Contemporary international system, aligning technology with Nigeria’s foreign policy

Abstract

Technology has always played a crucial role in global politics, security, economics and culture. It has continuously shaped the structure of the global system, its actors, and the relations between them and vice versa. Yet analysts have down played its importance. Despite its benign neglect, international politics is tailored by technology. Technology is understood as an integral component of the international system that fashions global interactions and itself is affected by global politics, economics, and culture. This essay argues that to understand the transformation in global affairs, technology has to be integrated more systematically into the theoretical discussions of International Relations (IR). To achieve this objective, an interdisciplinary approach that systematically incorporates insights of Science and Technology Studies (S&TS) into IR is deployed; this method provides a better perception of how technology, politics and the international system interact with each other. In so doing, it opens the field of IR to a wealthier understanding of how global systemic change is affected by technology and how international economics, politics, and culture impact technological evolution.