Cyberspace and International Relations: The Co-Evolution Dilemma

Description

In our increasingly digital world, data flows define the international landscape as much as the flow of materials and people. How is cyberspace shaping international relations, and how are international relations shaping cyberspace? In this book, Nazli Choucri and David D. Clark offer a foundational analysis of the co-evolution of cyberspace (with the internet as its core) and international relations, examining resultant challenges for individuals, organizations, and states. The authors examine the pervasiveness of power and politics in the digital realm, finding that the internet is evolving much faster than the tools for regulating it. This creates a “co-evolution dilemma”―a new reality in which digital interactions have enabled weaker actors to influence or threaten stronger actors, including the traditional state powers. Choucri and Clark develop a new method for addressing control in the internet age, “control point analysis,” and apply it to a variety of situations, including major actors in the international and digital realms: the United States, China, and Google. In doing so they lay the groundwork for a new international relations theory that reflects the reality in which we live―one in which the international and digital realms are inextricably linked and evolving together. Contents Preface Acknowledgments I Cyberspace and International Relations 1 Context and Co-Evolution 2 Cyberspace: Layers and Interconnections 3 International Relations: Levels of Analysis 4 The Cyber-IR System: Integrating Cyberspace and International Relations 5 Co-Evolutionand Complexity in Twenty-First-Century International Relations II Complexities of Co-Evolution 6 Control Point Analysis: Locating Power and Leverage 7 The Power over Control Points: Cases in Context 8 Cybersecurity and International Complexities 9 Distributed Internet Governance: Private Authority and International Order 10 The Co-Evolution Dilemma: Complexity of Transformation and Change 11 Alternative Futures: Trends and Contingencies 12 Imperatives of Co-Evolution Notes References Index