US Foreign Relations and the Institutional Power of the Internet

Abstract

With the theoretical framework in place it is possible to outline how the different facets of social power have enabled the United States government to construct and maintain the Internet in line with its foreign policy aims. This chapter will demonstrate how these aims — the pursuit of an international system comprised of liberal capitalist democracies — have informed the construction and reproduction of the Internet. This will be undertaken by first outlining the nature of the Open Door policy and its central role in American grand strategy, up to and including the Obama administration. The story told here is one of the overall continuity of American foreign practices. While certain changes are apparent both within and between administrations, with the Bush administration being a standout in this regard, these changes take place within coordinates established by the set of cultural values and material interests that comprise the Open Door. Second, we will note how American grand strategy, driven to open markets to foreign capital and to open polities to become liberal democracies, has informed international communications strategy and policies in their political and economic aspects. Third, we will proceed from the discussion of American policy to note how the bias of the Internet meets these goals, acting as a form of institutional power for the United States internationally.