Conclusion

Abstract

The norms of publicity are fundamental for democratic theory, but have been perceived as having little application in the international realm. It is conventionally presumed that the international and the domestic are discrete domains, and that critical publicity is the exclusive preserve of the latter. The dichotomy is problematic in the current juncture, where peoples and societies are increasingly enmeshed in a web of social, political, and economic interconnections. Moreover, the global diffusion of ICT has generated a huge surge in cross- border dialogue and a concomitant interest in the normative potential of electronic transnational deliberation. IR has been slow to engage with public sphere theory, and the literature has only tentatively flirted with communication issues. Typically, analysis of ICT is shoehorned into a conventional theoretical (realist/liberal) framework. But what is needed—and what is often missing—is critical reflection about the challenges posed by the sociopolitical implications of ICT to the explanatory power of theoretical orthodoxies.