[ecrea] Geopolitics & Internet Freedom

I’m pleased to share with interested CULTSTUD-L colleagues a new book on 
the geopolitics of internet freedom, entitled, The Real Cyber War: The 
Political Economy of Internet Freedom (University of Illinois Press, 
2015) by Shawn Powers and Michael Jablonski.

About the book: Discussions surrounding the role of the internet in 
society are dominated by terms such as internet freedom, surveillance, 
cybersecurity, and, most prolifically, cyber war. But behind the 
rhetoric of cyber war is an ongoing state-centered battle for control of 
information resources. Powers and Jablonski conceptualize this real 
cyber war as the utilization of digital networks for geopolitical 
purposes, including covert attacks against another state’s electronic 
systems, but also, and more importantly, the variety of ways the 
internet is used to further a state’s economic and military agendas.

Moving beyond debates on the democratic value of new and emerging 
information technologies, The Real Cyber War focuses on political, 
economic, and geopolitical factors driving internet freedom policies, in 
particular the U.S. State Department's emerging doctrine in support of a 
universal freedom to connect. They argue that efforts to create a 
universal internet built upon Western legal, political, and social 
preferences is driven by economic and geopolitical motivations rather 
than the humanitarian and democratic ideals that typically accompany 
related policy discourse. In fact, the freedom-to-connect movement is 
intertwined with broader efforts to structure global society in ways 
that favor American and Western cultures, economies, and governments.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Geopolitics & the Internet
1. Information Freedom & US Foreign Policy: A History
2. The Information Industrial Complex
3. Google, Information & Power
4. The Economics of Internet Connectivity
5. The Myth of Multistakeholder Governance
6. Towards Information Sovereignty
7. Internet Freedom in a Surveillance Society
Conclusion: Taming Geopolitics

Would love to learn of other projects looking at these or similar 
questions/case studies, so please do reach out if you are interested 
((smp /at/ gsu.edu)).

And if you want to learn more about the book, please consider visiting 
this Amazon webpage.




—————————————————

Shawn Powers, PhD
Assistant Professor, Communication
Associate Director, CIME
Georgia State University
(powers.shawn /at/ gmail.com)


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