Abstract
Early hopes that the rise of the Internet would lead to worldwide democratisation, better accountability and more trustful interstate relations were put into question by a darker reality in which online technologies became instruments of digital illiberalism. This chapter will aim to explore how states, political groups and private companies directly or indirectly use technologies to undermine basic principles of liberalism at home and abroad that has a long-lasting impact on global security and cooperation. It is not the technology itself but the way it is used that makes it a central element of digital illiberalism. In this situation regulatory tools have their limits, because they are region-specific, there are risks of falling into a securitisation trap and crossing red lines of state involvement and individual freedoms. Hence, careful state regulation must be accompanied by diplomatic and trust-building measures, new models of normative behaviours, adjustments in education, and instruments for power-projection and information.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
G. John Ikenberry, “The End of Liberal International Order?”, International Affairs, 94:1 (2018), p. 17.
- 2.
Ronald Findlay & Kevin H. O’Rourke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium, (Princeton University Press: 2007) pp. 395–414.
- 3.
Larry Neal & Jeffrey G. Williamson (eds.), The Cambridge History of Capitalism (Cambridge University Press: 2014), pp. 82–126.
- 4.
Jack Goldstone, Why Europe? The Rise of the West in the World History, 1500–1850 (George Mason University: 2009), p. 172.
- 5.
Trygve R. Tholfsen, “The Transition to Democracy in Victorian England”, International Review of Social History, 6:2 (1961), pp. 226–248.
- 6.
Walt W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth, (Cambridge University Press: 1960).
- 7.
Herbert Marcuse, One-dimensional man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society, (Beacon Press: 1991), p. 260; Andre Gunder Frank, Barry K. Gills, The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand? (Routledge: 1996), p. 344.
- 8.
Branko Milanovic, Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World (Harvard University Press: 2019), p. 304.
- 9.
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, (Crown Business: 2012), p. 546.
- 10.
Ewald Grothe, “Model or Myth? The Constitution of Westphalia of 1807 and Early German Constitutionalism”, German Studies Review, 28:1 (2005), pp. 1–19.
- 11.
Chi Ling Chan, “Fallen Behind: Science, Technology, and Soviet Statism”, Intersect, 8:3 (2015), p. 1.
- 12.
Loren Graham, Lonely Ideas: Can Russia Compete? (The MIT Press: 2013), p. 103.
- 13.
Global Innovation Index 2021. China, https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2021/cn.pdf (Accessed 10 August 2022).
- 14.
Dennis Normile, “A Beijing Think Tank Offered a Frank Review of China’s Technological Weaknesses. Then the Report Disappeared”, Science (8 February 2022), https://www.science.org/content/article/beijing-think-tank-offered-frank-review-china-s-technological-weaknesses-then-report (Accessed 10 August 2022).
- 15.
Hal Brands, “The Dangers of China’s Decline”, Foreign Policy (14 April 2022), https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/14/china-decline-dangers/ (Accessed 10 August 2022).
- 16.
Daniel Deudney & G. John Ikenberry, “The Nature and Sources of Liberal International Order”, Review of International Studies, 25 (1999), pp. 179–196.
- 17.
Henry Farrell & Abraham L. Newman, “The Janus Face of the Liberal International Information Order: When Global Institutions Are Self-Undermining?”, International Organization, 75 (2021), p. 337.
- 18.
Larry Diamond, “Liberation technology”, Journal of Democracy, 21:3 (2010), pp. 69–83.
- 19.
Robert O. Keohane & Joseph S. Nye Jr., Power and Interdependence (Longman: 2001).
- 20.
Robert O. Keohane & Joseph S. Nye Jr., “Power and Interdependence in the Information Age”, Foreign Affairs, 77:5 (1998), p. 83.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Henry Farrell & Abraham L. Newman, “The Janus Face of the Liberal International Information Order: When Global Institutions Are Self-Undermining?”, International Organization, 75 (2021), p. 342.
- 23.
Keohane & Nye, “Power and Interdependence in the Information Age”, p. 84.
- 24.
Ronald Deibert & Rafal Rohozinski, “Liberation vs. Control: The Future of Cyberspace”, Journal of Democracy, 21:4 (2010), p. 44.
- 25.
David Bach, “Varieties of Cooperation: The Domestic Institutional Roots of Global Governance”, Review of International Studies, 36:3 (2010), pp. 578–579.
- 26.
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (Profile Books: 2019), p. 704.
- 27.
Philip N. Howard, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam (Oxford University Press: 2010), pp. 3–4.
- 28.
Volodymyr V. Lysenko & Kevin C. Desouza, “The Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Protesters and the Authorities in the Attempts at Colour Revolutions in Belarus 2001–2010”, Europe-Asia Studies, 67:4 (2015), p. 639.
- 29.
Roman Goncharenko, “Russia Moves Toward Creation of an Independent Internet”, DW (17 January 2018), https://www.dw.com/en/russia-moves-toward-creation-of-an-independent-internet/a-42172902 (Accessed 25 January 2022).
- 30.
“China Greenlights Establishment of Root Server”, Xinhua (8 December 2019), http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/08/c_138613999.htm (Accessed 25 January 2022).
- 31.
Ronald J. Deibert, “The Geopolitics of Internet Control: Censorship, Sovereignty, and Cyberspace”, in: Andrew Chadwick/Philip N. Howard (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics (Routledge: 2009), p. 334.
- 32.
Billy Perigo, “The Capabilities Are Still There. Why Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Christopher Wylie Is Still Worried”, Time (8 October 2019), https://time.com/5695252/christopher-wylie-cambridge-analytica-book/ (Accessed 10 August 2022).
- 33.
Diamond, “Liberation Technology”, p. 80.
- 34.
David Runciman, How Democracy Ends (Profile Books: 2019), p. 158.
- 35.
Francis Fukuayama, Liberalism and Its Discontents (Profile Books: 2022), p. 104.
- 36.
Henry Farrell & Abraham L. Newman, “Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Networks Shape State Coercion”, International Security, 44:1 (2019), pp. 46–47.
- 37.
Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy. The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends (Allen Lane: 2020), p. 113.
- 38.
Loveday Morris, Elizabeth Dwoskin & Hamza Shaban, “Whistleblower Testimony and Facebook Papers Trigger Lawmaker Calls for Regulation”, The Washington Post (25 October 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/25/facebook-papers-live-updates/ (Accessed 25 January 2022).
- 39.
Hélène Landemore, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press: 2020), p. 272.
- 40.
Claudia Chwalisz, “The Pandemic Has Pushed Citizen Panels Online”, Nature, 589 (2021), p. 171.
- 41.
Chau Tong, Hyungjin Gill, Jianing Li, Sebastián Valenzuela & Hernando Rojas, “Fake News Is Anything They Say!”—Conceptualization and Weaponization of Fake News Among the American Public”, Mass Communication and Society, 23:5 (2020), p. 760.
- 42.
Fukuayama, Liberalism and Its Discontents, pp. 112–113.
- 43.
Nani Jansen Reventlow, “Can the GDPR and Freedom of Expression Coexist?”, AJIL Unbound, 114 (2020), p. 34.
- 44.
Yaqiu Wang, “In China, the ‘Great Firewall’ Is Changing a Generation”, Politico.com (9 January 2020), https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/01/china-great-firewall-generation-405385 (Accessed 10 August 2022); John Thornhill, “Russia’s Digital Iron Curtain Will Fail”, Financial Times (10 March 2022), https://www.ft.com/content/26e88a2b-c7ba-46c7-8191-490188f4757b (Accessed 10 August 2022).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kanevskiy, P. (2023). Digital Illiberalism and the Erosion of the Liberal International Order. In: Berghofer, J., Futter, A., Häusler, C., Hoell, M., Nosál, J. (eds) The Implications of Emerging Technologies in the Euro-Atlantic Space. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24673-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24673-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-24672-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-24673-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)