Information Technologies, Meta-power, and Transformations in Global Politics

Abstract

The transformational impact of information technologies changes the dominant meanings of the identity and interests of global actors. These transformations cannot be ascertained through technology's impact upon the capabilities of actors as understood in traditional accounts of power. The concept of meta-power explains the new meanings, which come about in global politics from an increasing number of perspectives and interactions facilitated through information exchanges and learning. Especially when information technologies diffuse or decentralize relations across global actors, we would expect that increased interactions among them would allow new meaning formation to increase. Individual and social identities are no longer singular or linearly consistent through time, and global politics reveal multiple meanings for the issues and actors in question. Illustrative examples are provided for individual-level identity formation and for the implications for global politics in networked environments.