Technology and Agency in International Relations


Book Description

This book responds to a gap in the literature in International Relations (IR) by integrating technology more systematically into analyses of global politics. Technology facilitates, accelerates, automates, and exercises capabilities that are greater than human abilities. And yet, within IR, the role of technology often remains under-studied. Building on insights from science and technology studies (STS), assemblage theory and new materialism, this volume asks how international politics are made possible, knowable, and durable by and through technology. The contributors provide empirically rich and pertinent accounts of a variety of technologies relevant to the discipline, including drones, algorithms, satellite imagery, border management databases, and blockchains. Problematizing various technologically mediated issues, such as secrecy, violence, and questions of how authority and evidence become constituted in international contexts, this book will be of interest to scholars in IR, in particular those who work in the subfields of (critical) security studies, International Political Economy, and Global Governance. Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.




Technologies of International Relations


Book Description

This book examines the role of technology in the core voices for International Relations theory and how this has shaped the contemporary thinking of ‘IR’ across some of the discipline’s major texts. Through an interview format between different generations of IR scholars, the conversations of the book analyse the relationship between technology and concepts like power, security and global order. They explore to what extent ideas about the role and implications of technology help to understand the way IR has been framed and world politics are conceived of today. This innovative text will appeal to scholars in Politics and International Relations as well as STS, Human Geography and Anthropology.




Power, Information Technology, and International Relations Theory


Book Description

This book examines the internet as a form of power in global politics. Focusing on the United States' internet foreign policy, McCarthy combines analyses of global material culture and international relation theory, to reconsider how technology is understood as a form of social power.




Technology and International Relations


Book Description

Exploring how changes in advanced technology deeply affect international politics, this book theoretically engages with the overriding relevance of investments in technological research, and the ways in which they directly foster a country’s economic and military standing. Scholars and practitioners present important insights on the technical and social issues at the core of technology competition.




Technology and Agency in International Relations


Book Description

This book responds to a gap in the literature in International Relations (IR) by integrating technology more systematically into analyses of global politics. Technology facilitates, accelerates, automates, and exercises capabilities that are greater than human abilities. And yet, within IR, the role of technology often remains under-studied. Building on insights from science and technology studies (STS), assemblage theory and new materialism, this volume asks how international politics are made possible, knowable, and durable by and through technology. The contributors provide empirically rich and pertinent accounts of a variety of technologies relevant to the discipline, including drones, algorithms, satellite imagery, border management databases, and blockchains. Problematizing various technologically mediated issues, such as secrecy, violence, and questions of how authority and evidence become constituted in international contexts, this book will be of interest to scholars in IR, in particular those who work in the subfields of (critical) security studies, International Political Economy, and Global Governance.




Science, Technology, and Art in International Relations


Book Description

This volume brings together 19 original chapters, plus four substantive introductions, which collectively provide a unique examination of the issues of science, technology, and art in international relations. The overarching theme of the book links global politics with human interventions in the world: We cannot disconnect how humans act on the world through science, technology, and artistic endeavors from the engagements and practices that together constitute IR. There is science, technology, and even artistry in the conduct of war—and in the conduct of peace as well. Scholars and students of international relations are beginning to explore these connections, and the authors of the chapters in this volume from around the world are at the forefront.




The Oxford Handbook of International Relations


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of International Relations offers the most authoritative and comprehensive overview to date of the field of international relations. Arguably the most impressive collection of international relations scholars ever brought together within one volume, the Handbook debates the nature of the field itself, critically engages with the major theories, surveys a wide spectrum of methods, addresses the relationship between scholarship and policy making, and examines the field's relation with cognate disciplines. The Handbook takes as its central themes the interaction between empirical and normative inquiry that permeates all theorizing in the field and the way in which contending approaches have shaped one another. In doing so, the Handbook provides an authoritative and critical introduction to the subject and establishes a sense of the field as a dynamic realm of argument and inquiry. The Oxford Handbook of International Relations will be essential reading for all of those interested in the advanced study of global politics and international affairs.




Artificial Intelligence


Book Description

"The rise of AI must be better managed in the near term in order to mitigate longer term risks and to ensure that AI does not reinforce existing inequalities"--Publisher.




Role of Technology in International Affairs


Book Description

Recent advances in technology have opened up vast new areas of communication, cooperation and even friction among nations in their pursuit of security, development and progress. Science and technology today transcend almost all areas of international affairs. The role of science and technology in international affairs is so intrinsic that it is rarely recognised as a separate entity and often taken for granted. The impact of modern dual-use technology on human society and national security has become so large that it would be necessary for foreign policy professionals to understand the finer nuances of technology to successfully negotiate international affairs in future. The book Role of Technology in International Affairs is aimed at bringing a clear appreciation of the various interconnections and interdependencies between technology, security, foreign policy and diplomacy that future diplomats must have for navigating towards international peace. Part-I introduces the reader to the changing dimensions of international relations and diplomacy and highlights the interplay between technology and international affairs. An India-specific perspective is also discussed to bring focus on future challenges for India in the changing globalised world. Part-II takes the reader through four technology areas of major impact on international affairs. New dimensions of outer space and cyber space have emerged as most decisive areas for international peace. Climate change is going to be the most challenging area for international negotiation for the future. The four chapters endeavour to provide a keen insight on important technology areas. Part-III is about how best India can integrate science and technology and foreign policy to build its comprehensive national power which will be vital to India positioning itself as a major power for protecting and furthering its national interest in international affairs.




Inside the Politics of Technology


Book Description

Though the old saying claims that man is the measure of all things, the authors of Inside the Politics of Technology argue that the distinction implied between autonomous humans and neutral instruments of technology is an illusion. On the contrary, the technologies humans create simultaneously shape humans themselves. By means of case studies of technologies as diverse as video cameras, electric cars, pregnancy tests, and genetic screenings, this volume considers the implications of this "co-production" of technology and society for our philosophical and political ideas. Are only humans endowed with social, political, and moral agency, or does our technology share those qualities? And if so, how should we understand—or practice—a politics of technology?