Peace in Analogue/ Digital International Relations

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article outlines a preliminary perspective of peace in IR resting on analogue and digital versions in mainstream and critical forms. It discusses their implications for long standing key debates in the discipline about war and peace. It argues that digital IR/ international relations were initially thought to be a breakthrough for global civil society and rights, which promised a more emancipatory form of peace by allowing individuals and civil society to challenge power structures more effectively, and by curtailing the bounding effects of territorialism, sovereignty and nationalism. This gave critical forms of agency space to network. However, a brewing ‘counter-revolution’ of what might be now called the ‘ancien regime’ once again, points to digital forms of governmentality, which replicates the liberal and neoliberal governmentalities of the last few decades. This may make the analogue ‘liberal peace’ look like a virtuous high-water mark in recent history. Furthermore, a digital version of peace has yet to be developed.