Review: Digital Diplomacy
| Published date | 01 September 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200105600325 |
| Date | 01 September 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
ly
held
to
be
Hu
Jintao.
There
is
little in
his
past performance
to
explain
his
rise.
But
it
does
not
necessarily
follow
that
it
is
Qinghua
connections
that
are
really
behind
it;
it
might just
as
well
be
something
about
his
past
that
we
don't
have
access
to.
This
caveat aside,
this
is
an
important
book
that
ought
to
be read
by anyone
interested in
contemporary
China.
Michael
Szonyi/University
of
Toronto
DIGITAL
DIPLOMACY
US
foreign
policy in
the
information
age
Wilson
Dizard,
Jr
Westport
CT:
Praeger, 2001,
x,
2
17pp,
US$24.95,
ISBN
0-275-97228-3
T
his
interesting
volume
considers
issues
that
are
rarely
addressed
in
the
study
of
United
States
foreign
policy:
it
focuses
on
how
infor-
mation
technologies,
from
the
telegraph to
the
internet,
have affected
both
the
substance
of
United
States
foreign
policy
and
the
manner
in
which
such
policy
is
formulated.
'Digital diplomacy'
refers
to
policies
and
negotiations
regarding
anything pertaining
to
communications,
including
satellites,
radio
waves,
propaganda
campaigns, global
media,
information
technology,
and
international data
flows.
Given
the
broad
focus,
the
book
is
a
bit
uneven.
The
chapters
on
the
evolution
of
communications
satellites
and
negotiations
involving
the
radio
spectrum
are
rather
technical
and
tend
to
focus
more
on
the
evo-
lution
of
communications
technology
than
on
United
States
foreign
policy.
Two
other
chapters
focus
primarily
on
the
way in
which
the
State
Department
has
resisted
incorporating
new
communications
technologies
into
both
its
operations
and
its
policy
agenda.
The
chap-
ters
that
consider
the
ways
in
which
communications
technology
rais-
es
new foreign
policy
issues
are
the
most
thought-provoking.
For
example,
one
chapter
considers
the
threats
to
the
flow
of
global
infor-
mation and
recounts
American
efforts
to
remove
these
barriers.
In
the
process
it
raises
questions
about
how
to define power,
the
meaning
of
sovereignty,
and
the
spectre
of
cultural
imperialism.
Likewise,
the
con-
cluding
chapter
considers
the
implications
of
the
North-South
infor-
mation
gap,
the
impact
that
information
technology
has
had
on
the
military,
and
the
way
in
which
both
'security'
and
'human
rights'
are
being
reconceptualized.
This
is
a
book
worth
reading.
Beth
Fischer/University
of
Toronto
552
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
2001
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