Why and how will the fourth industrial revolution impact great power politics? Here, Glenn Diesen utilizes a neoclassical, global approach to great power politics to assess how far the development of AI, national and localized technological ecosystems and cyber-warfare will affect great power politics in the next century. The reliance of modern economies on technological advances, Diesen argues, also compels states to intervene radically in economics and the lives of citizens, as automation radically alters the economies of tomorrow.
This is an extremely timely and. necessary book. As everyone was caught by surprise by the speed of non-reciprocity (TCP-IP, WWW, Internet of Things in large ecosystems) a new plane of value, away from territory, actualized in under fifty years. The opening phase of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has only just begun, and the main pillars of the world order are already crumbling, as Professor Diesen states. He asks the right questions: Will the great powers need to achieve "technological sovereignty" in the form of self-sufficient technological ecosystems? Will new technologies empower primarily the individual, corporation or state? To what extent will the Fourth Industrial Revolution influence the geoeconomic rivalry between the great powers? Professor Diesen states it is puzzling why international relations devote so little attention to technological innovation when technology is arguably the most important variable in great power politics and geoeconomics. This book is then timely, as the main power zones are waking up; potential regulation of Big Tech in the Unites States, the call for digital sovereignty with Team von der Leyen and the first cracks in the Chinese super well done integration at the lowest level but in a too obsessive compulsive way. If you own the house there is no need to know what all tenants are doing all the time. So all zones are looking for a better balance between centralization and decentralization. Might Russia have a productive and fitting ecosystem to achieve this?
