. Information War, Information Peace. Journal of International
Affairs. 51: 411–28.
MacFarquhar, Neil. 1996. With Mixed Feelings, Iran Tiptoes to the Internet. New York
Times. (October 8) A4.
Nye, Jr., Joseph S., and William A. Owens. 1996. America’s Information Edge. Foreign
Affairs. 75: 20–36.
Ronfeldt, David. 1996. Tribes, Institutions, Markets, Networks: A Framework About Societal
Evolution. Santa Monica: R AND.
Ronfeldt, David, and John Arquilla. 1999. “What If There Is a Revolution in Diplomatic
Affairs?” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Asso-
ciation, Washington, D.C. (February 17)
Rosecrance, Richard. 1996. The Rise of the Virtual State. Foreign Affairs. 75: 45–61.
———. 1999. The Skill Revolution and Restless Publics in Globalized Space. In Michel
Giraud, ed., Individualism and World Politics. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Rosenau, James N., and Michael W. Fagen. 1997. Increasingly Skillful Citizens: A New
Dynamism in World Politics? International Studies Quarterly. 41:655–86.
Salamon, Lester M. 1994. The Global Associational Revolution: The Rise of the Third Sec-
tor on the World Scene. Foreign Affairs. (July/August)
Sawyer, Deborah C. 1999. The Pied Piper Goes Electronic. The Futurist. (February)
Schmidt,William E. 1993. The Villages of Egypt Relish the Fruits of Peace. New York Times.
(September 24): A4.
Smith, Michael Peter, and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, eds. 1998. Transnationalism from Below.
New Brunsick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Solomon, Richard H., Walter B. Wriston, and George P. Schultz. 1997. Keynote Addresses
from the Virtual Diplomacy Conference. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of
Peace.
Wheeler, Deborah L. 1998. Global Culture or Culture Clash: New Information Tech-
nologies in the Islamic World—A View from Kuwait. Communications Research.
25: 359–76.
World Development Report. 1998/99. Knowledge for Development. 63. New York: Oxford
Universit y Press for the World Bank.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Jonathan Aronson
Joanthan Aronson is Professor and Director of School of International Relations
and Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication
at the Universit y of Southern California. He is the author of numerous books
and articles including When Countries Talk: International Trade in Telecommuni-
cations Services (American Enterprise Institute) and Managing the World Economy:
The Consequences of Corporate Alliances (Council on Foreign Relations) (both
co-authored with Peter Cowhey).
Sandra Braman
Sandra Braman is Reese Phifer Chair of Telecommunication and Film at the Uni-
versit y of Alabama. Over three dozen journal articles and book chapters have ex-
plored changes in the nature of the nation-state, the economy, and the nature of
the law itself as a foundation for analysis of policy-making and policies in an in-
creasingly privatized and necessarily global environment. Braman edited a special
issue of the Journal of Communication on the use of telecommunications policy in
the exercise of power by the nation-state, co-edited Globalization, Communication,
and Transnational Civil Society, and served as book review editor of the Journal of
Communication. Current projects include two books: one on information policy
analysis for a “post-law” world and one on biotechnology.
Edward Comor
Edward Comor teaches International Communication and is a facult y member
of the School of International Service, American Universit y in Washington,
D.C. He is the author of Communication, Commerce And Power (Macmillan and
St. Martin’s 1998) and is the editor of The Global Political Economy of Commu-
nication (Macmillan and St. Martin’s, 1994). Dr. Comor has published articles
in various journals including Global Governance and Journal of Economic Issues
on subjects related to the political economy of communication and cult ure
developments.
289
Ronald J. Deibert
Ronald J. Deibert is assistant professor of political science at the Universit y of
Toronto, specializing in technology, media, and world politics. He is the author of
Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia (New York: Columbia Universit y Press 1997)
and numerous articles and book chapters on the communication technologies
and world politics. He is currently completing a book manuscript on securit y and
the Internet. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the Universit y of
British Columbia, Canada, in 1995.
Jeffrey A. Hart
Jeffrey A. Hart is Professor of Political Science at Indiana Universit y, Bloom-
ington, where he has taught international politics and international political
economy since 1981. He also has taught at Princeton Universit y, and was a pro-
fessional staff member of the President’s Commission for a National Agenda
for the Eighties from 1980 to 1981. Hart worked at the Office of Technology
Assessment of the U.S. Congress in 1985–86 as an internal contractor and
helped to write their report, International Competition in Services (1987). He
was visiting scholar at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy,
1987–89. His publications include: The New International Economic Order
(1983); Interdependence in the Post Multilateral Era (1985); Rival Capitalists
(1992); The Politics of International Economic Relations, 5th edition (1997) with
Joan Spero; Globalization and Governance (1999) (edited with Aseem Prakash);
and scholarly articles in World Politics, International Organization, the British
Journal of Political Science, New Political Economy, and the Journal of Conflict
Resolution.
Sangbae Kim
Sangbae Kim received his doctorate from the department of political science,
Indiana Universit y, Bloomington. He got his B.A. and M.A. in International Re-
lations from Seoul National Universit y, South Korea. His research interests are in
the global politics of information and technology. His dissertation was entitled
“Wintelism vs. Japan: Technology, Power and Governance in the Global Com-
puter Industry”.
Karen T. Litfin
Karen T. Litfin is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Universit y of
Washington. She is author of Ozone Discourses: Science and Politics in Global Envi-
ronmental Cooperation (Columbia Universit y Press 1994) and editor of The Green-
ing of Sovereignty in World Politics (MIT Press 1998). Her research interests include
international relations theory, global environmental ethics, and feminist ap-
proaches to world politics.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 291
Stephen D. McDowell
Stephen D. McDowell teaches in the Department of Communication at Florida
State Universit y in Tallahassee. His research includes work on telecommunica-
tions policy and new communication technologies. He has held fellowships with
the Strategic Policy Planning Division of the Canadian Federal Department of
Communications in Ottawa (1987–1989), the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute
(1989–1990), and a Congressional Fellowship in Washington D.C. (1994–1995).
The book, Globalization, Liberalization and Policy Change: A Political Economy of
India’s Communications Sector (New York: St. Martin’s) appeared in 1997.
James N. Rosenau
James N. Rosenau, Universit y Professor of International Affairs, holds a distin-
guished rank that is reserved for the few scholar-teachers whose recognition in the
academic communit y transcends the usual disciplinary boundaries. Dr. Rosenau
is a renowned international political theorist with a record of publication and pro-
fessional service that is acknowledged worldwide. His scholarship has focused on
the dynamics of change in world politics and the overlap of domestic and foreign
affairs, resulting in more than 35 books and 150 articles. His most recent publi-
cations include: Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier: Exploring Governance in a Tur-
bulent World (1997), Thinking Theory Thoroughly: Coherent Approaches to an
Incoherent World (1995), Global Voices (1993), Governance Without Government
(1991), and Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity (1990).
J. P. Singh
J. P. Singh is Assistant Professor in the Communication, Culture and Technology
Program at Georgetown Universit y. He is the author of Leapfrogging Development?
The Political Economy of Telecommunications Restructuring (State Universit y of New
York Press 1999). He is currently working on another book project titled Commu-
nications and Diplomacy: Negotiating the Global Information Economy (Macmil-
lan/St. Martin’s forthcoming). Research interests include economic history,
international development, technology, and gender issues.
Mark W. Zacher
Mark W. Zacher is professor of political science at the Universit y of British Co-
lumbia. He was director of the Institute of International Relations from 1971 to
1991. He has written extensively on the politics of international organizations
and regimes. He is the author of Governing Global Networks: International Regimes
for Transportation and Communications (Cambridge Universit y Press 1996). He is
a member of the editorial boards of International Organization and International
Studies Quarterly.
INDEX
3Com, 157 Antigua and Barbuda, 261

Ackerman, Frank, 171, 183n. 3 antitrust, 159, 162–163
actual power, 243 AOL, 45, 57
Adobe, 157 Apple, 145, 150, 151
Adorno, Theodor, 17, 29n. 23 Archibugi, Daniele; structural analysis, 28n. 14
advertising. See also branding, marketing; con- Argentina, 224, 226, 256, 261
sumerism and, 175; mailing lists, 126; market Aronson, Jonathan, “field of dreams” approach,
power shift and, 157; web based, 44, 175 28n. 10; competitive networks, 8; cross-
advocacy. See also NGOs; anti-consumerist, referenced, 2, 3, 5, 23, 24, 77, 164n. 5, 164n. 6,
184n. 11; capitalist, 133–134; networks, 3, 170, 219, 240, 266n. 13, 276; importance of in-
19, 29n. 26;NGOs and satellites, 72–84; pro- formation technology, 7; networks and politics,
liferation of networks, 283; promoting tech- 27n. 2; telecom liberalization, 50, 199, 206;
nologies, 20; technological, 24–25 WTO telecom negotiations, 257–258, 267n. 29
aeronautical communications, 193 Arquila, David; enhancement, 8; interactive
Afghanistan, 119. See also Taliban media, 282; network effects, 285; networked
Africa, 279 securit y, 3, 122
agenda-setting (in negotiations), 244, 251, 258 artificial intelligence, 93
Agre, Philip, 126 Asia. See East Asia
agriculture; biotechnology and defense, Aspry, William, 117
101–104; biotechnology and, 104–107; Association for Progressive Communications, 26
biotechnology and trade, 95–100; Cairns associationalism, 282
Group, 252; genetically modified organisms, AT&T; Bell company, 224; breakup, 60n.1,
103; grain purchasing practices and capital- 206; bypassing national monopolies, 200;
ism, 171; information intensive, 105, 107, monopoly power, 7, 50, 199; preventing
108; markets and telecommunications, 263; “open access,” 57
satellites and, 66, 79, 85; technological inno- ATMs, 42, 55
vations, 92; transnational coalitions, 252 audio-visual services, 253
AIDS, 99 Australia, 222
Algeria, 78 auto industry, 143
Alic, John, 159
Almomd, Gabriel, 267n. 22 Babe, Robert, 214–215, 224
alternatives in negotiations, 243–245, 263–264 Baby Bells, 200
Amazon.com, 53, 183n. 5 Bahamas, 226
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), 149 Baker, John, 86n. 3
analog technology; effects on industry, 5; Bandwidth. See also infrastructure; encryption
leapfrog, 279–280 and, 140n. 57; high and narrow, 3
anarchy, 217–218, 284 Bangladesh, 261
Anderson, Benedict; identit y formation, banks; controlling money, 41–42; financial
118–119; in relation to meta-power (See also crises, 60n. 3; f lesh-and-blood tellers, 177;
meta-power), 15–16; technological impact, GATS and, 252; information intensive, 200,
16–17 247, 255; securit y concerns, 129, 139n. 47;
Andrews, Paul, 164n. 3 transaction networks, 129, 133
Angelides, Marios, 129 Bar, Francois, 57, 117, 195
anthrax, 102. See also biological warfare Baran, Nicholas, 175
293
294 INDEX
bargaining power, 243–244 Britain; cellular phones, 280; empire and tele-
bargaining. See negotiations graph, 222; empire, 192; English propert y
Barrera, Eduardo, 267n. 19 rights and technology, 11–12; food and mer-
Barshefsky, Charlene, 57, 257 cantilism, 102, 171; industry and empire, 19;
basic input-output system (BIOS), 145 protecting networks, 124; supporting liberal-
basic services; defined, 40, 60n.1, 265n.3; de- ization, 200, 206
mand for, 246; GATS and, 253–254, 267n. Broadband. See also infrastructure, telecommu-
25, 267n. 26; WTO telecom accord and, 239 nications; in Singapore, 8
BASIC, 145 broadcasting; Canada, 119–120; DBS issue,
BBC, 47, 54, 120 194; decreasing importance, 282; distance-
Beck, Ulrich, 104 learning and, 53; distinct from telecommuni-
Belize, 261 cations, 214; f lows, 40; frequency spectrum
Bell, Daniel; France and technology, 12; trans- and, 193; identit y formation, 119; informa-
formation through information technology, tion technology, 2; self-censorship, 48
26, 29n. 28 Bruce, Robert; European telecommunications, 8
Beltz, Cynthia, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206 Brunei, 261
Beniger, James, 29n. 28, 220 Brunn, Stanley, 219
Bennet, Colin, 126 Bud, Robert, 101–102
Bennet, Douglas, 244 bundling information, 109
Bentham, Jeremy; Panopticon, 15, 67–68 Burrows, William, 70
Berger, Peter; in relation to meta-power (See also Bush Sr. Administration, 74, 229
meta-power), 14; institutions and habits, 170; Buzan Barry, 21, 217
on social construction, 14 bypass, 200
Bergsten, Fred, 154, 254, 267n. 27
Berko, Lili, 127 C++, 145
Besen, S. M., 208 Cable and Wireless, 199
Best, Michael; technology and institutions, 12 cable; distance learning and, 53; enhanced, 5;
Biersteker, Thomas, 28n. 17 f lows, 40; increasing importance, 281; infor-
biodiversit y; satellites and, 79 mation technology, 2; rate rebalancing, 51;
biological information, 92–93 services, 255; telecommunications, 191–192,
biological warfare, 101–104, 108. See also infor- 195, 203
mation warfare, securit y. Cairns Group, 251
biotechnology; similarit y to information tech- callback, 200
nology, 17–18, 91–110 Campbell-Kelly, Martin, 117
biotics, 93 Canada; coalition with developing countries, 257;
Blackman, Colin, 205 communications policies, 135n. 6, 135n. 8;
Bolivia, 226, 261 content regulations, 119–121; CRTC, 228; cul-
Borrus, Michael; cross national production net- tural imperialism concern, 57; satellites and,
works, 158; horizontal integration, 157; net- 76; telecommunications, 211–234
works, 195; production networks, 45; capitalism; consumption and, 169–182; institu-
Wintelism, 143–144, 152–153 tions and, 11–12, 19–24; production and,
Bosnia, 55, 84 143–164; securit y and, 115–135; shaping
Braman, Sandra, 96, 97, 109; cross-referenced, telecommunication regime, 190
9, 13, 17–18, 163n.1, 181, 245, 276 Caporaso, James, 248
branding, 45, 177. See also advertising, marketing. Cardoso, Fernando, 262
Branscomb, Lewis, 93, 94 Carey, James, 220
Braudel, Fernand, 92 Caribbean, 226, 229; WTO telecom negotiation
Brazil; agricultural coalition, 252; biological di- offers, 260–262
versit y, 95; Coalition of, 20, 251; domestic Carroll, Paul, 164n. 3
conditions, 257; Inter-American Radio Con- cartels, 189–190, 198–199
ference, 226; led in negotiations, 258–259; Carter Administration, 74
negotiating hawk, 252; telecommunication Castells, Manuel; advocacy networks, 29n. 26;
revenues important, 256; telegraph in, 222; capitalism and networks, 128; formation of
WTO telecom negotiation offer, 261–262 identities, 14–15; horizontal organizations,
Brecher, Jeremy, 23, 29n. 26, 252 276; on network logic, 3, 29, 118, 283–284;
Bretton Woods, 42 space of f lows, 17, 134; technology and free-
Breyer, Stephen, 207 dom, 11
Brin, David, 56, 60n. 8, 127, 134 CD-ROMs, 2, 74, 129
INDEX 295
cellular phones, 195, 280, 281–282 works, 42; defense industry and, 158–159;
Central America, 222–229 evolution of openness in telecommunications,
central processing unit, 145. See also computers, 189–207; executive travel and, 54–55; global
microprocessors. competition, 44–45; global payments, 42, 50;
Cerni, D. M., 196 global production and marketing, 46; intellec-
Cerny, Phillip, 134 tual propert y and, 56; regulation, 224; satel-
CGIAR (Consultative Group for International lites imagery, 73–75, 84; self-regulation, 48;
Agricultural Research), 96, 99 shift to process, 100; telegraph and, 192;
Chang, Ike, 150 trade agreements, 214; work and, 53
Chapuis, R., 192 commitments. See offers in negotiations.
chat rooms, 46, 57 common carriers, 214
Chile, 226, 261 common propert y resources, 193
Chilton, Paul, 115 communism, 49, 169
China; control of information, 12, 48, 115–116, Comor, Edward; cross-referenced, 11, 17, 21,
120, 124, 125, 134; Great Firewall, 125, 24, 45, 163n. 1, 241, 275; household con-
138n. 35; information warfare capabilit y, sumption, 183n. 7; liberalization, 201; private
122, 124; intellectual propert y protections, authorit y, 29n. 22; telecommunications,
154; Internet users, 280; no privacy protec- 266n. 8; United States and international gov-
tions, 127; satellite imagery, 78 ernance, 234
Chposky, James, 164n. 3 Compaq, 157
Christensen, Clayton, 61n. 4 comparative advantage, 95, 191
Christmas, 183n. 3 competition. See also monopolies. American sys-
Christol, Carl, 194 tem, 161; antitrust, 159; cartels, 189–190,
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 78, 84, 115, 198–199; competitive advantage, 57, 204; im-
122 perfect, 146; industry structure in Canada,
cities, 219, 222 214–215; Marxian interpretation, 173; na-
civil societ y; defined, 249, 267n. 22; developing tional network initiatives, 8; networks and, 51;
countries, 249–250, 267n. 23; explosion of oligopolistic, 108, 157; standards and, 196,
associations, 281–285; international, 217; U.S. competitiveness and Wintelism, 143–164
participation for liberalization, 262–264; complex world, 278
satellites and, 78, 84; states and, 212 Computer Inquiries (FCC), 60n. 1
Clapes, Anthony, 147, 153 computers. See also software, hardware; architec-
class, 171, 174 ture explained, 144–149; capacities and speed,
Clinton Administration, 43–44, 47; Commis- 27n. 5, 132–133; Computer Inquiries II & III,
sion on Critical Infrastructure Protection, 60n. 1; digital divide, 279; encryption,
124, 137n. 30; satellite licensing, 74, 86n. 3 123–124, 137n. 25; games, 46; India and, 244;
clipper chip, 60n. 6 information technology, 2; Marxist analysis,
cloning, 149, 152 172; privacy and, 126; programming and cod-
CNN, 54, 120; effect, 47 ing, 129–130; satellites and, 72, 78; skills revo-
coalitional strategies (negotiations), 245, 254, lution and, 278; supercomputers, 133, 137n.
257, 258–259; domestic level, 259–263 25; telecommunications and, 195; terrorism in
coalitions and networks, 284–285 Japan, 101; time spent on, 56; viruses, 52, 116,
Codding, George, 192, 193, 196, 223, 225–226 122, 128, 130; Wintelism, 143–164
Coehn, G. A., 172 conduit issues; defined, 40–41; explained, 49–58
coercive strategies, 243 constitutive power. See also meta-power; similar
Cold War, 66–68, 74, 84 to meta-power, 13
collective action, 279, 284–285 constructivism; claims similar to meta-power
collective images. See also identit y; disciplinary (see also meta-power), 14–16, 71–72; con-
power and, 67; formation of, 13; of consump- structed realities, 171; consumption and,
tion, 169–182; of securit y, 17, 115–140; satel- 181–182; developing countries and, 241,
lites imagery and, 81–82, 84–85 266n. 7; explained, 14, 164n. 4; limitations,
collective memory. See also collective images. 131; power and, 156
group preferences and, 14; in relation to consumer electronics, 143
meta-power (See also meta-power), 14 consumers. See also users; compatibilit y prefer-
Colombia, 226, 251, 253, 262 ence, 146; consumption and technology,
colonialism. See imperialism. 169–182; demand in developing countries,
Commerce. See also electronic commerce; 248–250; electronic commerce, 129; end
biotechnology and, 95–110; changed by net- users, 145; expenditures, 178; genetically-
296 INDEX
modified organisms and, 103; global pat- Cusumano, Michael, 147, 150, 157, 164n. 3
terns, 21; growth in demand, 211; informa- Cutler, Clare; private authorit y, 29n. 22, 216
tion of importance, 21, 60n. 4; lack of choice, cyberwars; increasing, 8
146; notified quickly by firms, 59; protesting
biotechnologies, 107; securit y of, 44; stan- DARPA, 159
dards and, 196 data bus, 145
content issues; banned items, 44–45; control, data; f lows, 46–47, 50, 132, 214; networks, 47;
48, 115, 119–121, 217; defined, 39–40; ex- privacy and, 126–128; processing, 200–201;
plained, 41–49; V-Chip, 217 storage devices, 145; transmissions, 40, 195
convergence (technological), 4, 48, 93, 100, 104, DBS (direct broadcasting satellites), 194
108, 109, 129, 205, 215 De Landa, Manuel, 101
Conybeare, John, 252 decentralization, 21–24, 51, 58, 84, 147–148,
cookie, 175, 183n. 4 285; Wintelist governance, 156–162
cool media, 16 decolonization, 80
Coombs, Charles, 42 Dedrick, Jason, 162
copyrights, 146–147, 153 defense. See securit y.
Cosgel, Metin, 172 Deibert, Ronald; cross referenced, 12,13, 17,
Costa Rica, 98, 226 21, 22, 56, 163n. 1, 219, 265n. 6, 266n. 13,
Costello, Tim, 23, 29n. 26, 252, 276; effects of net works, 2, 24, 29n. 26; fu-
costs, 6, 39, 46, 50, 146; See also Moore’s Law, ture of states, 85; medium theory amended,
prices; entry, 161; innovation and, 174; 117; net worked securit y, 3, 8; social episte-
labor, 173, 177; overhead, 173; pricing in mology, 65; versioning and distribution,
telecommunications, 254, 258 177
Cote d’Ivoire, 261 democracy; constraint in negotiations, 248, 262;
Cowhey, Peter; convergence, 205,; developing democracy and networks, 49
countries in WTO negotiations, 257, 262; im- Department of Defense (U.S.). See Pentagon.
portance of information technology, 7; leased Department of Justice (U.S.), 159
lines, 205; networks and politics, 27n. 2, 197; dependency, 244
telecom liberalization, 50, 197, 199, 206 Der Derian, James; effects of networks, 2; media
Cox, Robert; collective images, 116, 135n. 2; and intelligence, 122; postmodern view,
critical theory, 212; on consumption, 170; on 28n. 17
world order, 118, 134; structural power, 10 deregulation, 174, 190, 200, 207, 215. See also
crackers, 115, 122–123, 130, 136n. 18, 136n. regulation.
20. See also hackers, information warfare. deterrence, 71
Crigley, Robert, 157 Deudney, Daniel, 134
critical studies, 131. See also Robert Cox, Ed- developing countries; balance of power, 108; bi-
ward Comor, Ronald Deibert, Stephen Mc- ological diversit y in, 95–96; DBS issue, 194;
Dowell; securit y studies, 115–135; applied to deforestation, 81; democracy and networks,
consumption, 169–184; applied to telecom- 49; digital divide, 279–280; gaining from ne-
munications, 211–234; importance of histori- gotiations, 59; markets for consumption, 173,
cal context, 116, 212, 217 175; NASA and, 73; new international insti-
crucial case study, 239, 265n. 4 tutions demanded, 13; reliance on foreign
cryptography. See encryption technologies. firms, 199; spectrum allocation, 196; strate-
Cuba, 226 gies in North-South negotiations, 242–245,
cultural theory, 17 266n. 9; UNCTAD and, 13; WTO telecom-
culture. See also identit y; alliances, 121, 136n. munications accord, 201–202, 239–267
12; biotechnology and, 104, 105; citizenship Dezalay, Yves, 111
and identit y, 52; common symbols of, 55, 58; diffusion of power, 242–243
democracy and, 49, 50; education and, 53, 58; digital citizens, 278
entertainment and, 57–58; expressions of, digital divide, 39; explained, 279–280; gap clos-
214; global branding, 45; global currency and, ing, 45; ignored, 277
42–43, 50; identit y and, 14–16, 104, 120, digitization; content industries, 4, 177; conver-
121; indigenous, 96, 98; instant news, 47; in- gence, 215; copying costs low, 146; digital di-
stitutions and, 161, 164n. 2; norms, 177; provide, 279; effects of, 3–6, 92–93, 118, 278;
tections, 119–120; space of, 212–214; time links with biotechnology, 101, 104, 108–110;
and speed, 179; transformed, 39–40 postmodern view, 23; surveillance and,
currencies; electronic, 41–42; of importance, 132–133
42–43 disasters, 81–84
INDEX 297
disciplinary power and gaze, 66–67, 76–77, encryption technologies, 123–125, 127–128,
84–85 131, 136n. 24, 137n. 32
diseases, 66, 126; biological warfare, 101–104 Engels, Friedrich, 173
dissident groups, 124, 137n. 27. See also advocacy. England. See Britain.
distance learning, 40, 53–54, 58 Enlightenment, 21–22, 25–26
distribution of power, 190, 206, 240, 242–243, Enloe, Cynthia, 28n. 17
250–251 entertainment; consumption of, 175; f lows, 40;
divestiture, 190 impact of Web, 57–58; MNC support, 133;
division of labor. See international division of vertical integration, 3–4
labor. environment; awareness of, 72; genebanks and,
domestic conditions, 240, 245–250, 251; favor- 97; networks and, 59; satellites and, 79–84;
ing liberalization, 259–264; resonance in in- securit y, 103
ternational negotiations, 246, 259–264 epistemic communities, 284. See also ideational
dominant design, 151 f lows.
Dominica, 259, 261 equipment manufacturers, 256, 262
Dominican Republic, 226, 259, 261 Ergas, Henry, 159
DOS/Windows, 149 Ericsson, 57, 61n. 9
dot-coms, 53 Erickson, Jim, 164n. 3
Drache, Daniel, 219 espionage. See also CIA, surveillance, informa-
Drake, William, 202, 252, 267n. 33 tion warfare, military intelligence; corporate,
DR AM, 145 130, 136n. 24; satellite images available,
Duch, Raymond, 12 29n. 20, 66, 68–72, 84
Ethiopia, 252
E*trade, 45 ethnic minorities, 284
East Asia; broadcasting in, 48; competition Euro, 42–43
from, 173; economic stagnation in, 43; finan- Europe. See also European Union; biotechnol-
cial crisis, 9; liberalization in, 201; pressures ogy and, 96; digital divide, 279–280; eco-
for WTO telecom talks, 257; prioritizing net- nomic slowdown, 9; environment and, 82;
works, 8; regulatory states in, 158; telecom- role of technology in modernization, 17; secu-
munications and legitimacy, 249; WTO rit y and economic communit y, 220; telecom-
telecom offers, 262 munication standards, 192
East India Company, 19 European Union. See also Europe; coalition
eBay, 45 with developing world, 254, 257–259; Euro-
Ecuador, 226 pean Data Protection Directive, 127; GATS
education and networks, 278 and, 253; policy harmonization, 48; prioritiz-
Egypt, 280 ing information technology, 8, 20; privacy
El Salvador, 226 concerns, 56; satellite imagery and, 86n. 1;
elections and networks, 49 setting standards, 61n. 9; telecommunica-
electricit y, 280 tions deregulation, 203; WTO telecommuni-
Electronic Data Systems, 157 cation negotiations, 202
electronic commerce. See also commerce; Bill Evans, Peter, 248
Gates and, 56; Clinton administration and, Excel, 150
43; encryption technologies, 123, 125; evad- externalities, 151–152
ing national regulations, 20; f lows, 40, eyeballs, 56, 179
43–45; global competition, 44–45, 50; global Ezrahi, Yaron, 25
payments, 42, 50, 129; global production,
46–47, 50; Internet and, 176–177; privacy facsimile. See fax.
and, 126–128; securit y and, 116, 129, 130; Fagen, Michael, 266n. 15, 285n. 1
self-regulation, 48; speed of, 178–179; tariff- Fagre, Nathan, 244
free zone, 176; volume estimates, 44 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), 99
electronic mail. See Email. fax, 40, 47, 194, 195, 262, 278
electronic money, 41–42, 129, 132–133 FCC (Federal Communication Commission);
Email, 46, 47, 194, 195 Computer Inquiries II & III, 60n. 1; institu-
emotions and networks, 278, 282 tionalization of roles, 225; not regulating Inter-
empowerment. See also instrumental power; ne- net, 43; unilateral move in pricing, 258; WTO
gotiations favoring weak, 239–265; NGOs, telecommunication negotiations, 257, 262
satellites and, 79–84; through networks, Federal Trade Commission, 159
7–10, 47, 241, 243; through print media, 47 Felipe Jaramillo, 253
298 INDEX
Ferguson, Charles, 144–145, 157 General Electric, 73, 128

Feudalism, 217–218 genetic power, 91–110. See also meta-power; re-
fiber optics, 195, 278 lated to biotechnologies, 17–18; similar to
films, 119, 214 meta-power, 13
financial crises, 42; network securit y and, geography, 212–214, 218, 220, 232. See also space.
128–129 geostationary orbit, 194
financial services, 253. See also banks. Gereffi, Gary, 3, 247–248
Fine, Ben, 11 Germany; controls on information, 115, 120,
Finnemore, Martha, 28n. 17, 80, 135n. 9
first mover advantage, 151, 159 Gertler, Meric, 219
Fischer, Markus, 218 Ghana, 261
Fishlow, Albert, 29n. 21 Giddens, Anthony, 164n. 4
Flamm, Kenneth, 159 Gill, Stephen, 173
f loppy disk drives, 145 Gilpin, Robert; networks and politics, 27n. 2;
food aid, 81 notion similar to meta-power, 13; political
Fortner, Robert, 222 economy of U.S., 161; power and technology,
Fortran, 145 27n. 7, 17
Foucault, Michel; disciplinary power and gaze, GIS (Global Information System), 81–82, 84,
67–68, 75; in relation to meta-power (see also 126, 138n. 39; David Martin on, 126
meta-power), 15; micro-power relations, 15; Giscard d’Estaing, Valéry; prioritizing informa-
resistance, 76 tion technology, 7
France; content regulations, 119–120, 136n. 11; global commodit y chains, 247
cultural imperialism concern, 57; prioritizing global societ y, 217–218
information technology, 7; protecting net- globalization. See also liberalization; consump-
works, 124; societe bloquee, 12 tion and, 181; developing countries and,
Fransman, Martin, 149 246–248; network securit y and, 128; patterns
Fredebul–Krein, Markus, 201, 202 of, 212, 233; proceeding, 42, 133–134; pro-
free trade; Karl Polanyi and, 11, 28n. 15, 19; duction and, 158
post-industrial businesses and, 20 GNS (Group on Negotiation of Services), 252.
Freedman, Stuart, 43 See also GATS.
freedom, 11 Gore, Albert, 44
frequency spectrum, 193 Gourevitch, Peter, 248
Freytag, Andreas, 201, 202 Graham, Stephen, 235
Friedman, Thomas, 42, 45 Gramsci, Antonio, 10, 29n. 23, 212
Froomkin, Michael, 124 Gramscian ideas, 212
Fuchs, Gerhard; European telecommunications, 8 Grant, Rebecca, 126
Fukuyama, Francis, 49, 281 Gray, E. M., 196
functionalist approaches, 220 Green Revolution, 105, 107
Grenada, 259, 261
Gabel, Landis, 151, 153 Grieco, Joseph, 244, 266n. 9
Galbraith, John Kenneth, 184n. 12 Grindley, Peter, 151
Gandy, Oscar, 126–127 Gross Domestic Product, 247
Garth, Bryant, 111 Group on Basic Telecommunications, 254–259
Gates, Bill, 54, 56, 140 See also international negotiations, GATS.
Gateway, 157 Group on Negotiation of Services (GNS),
gateways, 191 251–253
GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Ser- Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, 29n. 26, 284
vices); developing world and, 252–254; Guatemala, 226
framework negotiated, 252–254; Group on Gulf War, 277
Negotiation of Services, 251–253; including Gupta, Vipin, 78
services in international trade, 98; telecom- Guzzini, Stefano, 156
munications and, 201–202, 241–245
GATT. See WTO. Haas, Ernst, 13
Geertz, Clifford; culture and human nature, 14; in Habermas, 22
relation to meta-power (see also meta-power), 14 Hackers, 115, 122–123, 130, 136n. 19,
gender, 28n. 17, 171 136n. 21, 137n. 26. See also crackers, infor-
genebanks, 95–100 mation warfare.
INDEX 299
Hafner, Katie, 117 ideational power, 155

Haiti, 226 identit y. See also culture, collective images, collec-
Hall, Stephen, 72 tive memory, language; constitution of,
Hamilton, Alexander, 20 12–18, 26, 66, 104, 121, 164n. 4, 221; con-
Hansen, Hugh, 153 sumption and, 175, 179–180; impact of net-
hard drives, 145 works, 12–18, 52, 118–119; medieval, 218;
hardware, 129, 144–145 “multiperspectival,” 2; spatial conception, 213
Harris, Laurence, 11 ideology, 124, 174, 180
Hart, Jeffrey; competitiveness concerns, 8; cross- images; f lows, 40; impact of, 54–55; satellites
referenced, 5, 12, 13, 21, 25, 45, 56, 170, and, 65–85
241, 276; origins of Internet, 117; path de- imagination and networks, 278
pendency, 161; power, 151; states, 158; tech- imagined communit y, 16
nology and institutions, 12, 145, 164n. 2, 147 IMF (International Monetary Fund); “demo-
Harvey, David, 235 cratic deficit,” 48; mismanagement, 42
Headrick, Daniel, 199 immigration, 52
Hedley Bull, 217 imperialism, 95–96, 100, 107, 109, 121; British
hegemony; capitalist, 21, 24, 162–163; renewed Empire, 192; telecommunication governance
lease for U.S., 9 and, 221, 233
Held, David, 126 import substitution industrialization, 242,
Helleiner, Eric, 133 246–247, 250
Henry, Ryan, 277 inclusion strategy (negotiations), 244, 258
Herz, John, 115 India; agricultural coalition, 252; attacked by
hierarchies, 281–282. See also vertical integra- hackers, 123; Coalition of, 20, 251; domestic
tion, distribution of power. conditions, 257; legitimacy in rural areas,
historical context; critical theory and, 116, 212, 250; national information technology initia-
217; international negotiations and, 242–243 tives, 8; negotiating hawk, 252, 254; nuclear
Hobsbaum, Eric; technology and freedom, 11 tests and satellites, 75–76, 78; telephony lib-
Hoekman, Bernard, 251 eralization, 260; WTO telecom offer,
Hoffman, Stanley, 12 260–263
home shopping, 51 Indonesia, 252, 256, 257, 260–262, 283
Honduras, 226 industrial governance, 156–158
Hong Kong, 256, 257, 258, 261 industrial policy, 158–160
horizontal integration; digitization effects, 5; industrialization; origins of consumerism, 171;
f lexible, 276; industrial governance and, sociopolitical order and, 21–22
156–158; Wintelism and, 144, 162 industry structure. See competition, monopolies
Horkheimer, Max, 17, 29n. 23 information f lows, 46–47, 50, 97, 104, 116,
Horwitz, Robert; origins of regulation, 224; Pen- 124, 128, 130, 134, 175; norms governing,
tagon support of AT&T, 28n. 9 194, 204
Horwitz, Robert Britt, 200 information overloads, 56
hot media, 16 information societ y; bounded by informational
Hudson, Heather, 7, 265n. 32 mode of production, 17; harmonization of
Hufbauer, Gary, 202, 267n. 32 systems, 94; johaka shakai, 7; origins of, 92
Hughes Aircraft, 73 information warfare. See also biological warfare,
human rights, 124, 127, 285. See also decentral- crackers, hackers, securit y, nuclear weapons;
ization, democracy, digital divide, humanitar- biological warfare and, 101–104, 108; chang-
ian assistance. ing nature of, 122; military capabilities and,
humanitarian assistance, 79–84, 105, 284 277; occurrences, 8–10; speed of response,
Hundt, Reed, 257 52–53; U.S. Marine Corps, 282–283;
Hurbauer, Gary, 202 weaponry, 52–53
Huysmans, Jef, 116 infrastructure. See also computers, Broadband,
broadcasting, cable, electronic commerce, en-
IBM; Intel x86 series, 145, 149; military con- tertainment., Internet, print media, radio,
tracts, 159; operating systems, 150; Wintelist satellites, telegraph; Commission on Critical
coalition and, 143, 146 Infrastructure Protection, 124, 137n. 30;
ICANN, 197 conduits, 40–41, 49–58; importance, 8; Secu-
ideas, 200, 277 rit y, 3, 8, 17, 56, 115–140; telecommunica-
ideational f lows, 40, 47–49, 91, 117, 154, 251 tions, 176, 189–207; White House on, 8
300 INDEX
Innis, Harold; identit y formation, 118–119; Internet. See also World Wide Web; American
medium theory, 16 imperialism, 121; brokers, 45; consumption
innocent transmission, 193 and, 170–171, 175–181; digital divide,
innovation, 143, 147, 151, 155–156, 160–161, 279–280; electronic commerce and, 20,
169, 174, 190, 196, 200, 205, 224, 246, 277, 43–45; France and, 12; history of, 117–118;
282–283 ICANN, 197; interaction effects, 281–284;
institutions; Christmas as, 183n. 3; consump- rate rebalancing, 51; satellite data and, 74,
tion and, 169–182; production, 143–164; 84; securit y and, 115–140; self-regulation,
technology and, 12, 145, 147, 164n. 2 217; telephony, 205; users and traffic, 43,
instrumental power; as material power, 151, 46
155–156; defined, 6, 93; distinguished from intranets, 125, 128, 131
meta-power, 13; information networks and, inward oriented growth. See import substitution
7–10, 65–86; North-South negotiations and, industrialization.
264; re-examination of, 240; Western liberal Iran, 119, 120, 124, 280
thought, 25–26, 28n. 12, 29n. 27 Iraq, 78, 120–121, 125, 136n. 13
Intel; clones, 149, 152; Wintelism and, 12, ISDN, 8
143–164; x86 series, 145, 149 ISPs (Internet Service Providers), 57, 125
intellectual propert y; commerce and, 56–57; Israel, 102
conceptualized as technology, 146, 164n. 2; issue-linkage, 243, 244–245, 258–259
development of laws, 98–99; enforcement, ITT, 199
159–160; impact of biotechnologies, 93; ori- ITU (International Telecommunication Union);
gins of laws, 97; protections needed, 44–45, CITEL and, 230–231; founding of, 1, 189,
146–147, 151; TRIPs agreement, 57, 153; 191; history of, 27n. 1; new multilateral
Wintelism and, 153–154 agreements, 228; on development, 7; stan-
Inter American Radio Conferences, 225–226 dards and, 192–198, 225; supportive of
interactive contexts, 281–284 states, 219, 232; WTO negotiations, 255
Inter-American Telecommunication Commis-
sion (CITEL), 226–227, 229–232 Jackson, John, 253
interconnection, 190–198, 206, 225 Jackson, Tim, 164n. 3
interface protocols, 144–145 Jacquier, Nicholas, 267n. 32
international business. See MNCs. Jamaica, 259, 261
international division of labor, 247, 267n. 19 Japan; cellular phones, 280; coalition with devel-
international law, 73, 93, 98. See also law (na- oping countries, 257; competition from, 163;
tional). economic stagnation in, 43, 48; MITI, 7; na-
international norms; development of, 69, 80, tional initiatives, 8; protecting networks, 124;
164n. 4, 245; resilience, 86n. 4; telecommuni- regulation in, 144, 158; software engineering
cations, 194, 198, 204, 239 in, 147; supporting liberalization, 200, 206;
International Ocean Telegraph Company, 222 terrorism in, 101
international organizations. See also ASEAN, Java, 157
WTO, ICANN, World Bank, IMF, INTEL- Jeffersonian ideal, 278
SAT, ITU, NAFTA, UNCTAD, UNESCO, Johnson, Chalmers, 158
United Nations; inf luence of, 243; satellites Johnson, Elizabeth, 199–200
and, 66, 83; telecommunication negotiations, Johnson, L. L., 196
255, 259; venue for developing world, 252 Johnston, Ronald, 89
international providers, 225 jurisdictional rights in telecommunications,
International Radiotelegraph Convention, 190–198
223–224 justice, 118
International Radiotelegraph Union, 192–193
international regimes; defined, 265n. 1; genetic Kahin, Brian, 215
resources, 98; information policy, 92, 94; in- Kantor, Mickey, 256, 258
tellectual propert y, 153–154; regulatory, 172; Karlsson, Magnus, 205, 207
securit y, 68–72, 84, 134–135; telecommuni- Katz, Jon, 278, 282
cations, 189–207, 239–265 Katzenstein, Peter, 28n. 17, 164n. 4
international rules, 204, 239, 240, 244, 245, 247 Keck, Margaret; advocacy networks, 3, 29n. 26,
international services, 226, 255 283; constructivism, 28n. 17
International Union of American Republics. See Kellerman, A., 235
Organization of American States. Kennedy Administration, 69
INDEX 301
Kennedy, Paul, 28n. 10 legalistic strategies, 245, 258–259

Kenney, Martin, 155 legitimacy; Edgar Borgatta, 29n. 25; Max Weber
Keohane, Robert, 265n.4, 242; domestic condi- on, 2; NGOs and, 79, 82
tions, 248, 264; effects of networks, 2; fungi- Leinbach, Thomas, 219
bilit y of power, 243; instrumental power, Leive, David, 193
27n. 7; interdependence, 247; new world Leonsis, Ted, 164n. 3
overlaps old, 26–27; soft power, 13, 28n. 28; Lessig, Lawrence, 57, 94
structural power in issue-areas, 10 Levy, Brian, 12, 48
keyboard, 145 liberalization; domestic, 242, 259–264; in
key-escrow encryption, 123–126 United States, 229; telecommunication,
Keynesian policies, 175 189–207, 215, 239–267
Killian Report, 69 Libicke, Martin, 277
Kim, Sangbae; cross-referenced, 5, 12, 13, 21, Lijphart, Arend, 265
25, 45, 56, 170, 241, 275; path dependency, linkages. See issue-linkage.
161; power, 151; technology and institutions, Lipschutz, Ronnie, 116, 135n. 1
145, 147, 164n. 2 listservs, 57
Kindleberger, Charles, 248 Litfin, Karen, 80; cross-referenced, 9, 13, 15,
King, Gary, 265n.4 16, 23, 25, 60n. 8, 265n. 6, 266n. 13, 284
Kitscehlt, Herbert, 147, 148 local governments, 222
Klass, Philip, 71 local services, 225, 255
Kloppenberg, Jack, 92, 101, 105 lock-in effects, 151
knowledge, 152, 155 long-distance services, 50, 225, 229, 255
Knudsen, Olav, 266n. 9 Lotus, 150, 157
Kobrin, Stephen, 218 love and marriage, 181
Kohli, Atul, 267n. 23 Luckmann, Thomas; in relation to meta-power
Kosovo, 277 (see also meta-power), 14; institutions and
Kostecki, Mitchell, 251 habits, 170; on social construction, 14
Kraemer, Kenneth, 162 Luke, Timothy; credit cards, 184n. 11; effects of
Krasner, Stephen; definition of regimes, 265n. networks, 2, 24, 26n. 29, 134; informational
1; networks and politics, 27n. 2; power mat- mode of production, 17
ters, 242; reference to meta–power, 13, 154; Lyon, David, 126
telecommunications, 266n. 8 Lyon, Matthew, 117
Krause, Keith, 116
Krimsky, Sheldon, 92–93 MacDougal, Walter, 68
Krugman, Paul; mercantilist policies, 19; on Machlup, Fritz, 27–28n. 8
“competitiveness obsession”, 28n. 10 Macintosh, 145
Kuwait, 280 Mack, Pamela, 88
Magaziner Report, 43
labor, 252, 253; costs, 173, 177; unions, 172 main lines, 256–257
Lachman, Ludwig, 174 Malaysia; agricultural coalition, 252; financial
Lake, David, 20 crisis, 60n. 3; legitimacy in rural areas, 250;
Landes, David; importance of demand, 22; The pressures for WTO telecom talks, 257; WTO
Unbound Prometheus, 12 telecom negotiation offer, 257, 261–262
Landsat, 73 Manes, Stephen, 164n. 3
Lang, Jeff, 257 Mansell, Robin, 265n. 5
language; origins in agriculture, 104; role in na- Marconi, 192
tionalism, 16–17, 119–120; used in comput- marginal costs; falling, 3–6. See also Moore’s
ers, 145, 157 Law.
Larson, James; Korean telecommunications, 8 maritime communications, 193
Latin America, 222–228; digital divide, market access, 189, 195, 198–203, 253,
279–280; liberalization in, 201; WTO tele- 260–263
com negotiations, 258 market efficiency, 266–267n. 18
law (national), 147, 149, 153, 159. See also inter- market power shifts, 157
national law; consumption and, 172; distin- market shares, 149–150, 206
guished from governance, 213 marketing, 148, 175–177. See also advertising,
leased lines, 199–200, 205, 255 branding.
Lee, Mart yn, 175, 180 Marrakesh meeting, 253
302 INDEX
Martin, David, 126 Microsoft; encryption, 140; fight over Java, 57;
Marvin, Stephen, 235 Wintelism and, 12, 143–164
Marx, Karl, 173, 181–182, 182–183n. 2 Microsoft Word, 150
Marxian analysis; dialectical materialism, 172; Middle East, 279
ideas of progress, 25; informational mode of Migdal, Joel, 140n. 60, 267n. 23
production, 17; structures, institutions, and military. See Weapons, Information Warfare.
technology, 14, 22, 172, 182n. 2; telecommu- military intelligence, 122. See also espionage.
nications and, 241, 266n. 8 Milner, Helen; domestic conditions, 248, 264;
mass media, 119, 175, 214. See also print media, instrumental power, 27n. 7
television, radio, broadcasting. Minc, Alain; prioritizing information technol-
material power. See instrumental power ogy, 7, 29n. 28
Matthews, Jessica, 3, 26, 29n. 26 MITI (Ministry of International Trade and In-
Mattingly, Garret, 51 dustry); prioritizing information technology,
McDowell, Stephen; cross-referenced, 5, 21, 24, 7
164n. 5, 170, 239, 241, 284; national infor- MNCs (multi-national corporations); agriculture
mation technology initiatives, 8 and, 106; bargaining power, 244; consump-
MCI, 200 tion and, 172–176, 180; cross national pro-
McKnight, Lee, 209 duction networks, 158; developing world and,
McLuhan, Marshall; identit y formation, 259, 262; intellectual propert y and, 95, 98;
118–119; medium theory, 16 international telecommunication regime and,
Media One, 57 189–207; manipulating developing countries,
Medium theory; amended by Ronald Deibert, 241; oligopolies, 108, 157; proliferating, 284;
17, 116–117, 131–135; Harold Innis, 16; Spotlight phenomena, 9; technology serving
Marshall McLuhan, 16 interests of, 212
Meiji Restoration, 19 mobile phones. See cellular phones.
Melody, William; national information technol- modernization, 47
ogy initiatives, 8 Mody, Bella, 201, 203, 267n. 19
Meltzer, Arthur, 21–22, 28 money; f lows, 40–43, 50
mercantilism; food power, 102; state-run mo- monitor (computer), 145
nopolies and, 19, 199, 206; United States monopolies; guaranteed returns, 233; Mi-
and, 20 crosoft, 150; natural, 246; power, 7; regu-
mergers and acquisitions, 176, 183n. 6, 203, lated, 50; rise of, 225; satellite images and,
211, 215 84–85; strengthened, 202–203, 227; telecom-
Merges, Robert, 167–168 munications markets and prices, 198–201
meta-power. See also constructivism, post- monopoly capitalism, 233
modernism; and Alexander Wendt, 14; and Monroe Doctrine, 223
Benedict Anderson, 16; and Clifford Geertz, Montreal Protocol, 80
14; and collective memory, 14; and Edward Moore, Adam, 147
Said, 15; and Harold Innis, 15; and Manuel Moore, Gordon, 155, 164n. 3. See also Moore’s
Castells, 14; and Marshall McLuhan, 15; and Law.
Michel Foucault, 15; and Robert Gilpin, Moore’s Law, 6, 155
13–14; and socialization, 14; and soft power, Morocco, 253, 261
13–14, 154–155; and Stefano Guzzini, 156; Morris, Charles, 144–145, 157
and Stephen Krasner, 13–14, 154; and Timo- Mosco, Vincent, 215, 225
thy Luke, 17; constitutive power, 65–68, most favored nation (MFN), 253, 255, 259
71–72; defined, 2, 6; genetic power, 91–110; motherboard, 145
important in long run, 264; information net- Motorola, 145, 149, 255, 257
works and, 12–18 Mowery, David, 159, 162
meta-technologies, 91–110 MP3, 57
meteorology, 69, 84–85 Mueller, Milton, 197
Mexico; Inter-American Radio Conference, multimedia, 4, 204, 215; devices, 4–6
226; led negotiation, 259; NAFTA, 229; multiperspectival governance, 21, 85, 233
telecommunication revenues important, 256; Murdoch, Rupert, 177
telegraph in, 222–224; WTO telecom offer, music business, 53
258, 261–262 Myanmar, 120, 121, 125
MFN (most favored nation), 154
Michie, Jonathan; structural analysis, 28n. 14 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agree-
microprocessors, 143, 145, 147, 149–151 ment), 214, 229
INDEX 303
NASA, 72; defacing of webpages, 122; Landsat, Noam, Eli; compliance with WTO, 203; conver-
72–73 gence, 205; future of universities, 53;
NASDAQ, 45 telecommunication liberalization, 202, 264;
National Association of Regulatory Commis- user groups analysis, 265n. 5
sioners, 225 Nokia, 57
national interest, 9 Noland, Marcus, 154
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- Nora, Simon; prioritizing information technol-
tion (NOAA), 69 ogy, 7, 29n. 28
National Science Foundation, 69 North, Douglass; construction of legitimacy, 24;
National Treatment, 253, 255, 259 propert y rights in England, 11–12; propert y
nationalism and technology, 16 rights in general, 28n. 16
nation-states. See states North-South negotiations, 239–267
Neale, Margaret, 244 Norway, 83
NEC, 149 Novell, 157
negotiations. See also WTO; availabilit y of al- NTIA (National Telecommunications and Infor-
ternatives and strategies, 242–245; bilateral, mation Administration), 8
154; distinguished from bargaining, 266n. nuclear warfare; biotechnologies and, 101; satel-
14; favors weak actors, 29; lites and, 68–72
GATT/WTO/GATS, 201–203; impact of Nye, Joseph; fungibilit y of power, 243; new
meta-technologies, 92, 94, 96; importance world overlaps old, 26–27; power and interde-
of, 23–24, 58–60, 60n. 2, 263–264; protests pendence, 242; soft power, 28n. 11, 13,
against, 107; WTO telecom accord, 154–155, 277; U.S. securit y, 8–9
239–267
Negroponte, Nicholas, 5 obsolescence, 147, 155
Nelson, Richard, 20, 162 Odell, John, 13, 243–244, 266n. 9
neo-liberalism, 169, 214, 217, 241, 266n. 7. See OECD (Organization for Economic Coopera-
also liberalization; distinguished from con- tion and Development), 125, 137n. 32
structivists, 13–14; normative analysis, 266n. offers in negotiations, 249; correlated with do-
16; telecommunication regimes, 189–207, mestic liberalizations, 260–263; GATS spe-
239–265 cific commitments, 253; WTO telecom
neo-medievalism, 217–218, 220 negotiations, 256–263
neo-realism, 8–10, 217, 241–243, 266n. 8. See Office of Technology Assessment, 71
also anarchy, distribution of power, sover- Olson, Mancur; autocrats and encompassing in-
eignt y, states. terests, 266n. 10; benefits from propert y
Nesson, Charles, 215 rights, 11–12
Netscape, 157 Onuf, Nicholas, 28n. 17
neutralit y. See technological neutralit y. operating systems, 143, 145, 147, 149–150
New International Economic Order (NIEO); Oracle, 157
calls for by Third World, 13 Organization of American States (OAS), 223,
Newly Industrializing Countries, 249, 251, 262. 225, 229
See also East Asia. organizational form; information age and, 106
News Corporation, 177 organized crime, 124
news media, 54. See also broadcasting, print Ostry, Sylvia, 154
media; satellite imagery, 78, 86n. 5 Owens, William; U.S. securit y, 8–9; soft power,
NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations); 277
consumption and, 172; empowered by net-
works, 26, 60n. 8; ICANN and, 197; in- Pacey, Albert; railroads and sovereignt y, 19
creasing in numbers, 281; playing new roles, packet-switching, 132
16, 281–284; power accruing to, 25–26, 59, paging, 40, 255
216–217, 281–284; privacy advocacy, 127; Pakistan, 75–76, 261–262
promoting information technology, 20; satel- Panama, 226
lite imagery and, 66, 77–85; securit y and, Panopticon; described by Oscar Gandy,
75, 77–79, 124; transnational coalitions, 126–127; disciplinary gaze and, 15
252 Paraguay, 226
Nicaragua, 226, 252 participatory development, 250, 265
Nicolaides, Kalypso, 201, 252, 255, 267n. 26 patents, 146–147, 153
Niosi, Jorge, 214 Pavlic, Breda, 29n. 28
Nissenbaum, Stephen, 183n. 3 PCs. See computers.
304 INDEX
Peartree, Edward, 277 privacy; consumer, 44; encryption technologies,

Pentagon. See also United States; hackers and 123–124; loss of, 56; regulation, 48,
crackers, 123, 136 n. 19; Operation Desert 215–216; securit y and, 126–128
Storm, 78; Russian access to computers, 8; private authorit y in international affairs; emer-
support for AT&T, 7 gence of, 21, 29n. 22
Pentland, Charles, 220 privatization; of standards setting, 197; telecom-
Pepper, Robert, 43, 44 munications, 190, 215
Persian Gulf conf lict, 76, 78 progress. See also innovation; ideas of, 21–22,
persuasion, 245 25–26; technological, 155
Peru, 226, 258–259, 261–262 propert y rights; technology and, 11–12
Peterson, M. J., 69 Prussia, 19
Peterson, Spike, 28n. 17 psychics; using networks, 56, 60n. 7
Petrazzini, Ben; national information technology PTTs (post, telegraph, and telephone), 246, 263
initiatives, 8; WTO telecom negotiations, public eyes (Karen Litfin). See also spotlight phe-
257, 267n. 27 nomena; defined, 9
Philippines, 252, 261, 280, 283 public goods, 158
photography. See images. Putnam, Robert, 246, 264, 267n. 22
Pierce, William, 267n. 32 PVO (private voluntary organizations). See
platform (computers), 145 NGOs.
Plato, 138
pluralist approaches. See plurality, neo-liberalism. Qualcomm, 57, 61n. 9
pluralit y (actors and issues), 21–24, 212–214, Quebec, 119
242–243
Poitras, Manuel, 93 R&D (research and development), 106, 146,
Polanyi, Karl; creation of liassez-faire, 11, 28n. 148, 158–160, 163
15, 19; technology and freedom, 14 radio, 119, 192, 214; decreasing importance,
Pool, Ithiel de Sola; democracy and networks, 282; spectrum standards, 196
49; impact of information technology, 29n. radio-magnetic frequencies, 225
28; telecommunication governance, 219 railways, 19; Fishlow’s analysis, 29n. 21; provid-
Porat, Marc; information occupations, 28n. 8, ing telecommunications, 203
29n. 28 rates of returns, 233, 246. See also prices.
pornography, 120 rational actors, 179, 184n. 10
Porter, Michael, 205–206 rational choice; neo-liberals and, 13–14
Post-Fordism, 247, 267n. 19 Reagan Administration, 46, 73
post-modernism; feminists and, 14; hypermedia realism. See neo-realism.
environment and, 23, 131; postmodernit y Reed, Robert, 117
and, 85, 94; rationalit y and, 15; seeds and, refugees, 81–82, 86n. 6
100 regimes. See international regimes.
potential power, 243 regional integration, 214, 221–228
power. See actual power, ideational power, in- regulation. See also deregulation; competition
strumental power, genetic power, meta-power, and, 51, 202; consumption and, 172; distin-
potential power, structural power, symbolic guished from governance, 213; electronic
power. commerce and, 20, 43–44; good ideas for,
prices. See also marginal costs; competitive for 48, 148; international settlements, 258;
services, 51; copying costs, 146; cost based modified regulatory state, 144, 158–160; na-
telecommunication pricing, 254–255; declin- tional monopolies and, 50; self-regulation,
ing, 39, 46, 50; f lexibilit y, 215; international 48, 50, 216; telecommunications, 189–207,
services, 226; open markets for grain, 171; 255; transparency, 255; WTO offers,
predatory, 149, 163; regulation, 213; reserva- 260–263
tion, 243–244; satellite images, 73, 78, 82–83; religion, 180
sourcing practices and, 148; telecommunica- re-regulation, 190. See also regulation, deregula-
tions rates and tariffs, 189, 195, 198–204 tion.
print media; credibilit y, 54; empowerment and, resale, 255
47; information technology, 2, in transition, reservation price, 244
53; rise of nationalism and, 16–17; vertical revenues in telecommunication, 256, 259
integration, 3–4 Ricardo, David, 95
printing press, 172, 182–183n. 2 risk, 104, 108
INDEX 305
Rogers, Everett; Diffusion of Innovations, Schultz, George, 284

29n. 28 Schumpeter, Joseph; creative destruction, 155;
Ronfeldt, David; interactive media, 282; network structural analysis, 28n. 14
effects, 282, 285; networked securit y, 3, 122 Seagate, 157
Rosecrance, Richard, 277; networked state, 3 Securit y. See also crackers, hackers, information
Rosenau, James N.; advocacy networks, 29n. 26; warfare, organized crime, terrorism; and net-
cross-referenced, 2, 23, 41, 72, 85, 135n. 3, works, 3, 17, 277, 284; biological warfare,
140n. 61, 207, 266n. 13; defining gover- 101–104; changing conceptions, 8, 21, 22, 99,
nance, 18; domestic-international frontier, 115–139; consumer, 44; critical studies of,
248; multi-centric world, 21, 23; multicentric 116–117; images, 17, 118–135; information
governance, 266n. 12; skillful individuals, and, 46; infosecurit y, 56; Internet and,
10, 65, 266n. 15, 285n. 1; technology not 115–140; national securit y image, 121; net-
studied, 26 work securit y image, 128–131; private securit y
Rosenberg, Nathan, 148 image, 126–128; salience of, 243; satellites
Rotenberg, Marc, 126 and, 68–79; speed of response, 52–53; state
Ruggie, John Gerard; constructivism, 28n. 17; securit y image, 122–126; structural power
multiperspectival governance, 21, 85, 233, and, 152; threats, 8, 56; U.S. intervention in
266n. 12; single fixed viewpoint perspective, industry, 158–160
22; states in decline, 20–21, 24, 85; territori- Seed wars, 101, 104
alit y, 17; trade fairs in medieval Europe, 24 Selby, Richards, 150, 157, 164n. 3
Russia. See also Soviet Union; democracy and self-regulation, 48, 50, 216–217. See also de-reg-
networks, 9; information warfare capabilit y, ulation, regulation.
8, 122 Sell, Susan, 13, 154
Rutkowski, Anthony, 196, 197, 199, 205, 206 Sematech, 8, 163
Rwanda, 84, 86n. 6 semiconductors, 143, 146, 149. See also Win-
Ryan, Daniel, 201, 203 telism, Intel.
Ryan, Michael, 153 semiotics, 17
second-order dynamics, 276
Sabel, Charles; technology and institutions, 12 services, 205, 247. See also GATS.
Said, Edward; construction of the Orient, 15; settlements, 258
Orient and the electronic world, 15 Shapiro, Carl; on marketing information prod-
Salamon, Lester, 281 ucts, 27n. 6, 56
Sampson, Cezley, 201, 203, 205 Shapiro, Michael, 28n. 17
Samuelson, Pamela, 57 Sharp, Margaret, 161
Sandholtz, Wayne; European telecommunica- Sharpe, Kenneth, 244
tions, 8; networks and politics, 27n. 2; on Sheth, Jagdish, 8
IBM, 159 shipbuilding, 19
Sapolsky, Harvey, 29n. 28 shipping, 252
Sarewitz, Dan; critique of technological instru- shopping malls, 174, 183n. 3
mentalit y, 28n. 12 Shue, Vivienne, 267n. 23
satellites; DBS issue, 194; distance learning, 53; Sidney Verba, 265n. 4
GATS negotiations and, 254; images and ac- Siemens, 157
countabilit y, 60n. 8; increasing importance, Sikkink, Kathryn; advocacy networks, 3, 29n.
281; information technology, 2; interconnec- 26, 283; constructivism, 28n. 17
tion norm, 194; Iridium failure, 51; LEOs, Silicon Valley, 106, 157, 160
205; meteorological, 69–70; non-securit y Sinclair, Timothy; financial credit rating struc-
uses, 69, 74–75; orbital slot negotiations, 59; ture, 28n. 13
rate rebalancing, 51; services, 255; spectrum Singapore; control of information, 12, 115, 124,
allocation, 196; television, 40; transparency 125, 137n. 34; led negotiations, 259; legiti-
and surveillance, 65–89 macy politics, 250; national information tech-
Saunders, Robert; telecommunications and de- nology initiatives, 8; telecommunication
velopment, 7, 267n. 32 revenues important, 256; WO telecom nego-
Savage, James, 193 tiation offer, 257, 261–262; WTO ministerial
Saxenian, Annalee, 157 meeting, 257
scarcit y, 246–247 Singh, J. P.; civil societ y in telecommunications,
Schiller, Dan; Pentagon support of AT&T, 267n. 31; cross-referenced, 5, 9, 24, 41, 59,
28n. 9 66, 164n. 6, 202, 242, 277; European
306 INDEX
telecommunications, 8; liberalization politics, merce, 178–179; elimination of turnover

259, 267n. 30; Langdon Winner and technol- time, 177; ideas and, 47; Internet delivery
ogy, 14; national infrastructure initiatives, 8; and, 43, 176; Karl Marx and, 176
negotiation theory, 29n. 24, 266n. 9; telecom- Spero, Joan, 41
munication liberalization, 201; t ypes of states Spiller, Pablo; institutions and technology, 12;
and technology, 12; user groups analysis, regulation, 48
265n. 5, 249 SPOT, 72–74
Sisodia, Rajendra, 8 spotlight phenomena (Debora Spar); defined, 9
Sjostedt, Gunnar, 251 Sprint, 200
skills revolution, 10, 65, 266n. 15, 277–279 Sputnik, 68
Slovakia, 283 Sri Lanka, 252, 261
Smith, Adam; division of labor, 22; trade and, standards; barrier to entry, 146; commerce and,
95 56; competition, 151; digital television, 177;
Smith, Michael, 284 interconnection, 190; ITU and, 192–198,
Smith, Michael Peter, 29n. 26 225; open but owned, 153; self-regulated,
Smith, Stanley, 157 216; technical knowledge and, 146, 164n. 2;
social delivery systems, 262–263, 265n. 5 telecommunications, 191–198; wars, 57;
social epistemes. See collective images. Wintelism, 143–164
social movements; empowerment, 23, 25 states; and multiple actors, 19–21, 25–26; au-
soft power; defined by Keohane and Nye, 28n. tonomy, 262; biological warfare and,
11; in relation to meta-power (see also meta- 101–104; capacities of, 212; constitution of
power), 13; in relation to networks, 276–277 interests, 18; consumption and, 172; control
software, 129; applications, 145, 150; cookie, of data and images, 77, 86n. 4; distribution
175, 183n. 4; engineering, 147; institutions of power, 190, 206; division of labor in, 96,
needed, 160; technological coupling, 108; et ymology of, 84; feudal, 218; genetic
147–148; versioning, 177; Wintelism and, power and, 108; imagined communit y,
144–149 17–18; imagining securit y, 116, 118–135;
Solomon, Richard, 287 imperialism and, 95–96; instrumental
Somalia, 84 power, 7–10; intellectual propert y of,
Soros, George, 60n. 3 99–100; internationalization of, 134; inter-
sound recordings, 214 ventionist, 148; ITU supportive of, 219,
South Africa, 99, 257, 256 232; legitimacy of, 24, 85, 249, 262; mercan-
South America, 222–228 tilism and, 19–20; national interest, 9; nego-
South Korea; agricultural coalition, 252; led in tiations, 58–60; production of order, 21–23;
WTO negotiations, 257–258; legitimacy poli- regulation and, 144, 148–149, 158–160,
tics, 250; national information technology ini- 189–207, 212–216; rethinking diplomacy
tiatives, 8; regulation in, 158; and securit y, 284; structural power, 10–12;
telecommunication revenues and investment technologies serving interest of, 212;
important, 256; WTO telecom offer, telecommunications governance and,
261–262 211–234; telecommunications regimes and,
sovereignt y. See also states; abstract container, 189–207, 239–267; territorialit y and, 17;
212; over airspace, 193–194; problem of, weak states, 21; weakening of, 20–21, 24,
225; railroads and, 19; single-point perspec- 85, 122, 124, 134, 140n. 60, 196–197, 207,
tive, 22; threats to, 221; violations, 154 212, 216, 221, 284–285; Westphalian war
Soviet Union, 49; genebanks in, 95, 97, 100; system, 115
launch of Sputnik, 68; sale of grains to, 102; state-societ y relations; developing world,
satellites and cold war, 68–72, 74 249–250, 267n. 23; securit y images and,
space. See also territorialit y; airspace, 193; as 118–126; telecommunication debates, 249;
governance, production, culture, 212–214, telecommunications governance and, 216;
218–221; deterritorialization of, 284; of Wintelism and, 143–144
f lows, 17, 134; organization of policy, 213, steel industry, 143
221; Outer Space Treat y, 194; transformed Stern, Peter; domestic liberalizations, 260; Euro-
through consumption, 174, 175 pean telecommunications, 8
Spar, Debora; “spotlight phenomena”, 9; net- stock markets, 45, 53, 122, 139n. 50
worked marketplaces, 3 storage devices; information technology, 2
specialized services. See value-added services. Strange, Susan; multiple actors, 243; role of be-
speed, 26, 39; Apple supercomputer, 27n. 5; liefs, 154; structural power, 10, 152; ‘who
data analysis, 52–53, 58; electronic com- gets what,’ 267
INDEX 307
Stross, Randall, 164n. 3 television, 54, 119–120, 214. See also broadcast-
structural power; biotechnologies and, ing, BBC, CNN; decreasing importance, 282;
103–104; competition and, 155–156; de- digitized/HDTV, 177, 195, 216; skill revolu-
fined, 6, 93; distinguished from meta-power, tion and, 278; time spent watching, 178–179
13; hierarchies and interaction, 281–284; in- telex, 262
formation networks and, 10–12; North- terrestrial services, 255, 280
South negotiations and, 264; re-examination territorialit y. See also space; decreasing impor-
of, 240; Susan Strange and, 10, 152; Win- tance of, 17, 134–135; important for intellec-
telism and, 149–156 tual propert y, 153
structure-agency, 276, 281–285 terrorism. See also crackers, hackers, information
subsidization, 204 warfare, organized crime, securit y, viruses;
Sun, 57, 157 and networks, 10, 122; biological, 103; bio-
superconnected individuals, 278–279 logical terrorism in Japan, 101; cyber attacks,
supply-driven models, 263 115; privacy constraints, 60n. 6
surveillance; encryption technologies and, Teske, Paul, 224
123–124, 132–133; privacy and, 126–127; Texas Instruments, 149
satellites and, 65–86 textiles, 251
Sutton, Brent, 19, 197, 200, 201, 207 Thailand, 252, 257, 261–262
switches, 192, 195 third country calling, 200
Switzerland, 251 Third World. See developing countries.
symbolic power, 91, 93–94. See also genetic power. Thomas, Robert; propert y rights in England,
Syria, 120, 125, 135n. 7 11–12
Thompson, Dale, 197
Taliban, 119, 135n. 5 Thompson, Graham, 222
tariffs. See prices. Thucydides; national power, 28n. 10
Tarjanne, Pekka, 195, 255 Tilly, Charles, 24
Taylor, Paul, 220 time; free, 178, 183n. 8, 183n. 9
Taylor, Peter, 89 TIROS-1 (Television Infrared Obeservation
TCI, 57 Satellite), 69
TCP/IP, 132 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 267n. 22
technocratic strategies (negotiations), 243, 245, Toff ler, Alvin, 52
251, 258–259 Toff ler, Heidi, 52
technological change. See innovations. Tokyo Round, 251. See also WTO/GATT.
technological complexit y, 147–148 Toshiba, 1578
technological coupling, 147–148 trade agreements, 214. See also Uruguay Round,
technological determinism; tackled, 214–215; WTO.
transcended, 3, 275 trade-offs, 243, 244–245, 258–259
technological neutralit y, 275–277 transaction costs, 266–267n. 18
telecommunications; as technology, 2; develop- transnational alliances, 211
ment priorit y, 246–247, 259, 262, 264; transnational elites, 218
equipment production, 215; main lines transparency; GATS, 253; regulatory, 255; satel-
growth rates, 256–257; MNCs and, 133; lite imagery, 67, 70, 76
regimes, 189–207, 239–267; revenues, transport, 253
258–259; shifts in governance, 211–234; ver- travel, 40, 45, 53, 193, 247
tically organized, 3–4 Tribolet, Leslie, 222, 224
telecommuting, 53, 58 Trinidad and Tobago, 259, 261
teleconferencing, 54–55, 58, 59, 255 TRIPs, 57, 153
telegraph; “mandate for interconnection,” 1; bi- Turkey, 256
ological warfare and, 102; conventions & Tuthill, Lee, 267n. 33
treaties, 223; creator of markets, 220; infor- two-level games, 264 See also domestic condi-
mation networks and, 96; invention and ex- tions.
pansion of, 191–192, 204; nineteenth Tyson, Laura D’Andrea; competitiveness con-
century expansion, 222–224 cerns, 8; international disputes, 154
telemarketing, 51, 58
telephony; entertainment value, 57; expansion, UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on
192; f lows, 40, 50–51, 214; Internet and, Trade and Development); telecommunication
205; preferred by leaders, 60n. 5; pressures negotiations, 255; Third World and, 13
for liberalization, 201; WTO and, 260 UNESCO, 97
308 INDEX
unions, 172 vertical integration; industries, 3–6, 276; no re-

United Kingdom. See Britain. wards for, 148; Wintelism and, 144, 157
United Nations; peacekeeping, 77; Principles on video, 40; conferencing, 40, 54–55, 58; controls
Remote Sensing and, 73; recognizing NGOs, on, 119, 135n. 5; impact of, 54–55, 58, 80;
217; refugees, 86n. 6; technical standards skill revolution and, 278; surveillance, 126;
and, 20 transmission, 255
United States; biological warfare and, 102–103; videoconferencing, 195
cellular phones, 280; competitiveness, 8, videotext, 195
143–164; content restrictions, 120; decentral- Vietnam, 120, 135n. 7
ized governance in, 156–162; digital television, Viner, Jacob, 19
177; foreign policy, 105; GATS and, 252–253; virtual capitalism, 177,
ICANN and, 197; immigration to, 52; Inter- viruses, 52, 116, 122, 128, 130
net usage, 282; leading liberalization, 190, 199, Vogel, Steven, 216
202; liberalization in, 229; literacy and net- Vogelstein, Fred, 45
works, 278; lobbying by Wintel, 153; military voice. See telephony.
preparedness, 52–53, 83–84; MNCs and con- voicemail, 265n. 3
sumption, 173–175; modified regulatory state,
158–160; national interest, 9; negotiating net- Wada, Erika, 202, 267n. 33
works, 59; non-profit organizations, 283; ori- wages, 178
gins of Internet, 117–118; political economy Walker, R. B. J., 28n. 17
of, 161; pressures on China, 154; privacy con- Wallace, James, 164n. 3
cerns, 126; renewed hegemony, 9; satellites Waltz, Kenneth, 10
and security, 68–75, 77; security, 8, 52–53, war, 103–104. See also biological warfare, Cold
68–79, 83–84, 120–134, 158–160; state- War, information warfare, nuclear warfare.
society relations, 144; telecommunications, weapons. See also information warfare; testing
211–234; trade agreements, 214; universities and satellites, 66; nuclear, 68–72, 75
and networks, 53–54; Uruguay Round and, weather data, 69, 84–85
98; WTO telecom negotiations, 254–263 Weber, Cynthia, 28n. 17
Universities, 53, 60n. 4, 83, 106–107, 160–162, Weber, Max, 24
172 Wellenius, Bjorn; domestic liberalizations, 260;
Unix, 150 European telecommunications, 8; informa-
Uruguay, 226 tion-intensive industries, 200; institutions
Uruguay Round. See also WTO, TRIPS; devel- and technology, 12; national network initia-
oping countries and, 244, 248, 251–254, tives, 8
263; GATS, 201–202, 241–242; globalization Wells, Louis, 244
and, 214; including services, 98; telecommu- Wendt, Alexander; constructivist turn, 14, 28n.
nication negotiations, 240; TRIPs agreement, 17, 164n. 4; state interests, 18, 72
57, 153 Wheeler, Deborah, 280
users; active, 200; civil societ y, 249–250; com- White House; report on infrastructures, 8
puters, 145; defined, 265n. 5; developing White, Sally, 244
countries and, 247–250; large, 259, 265n. 5; Whitman, Walt, 1, 26
pressures, 240, 255–256; residential, 262, Wiegle, Thomas, 102–103
265n. 5; rural, 262, 265n. 5; spectrum alloca- Williams, Michael, 116, 135n. 1
tion and, 196 urban, 262, 265n. 5 Wilson, Ernest, 215
USTR (United States Trade Representative), Winham, Gilbert, 250
256–257 Winner, Langdon, 11
utilities, 203 Wintelism; as advocacy, 25; explained,
143–164; institutional foundations of, 12
value-added services; defined, 40, 60n.1, wireless services, 255
265n.3; GATS commitments, 254; WTO women’s rights and technology, 23
telecom accord and, 239, 260 Woodrow, Brian, 253
Varian, Hal; on marketing information prod- Word Perfect, 150
ucts, 27n. 6, 56 work; networks and executives, 55; telecommut-
V-Chip, 217 ing, 53, 58
Veblen, Thorstein, 25, 170, 177, 182n. 1 World Bank (IBRD); as interest group, 248;
Venezuela, 226, 258–259, 261 protests against, 23; telecommunication nego-
Verba, Sidney, 265n. 4, 267n. 22 tiations, 256; telecommunications and devel-
versioning, 177 opment, 7
INDEX 309
World Order, 118, 134, 169–192 Xavier, Patrick, 203

World Resources Institute, 79
World Wide Web. See also Internet; broadcast- Y2K, 130
ing over, 120; electronic commerce and, Yoffie, David, 151, 245, 266n. 9
43–45, 129; expansion, 40; genealogy re-
search, 52; impact of, 55–57; protecting intel- Zacher, Mark; cross-referenced, 1, 5, 21, 24,
lectual propert y on, 57; WTO website, 260 135n. 4, 164n. 5, 164n. 6, 223, 233, 239,
Wriggins, Howard, 266n. 9 241, 266n. 11, 266n. 13; evolution of tech-
Wright, Gavin, 20 nology, 200; liberalization, 201, 207; monop-
Wriston, Walter, 287 olies in key sectors, 19; networks and politics,
WTO/GATT (World Trade Organization/Gen- 27n. 2, 197
eral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). See also Zartman, William, 242, 251, 266n. 9
Uruguay Round, GATS, GNS, Group on Zimbabwe, 252
Basic Telecommunications; biotechnology Zysman, John; competitiveness concerns, 8;
and, 96; Chinese entry, 154; dispute settle- cross national production networks, 158; hor-
ment, 245, 252; GATS, 201–202; new multi- izontal integration, 157; production net-
lateral agreements, 228; protests against, 23, works, 45; Wintelism, 143–144, 152–153
59; telecom accord, 239–267; telecom negoti-
ations, 9, 59, 239–265; trade rounds history,
250–254; TRIPs agreement, 57, 153
SUNY series in Global Politics
James N. Rosenau, Editor
American Patriotism in a Global Society—Bett y Jean Craige
The Political Discourse of Anarchy: A Disciplinary History of International Relations—

Brian C. Schmidt
From Pirates to Drug Lords: The Post–Cold War Caribbean Security Environment—
Michael C. Desch, Jorge I. Dominguez, and Andres Serbin (eds.)
Collective Conflict Management and Changing World Politics—Joseph Lepgold and

Thomas G. Weiss (eds.)
Zones of Peace in the Third World: South America and West Africa in Comparative
Perspective—Arie M. Kacowicz
Private Authority and International Affairs—A. Claire Cutler, Virginia Hauf ler, and
Tony Porter (eds.)
Harmonizing Europe: Nation-States within the Common Market—Francesco G.

Duina
Economic Interdependence in Ukrainian-Russian Relations—Paul J. D’Anieri
Leapfrogging Development? The Political Economy of Telecommunications Restructuring—

J. P. Singh
States, Firms, and Power: Successful Sanctions in United States Foreign Policy—George
E. Shambaugh
Approaches to Global Governance Theory—Martin Hewson and Timothy J. Sinclair

(eds.)
After Authority: War, Peace, and Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century—Ronnie
D. Lipschutz
Pondering Postinternationalism: A Paradigm for the Twenty-First Century?—Heidi H.

Hobbs (ed.)
Beyond Boundaries? Disciplines, Paradigms, and Theoretical Integration in Interna-

tional Studies—Rudra Sil and Eileen M. Dohert y (eds.)
Why Movements Matter: The West German Peace Movement and U. S. Arms Control
Policy—Steve Breyman
International Relations—Still an American Social Science? Toward Diversity in Inter-

national Thought—Robert M. A. Crawford and Darryl S. L. Jarvis (eds.)
Which Lessons Matter? American Foreign Policy Decision Making in the Middle East,
1979–1987—Christopher Hemmer (ed.)
Hierarchy Amidst Anarchy: Transaction Costs and Institutional Choice—Katja Weber
Counter-Hegemony and Foreign Policy: The Dialectics of Marginalized and Global

Forces in Jamaica—Randolph B. Persaud
Global Limits: Immanuel Kant, International Relations, and Critique of World Politics—
Mark F. N. Franke
Power and Ideas: North-South Politics of Intellectual Property and Antitrust—Susan K.

Sell
Agency and Ethics: The Politics of Military Intervention—Anthony F. Lang, Jr.
Theories of International Cooperation and the Primacy of Anarchy: Explaining U. S.

International Monetary Policy-making After Bretton Woods—Jennifer Sterling-Folker
Information Technologies and Global Politics: The Changing Scope of Power and
Governance—James N. Rosenau and J. P. Singh (eds.)
Technology, Democracy, and Development: International Conflict and Cooperation in

the Information Age—Juliann Emmons Allison (ed.)
Debating the Global Financial Architecture—Leslie Elliot Armijo
Systems of Violence: The Political Economy of War and Peace in Colombia—Nazih

Richani
Political Space: Frontiers of Change and Governance in a Globalizing World—Yale

Ferguson and R. J. Barry Jones (eds.)

James N. Rosenau, J. P. Singh Information Technologies and Global Politics The Changing Scope of Power and Governance PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

James N. Rosenau, J. P. Singh Information Technologies and Global Politics The Changing Scope of Power and Governance PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

The Changing Scope

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, A LBANY

© 2002 State Universit y of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

For information, address

Production and book design, Laurie Searl

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

JC330 .I54 2002

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii

PART I: THE CHANGING SCOPE OF POWER

3 PUBLIC EYES: SATELLITE IMAGERY, THE GLOBALIZATION OF

PART II: THE CHANGING SCOPE OF POWER AND

5 CIRCUITS OF POWER: SECURITY IN THE

6 THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WINTELISM:

PART III: GOVERNANCE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS

8 CAPITALISM, TECHNOLOGY, AND LIBER ALIZATION: THE

11 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND THE SKILLS, NETWORKS,

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 289

1.1 The Information Industry 4

10.1 Comparison between the WTO Telecommunication

2.1 Content Issues 50

2.2 Conduit Issues 58

AHCIET Asociacion Hispanoamericana de Centros de Investigacion y

FCC Federal Communications Commission

MEDEA Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis

USTR United States Trade Representative

ANALOG: Based on a system in which numbers are represented by continuously

PACKET SWITCHING: One method of data transmission in which small blocks

With the steamship, the electric telegraph, the newspaper,

—Walt Whitman, Songs of Parting

This volume studies the relationship between information technologies and

THE RISE OF NETWORKS

Source: Sheth and Singh (1994)

THE CHANGING SCOPE OF POWER

Global politics are inherently relational. Equations of power can be simplified to

Instrumental power focuses on the capacit y or capabilit y of power holders to ef-

Information technologies, in particular, are making us re-examine and rein-

These print-languages laid the basis for a national consciousness in three

THE CHANGING SCOPE OF GOVERNANCE

Power is ultimately about capabilities, identities, and interests. Governance in-

forms of governance arising in global politics. Therefore, governance both involves

FROM STATES TO MULTIPLE ACTORS

Whether the state fostered laissez-faire or dirigiste strategies in national techno-

FROM ORDER TO PLUR ALITY

Postmodern notions of “decentered” selves, pastiche-like, intertextual

individuals, social movements, states and other transnational actors. Aronson

FROM AUTHORITY TO ADVOCACY

The politics of legitimacy construction work differently in a multi-centric

modus operandi. Third, most importantly, information technologies are helping

Aronson, Jonathan D. 1992. Telecommunications Infrastructure and U.S. International

GLOBAL NETWORKS AND THEIR IMPACT

recur throughout this volume. Communication and information technologies and

Most money is electronic. Currencies—bills and coins—make up a small portion

government involvement is necessary, it should enforce a predictable, minimal-

ing item in Germany through AOL (Friedman 1999b). Moreover, as national

ARENAS/FLOWS POLITICS COMMERCE AND SOCIETY AND

E-Commerce Regulatory Global Competition Global Branding

Information Intelligence and Global Production Instant News

Ideas Innovation Self-Regulation Democracy

the issues related to the financing, construction, operation, and maintenance of

Traditionally a series of cross-subsidies existed in the pricing of telecommunications.