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Launching into Cyberspace: Internet Development and Politics in Five World Regions

Marcus Franda
Launching into Cyberspace: Internet Development and Politics in Five World Regions
ISBN: 978-1-58826-012-3
$59.95
ISBN: 978-1-58826-037-6
$22.00
2001/297 pages/LC: 2001031627
iPolitics: Global Challenges in the Information Age

"This informative analysis explains how political considerations regulate the democratizing potential of online technologies."—Scott L. Althaus, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics

"A well-written and thoroughly researched book, which fills the gap in the comparative analysis of the impact of the Internet on international relations."—Jason Paul Abbott, Perspectives on Politics

"Provides important insights into the interaction between technology and politics."—Erik S. Herron, Political Science Quarterly

"A useful but sobering survey of the Internet's reception outside the West."—Foreign Affairs

DESCRIPTION

Launching into Cyberspace explores the Internet as an increasingly important variable in the study of comparative politics and international relations.

Focusing on Africa, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, China, and India, Franda examines the extent to which Internet development has (or has not) taken place and the relationship between that development and the conduct of international relations. His case studies—incorporating an analysis of such wide-ranging variables as language and literacy, cultural values, political parties, leadership, and the availability of capital and technological expertise—also illuminate policy processes in differing political systems.

Franda provides new insights into the diffusion of the international Internet regime and, especially, Internet development as a major issue on the global policy agenda.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcus Franda is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. His numerous publications include Governing the Internet: The Emergence of an International Regime.

CONTENTS

  • The Internet and World Politics.
  • Thin Cyberspace in Africa and the LDCs.
  • Internet Cultures in Israel and the Arab World.
  • The Middle East in the Global Internet Regime.
  • Information Technology and Political Cultures in Eurasia.
  • The Political Economy of the Internet in Eastern Europe.
  • Internet Politics in the Former Soviet Union and Other Central/Eastern European States.
  • India and China as Potential Internet Superpowers.
  • The Internet in Comparative International Perspective.