ABSTRACT
Technology has played a profound role in the emergence of the modern international system, including the states that populate it and the relationship between those states and their citizens. The Cold War, for example, was shaped by the emergence of nuclear technologies. This chapter aims to determine whether historical lessons can indeed be learned and applied to emerging technological trends. It outlines how history itself has become increasingly contested and highlights some of the different theoretical approaches to history and technology that now populate academia. The chapter questions the extent to which revolutions in military affairs have driven technological progress and reshaped war, the state, and the international system. The societal impact of cyber-attacks, and the way they have changed the relationship between the state and its citizens is perhaps a more fundamental change. States have used mass surveillance to spy on their citizens, and there is a growing international market in surveillance technology, including e-mail intercepts.
