By Samuel S. Visner and Mark Lees
06 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
To what extent does the ownership and management of a nation's
information infrastructure represent a question of national security?
This question is all the more important because of recent changes in the
models by which IT infrastructures, and the telecommunications that underpin them, are currently deployed, owned, and
used. These same changes have also complicated the situation faced by policymakers concerned with the national security connection between the
government and the telecommunication industry.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
06 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
National security analysts have long assumed that the international
telecom landscape would be defined by vast struggles over competing
technical standards, with ownership of highly sensitive infrastructure
being the grand prize. But it's becoming increasingly clear that the infrastructure owned
matters less than the services delivered, which are themselves simply a
means of winning consumer loyalty and, along with it, the "business
intelligence" that will determine economic power in the modern era
of globalization.