Moving Ahead: A New Turn of Mind
Moving Ahead: A New Turn of Mind
Moving Ahead: A New Turn of Mind
MOVING AHEAD
This report has argued for the development of an American information strategy based on noopolitik. The information revolution has already deepened and diffused to such a degree that other actors
both state and nonstatehave begun to incorporate informational
elements into their own strategies. The spread of the information
revolution beyond the United States foreshadows an era in which
many actors will be competing over who has an information edge
(Nye and Owens, 1996), as well as over who is bound to lead the international system (Nye, 1990). There is no assurance that the
United States will necessarily assume or sustain such a role. Despite
all of Americas advances in the technological realm, only strategies
applied wisely will enable their potential to be realized. Thus,
whether the United States wants to or not, it must think strategically
about the role of information in statecraft.
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NGOs, individual activists, and others, have the space to build the
networked fabric of a global civil societyand a noosphere.
But is there not ultimately some contradiction between the consolidation of a global noosphere and the persistence of the hegemon
who works to implant it? Once its catalytic/midwife roles have been
completed, does the hegemon just wither away? Shouldnt it? Or is
continued hegemony needed to sustain and safeguard the noosphere? Just how robust will a noosphere be on its own? And if it is
but an artifact of some kind of hegemony, does this mean that
noopolitik depends on a continuance of realpolitik at its base? Because, after all, the hegemon, by definition, is the most overarchingly
powerful state. These questions and issues bear future inquiry.
Could the United States serve in this hegemonic capacity to good effect? If so, we should cease letting the threat of a digital Pearl Harbor be a main metaphor for our strategic thinking and shift to an
equally classic, but positive, metaphor along the lines of a Manifest
Destiny for the information age.
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Modelski, 1987). All offer critiques of any form of hegemony, although Modelski considers that hegemony might be a good thing.