Postinternationalism on Technology, Change and Continuity

Abstract

Postinternationalism provides a flexible theoretical perspective to explore technology in its manifold variations and diverse impacts on global politics, economics, security and identity. Postinternationalism embraces a broad and non-deterministic conception of technology. This epistemological and ontological position enables its representatives to analyse technology’s ambivalent and multifaceted impact on the global system more effectively than other IR theories, which often emphasize very narrowly defined factors as pivotal for their explanatory models. In this context, Postinternationalism perceives technology as a man-made enabler of diverse and often seemingly contradictory processes ranging from the integration of polities and transnational interaction processes to opposite processes resulting in the fragmentation of polities and even a potential slowdown of globalization. As such, Ferguson argues that technology must become a greater focus of scholarly exploration to further deepen our understanding of the driving forces behind change and continuity in global affairs.