ABSTRACT

This edited volume provides a convenient entry point to the cutting-edge field of the international politics of technology, in an interesting and informative manner. Technology and World Politics introduces its readers to different approaches to technology in global politics through a survey of emerging fusions of Science and Technology Studies and International Relations. The theoretical approaches to the subject include the Social Construction of Technology, Actor-Network Theory, the Critical Theory of Technology, and New Materialist and Posthumanist approaches.

Considering how such theoretical approaches can be used to analyse concrete political issues such as the politics of nuclear weapons, Internet governance, shipping containers, the revolution in military affairs, space technologies, and the geopolitics of the Anthropocene, the volume stresses the socially constructed and inherently political nature of technological objects.

Providing the theoretical background to approach the politics of technology in a sophisticated manner alongside a glossary and guide to further reading for newcomers, this volume is a vital resource for both students and scholars focusing on politics and international relations.

chapter 1|21 pages

Introduction

Technology in world politics

part I|78 pages

Theories

chapter 2|19 pages

Social construction of technology

24How objects acquire meaning in society

chapter 3|18 pages

Actor-Network Theory

Objects and actants, networks and narratives

chapter 4|24 pages

Critical Theory of Technology

Design, domination and uneven development

chapter 5|16 pages

New materialism and posthumanism

Bodies, brains, and complex causality

part II|152 pages

Illustrations

chapter 6|25 pages

Nuclear technoaesthetics

Sensory politics from Trinity to the virtual bomb in Los Alamos

chapter 7|20 pages

The global politics of Internet governance

A case study in closure and technological design

chapter 8|19 pages

Infrastructures of the global economy

The shipping container as a political artefact

chapter 9|17 pages

A revolution in military affairs?

Changing technologies and changing practices of warfare

chapter 10|22 pages

Extra-terrestrial technopolitics

The politics of technology in space

chapter 11|20 pages

The geopolitics of extinction

From the Anthropocene to the Eurocene

chapter 12|19 pages

Conclusion: technology and International Relations theory

The end of the beginning

chapter |9 pages

Glossary