Information Technologies and Global Politics ― The Changing Scope of Power and Governance

Sharing the assumption that information technologies are shifting the locus of political power away from powerful nation-states towards NGOs, international organizations, businesses, and transnational social movements, 11 contributions are presented by Rosenau (international affairs, George Washington U.) and Singh (communication, culture, and technology, Georgetown U.). For the most part, the contributors examine the impact of specific information technologies and issue-areas on three modes of the exercise of power. These modes are defined by the editors as consisting of instrumental power (who is empowered versus disempowered), structural power (who is constrained in a given situation versus who gets to write the rules), and the relatively new concept of meta-power which addresses "how basic identities, interests, and issues themselves are reconstituted or transformed in particular historical contexts, in turn redefining other relations of power." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

James N. Rosenau is University Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University, and the author of many books, including Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier: Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World, Turbulence in World Politics, and (with Mary Durfee) Thinking Theory Thoroughly: Coherent Approaches to an Incoherent World.

J. P. Singh is Assistant Professor of Communication, Culture, and Technology at Georgetown University, and the author of Leapfrogging Development?: The Political Economy of Telecommunications Restructuring, also published by SUNY Press.