Themes and a Problem to Study

1
Themes and a Problem to Study

• Metageographic Shift a societal transition from
  territorial organization to that of a network
  for my research purposes, as manifest through the
  political use of the Internet
• US Hegemonic Reactions how the United States is
  adapting and reacting to the shifts in power that
  contemporary metageographic conflict is incurring
  (e.g., terrorism, hackers, global anti-hegemony
  organization and mobilization, etc.)
• Problem to Study the US is currently reflexively
  modernizing to the political use of the Internet
  by non-state agents at the global scale.
  However, it suffers from what I call spatial
  dementia its strategies of control and
  regulation are so based and premised upon
  territorial sovereignty that the US cannot easily
  adapt to non-territorial threats to its power.

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Metageographic Shift

• Metageography the way in which humans organize
  society
• Territorial since the inception of capitalism,
  territorial sovereignty has been the primary and
  main method of human organization within the
  international political economy
• Network humans have begun to organize themselves
  in a more network fashion with the advance of
  technology
• Internet communities, political organizations,
  institutions, economic transactions are all
  beginning to organize themselves within and via
  the virtual networked world of cyberspace,
  disregarding territorially demarcated borders
  (e.g., al Quada, protests against War with Iraq)

3
Becks Risk Society and Reflexive Modernization

• Risk Society a society in which technological
  innovations unleash previously unfathomable
  risks therefore, society remains in a state of
  incredible risk (e.g., nuclear weapons)
• Reflexive Modernization adaptations of rules,
  regulations, or methods by institutions of
  political power that saw the development of the
  destructive technology. This is done in order to
  stymie potential risk and create atmosphere of
  stability.
• By replacing Becks nuclear risk with network
  risk, one discovers that both share the common
  trait of deterritorializing power and
  consequence

4
Concept of Becks Reflexive Modernization
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Spatial Dementia

• US hegemony represents the institution behind
  stability in the geopolitical order, but as a
  state it is based on territorial aspects that do
  not function in cyberspace
• It is attempting to reflexively modernize to the
  plethora of risks stemming from the virtual world
  and affecting the international political economy
• However, it is incapable of controlling or
  adapting to the deterritorialized metageography
  of the Internet entirely in fact it is often
  making contradictory and bad policy right now
• Prediction new actors (e.g., global, networked,
  transnational corporations) are going to become
  the major players in securing the virtual sphere
  of the international political economy