Introduction

Abstract

Over the course of the past two decades, much of the world has developed a dependence upon an unsecured, open computer network for communications, financial transactions, military weapons systems, critical infrastructure, commerce and diplomacy. Despite the pervasiveness of the Internet and its importance to a wide range of state functions, we still have little understanding of the implications of this technology for power in the context of international relations (IR). How does Internet technology relate to other material elements of state power like the economy and the military? What are the implications for social power factors like legitimacy and authority? Why do states adopt different approaches to Internet technology? And does the Internet produce universal outcomes or does its impact on state power differ depending on context? Answers to questions like these are essential to the analysis of what this dynamic technology means for our understanding of state power in the information age. However, the complex ways that Internet technology is embedded in civil, political, economic and military systems in developed states mean that this has proven extremely difficult to analyse with any clarity in a generalizable way.