Technology and International Systems

Abstract

This essay develops a theoretical framework for understanding the connection between technological transformations and change in the international system and puts the information revolution in its proper context — as another in a line of technology-system transformations. The analysis proceeds in two steps: first I conceptualise technology as politics. Technology is inherently political in at least two ways: the construction of technologies is subject to political contestation and technology can be understood as a certain kind of practical knowledge, embedded in material artefacts and in the institutions built to manage them. The second step draws on Buzan and Little's idea of interaction capacity to conceptualise technology as a component of the international political system. This two-step approach draws our attention to the national and transnational institutions that develop new technologies and to the international systemic dimension of certain socio-technical systems. In the end, this approach provides a framework for understanding technological change, including the information revolution, in an international political context. In particular, it draws attention to political debate over the shape and content of a global information infrastructure.