قدرت در عصر اطلاعات

Power in the Age of Information

This article argues that information and communication technology and its increasing application in all dimensions of human life has transformed the common understanding of the sources, nature and forms of power in several ways. Firstly, on the basis of the requirements of information and communication technology, and as the most important actors of the age of industry, nation- states have faced with new actors with whom they have established a complex relationship of coexistence, interaction and confrontation. Power distribution among various actors like international organizations, multinational corporations, and cross-national social movements, non-state organizations and individuals, has imposed a great challenge onto the traditional function and status of the state as the only one that owns and controls power; secondly, within the framework of two ways of looking, namely instrumental and structural, resulted from the developments originating from digital technologies and their new facilities and capabilities ought to be redefined, in a way that it covers the other face of power, namely its virtual and actual power, for the application of power depends increasingly on the context into which it is placed. In the new context which is based on virtual space, the power of information has taken on an increasing importance in the structures of global power and in the interactions between states. Thirdly, and most importantly, if we consider the actorsʹ tendencies as a result of their interaction with others and their achieving a definition of themselves and others, then information technology, due to its interactional nature, can be said to have been transformed into the most important factor paving the way for that interaction.