Faisal's Notebook

Recent Notes

Analyzing the Digital Divide through the Lens of Liberalism

Sep 23, 20245 min read

Sources

  1. Shannon L. Blanton, Charles W. Kegley, “World Politics: Trend and Transformation” - 2024-02-12
  2. Liu Jia, Gao Shuang, China Daily, “Digital Silk Road to span Eurasia” - 2015-07-10
  3. Jovan Kurbalija, Diplomacy, “The impact of big data on geopolitics, negotiations, and diplomacy” - 2024-04-10
  4. Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, “Promotion of International Geneva and digital self-determination – Federal Council sets out Digital Foreign Policy Strategy 2021–2024” - 04-11-2020
  5. Antony J. Blinken, U.S. Department of State, “Technology and the Transformation of U.S. Foreign Policy” - 2024-05-06
  6. Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, “France’s International Digital Strategy” - Accessed on 2024-09-23
  7. Jovan Kurbalija, Katharina Höne, “The Era of Digital Foreign Policy: Comprehensive Approaches to Digitalisation” - 2023-12-21

Key Traits of Liberalism

  • Is founded on the idea that applying universal ethics to world politics can result in cooperation and order in the world.
    • Human unity is more important than national loyalty
    • Their beliefs is centered on the idea that humans have the capacity to reason and progress is possible; it results to peace and prosperity when achieved.
    • Liberalism’s main issue in world politics is finding a consensus on ethics and mutual benefits
  • They believe that we ought to treat people as ends and not only as means (See Principle of Ends)
  • Liberals emphasize ethical principles over power (See the Categorical Imperative)
  • Assumes that warfare arise due to living conditions rather than the desire for power
    • In contrast to realism, liberal culture and democratic states promotes diplomacy over military force. They believe that because people would not want to live under the conditions of war, they would rather peacefully resolve it through negotiations.
    • Politics is not viewed as zero-sum because international disputes are not resolved through coercion, rather persuasion
  • Views international politics as an extension of domestic politics
  • Disputes between democratic nations rarely escalate to war because each side respects their legitimacy and expect a peaceful resolution. Moreover, the transparent nature of democratic governments allow everyone to examine its inner workings, and, as such, make it hard to demonize.
  • Emphasizes free-trade, and believe that commerce can reduce international conflict because states are connected by commerce
    • Some studies suggest that economic interconnectedness have a greater influence in fostering peace than democracy. This is founded on the following propositions
      • War prevents commerce and reduces profits; therefore, it is avoided.
      • Transnational business elites are powerful and interested in resolving conflicts to promote their profits
      • web of trade encourages communication and minimizes national selfishness
  • Liberals recommend replacing balance of power politics because it promotes threats to peace—something that is a threat for everyone.
  • They believe that the future global society will be composed of actors that realize the cost of conflict and thus their interests are achieved through international institutions that mediate their disputes.

Concepts and Terminologies

  • Diplomacy pertains to the negotiation between global actors that seeks a cooperative solution
  • Zero-sum an exchange in which one party wins and another loses (no in-between).

International Efforts to Address the Digital Divide

Focus

  • China and the European Union are working together to promote digitalization and cyber development in their countries. According to Lu, there were 800 million people unconnected to the internet in Europe and China, and, as such, both countries will help each other to address it (as cited in Jia and Shuang, 2015).
  • Switzerland aims to strengthen cooperation forums, contribute to the fight against cyber/digital threats, give users more control over their own data, improved and use digitalization to promote international cooperation (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2020)
  • US aims to achieve digital solidarity by advancing global digital norms, expanding educational opportunities, and harnessing ai for the good of humanity
    • they plan to invest in infrastructure that connects every nation, partnering with japan, new zealand, and taiwan (up to 100k people in the pacific islands). something similar is done to south america, africa, indo pacific
  • France aims to define principles for digital technology and promotes universal access to different digital technologies (Kubalija, Hone, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, 2023)

Goal

  • Increased internet access
  • increased cyber security
  • digital self-determination

Key Idea

  • Data shapes the economy because it affects the environment where diplomats operate (Kurbalija, 2024). They are now central for economic growth
    • For example, damage to cables that lead to the internet disconnection of a country can have considerable economic and political ramifications
    • Businesses are shifting towards using digital services and business models.
    • The economy’s stability is highly influenced by the condition of data flows, as we progress towards a more data-driven geopolitics and geo-economics
  • Data introduce new topics and tools for diplomacy (Kurbalija, 2024)
    • The introduction of new forms of data (e.g., web-data, big data, crowd-sourced data, etc.) leads to more opportunities for diplomatic activities
  • Cyber security and human rights (key aspect of liberalism)
  • Digital technologies are driving developments in fields of medicine, security, manufacturing, and etc. (Blinken, 2024)
  • Applying universal ethics that foster order and unity

International Organizations

TODO

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