Originally published in 1986, The International Politics of New Information Technology explores a period when knowledge and expertise in information technology was increasingly being seen as an essential national asset by the industrialised nations. With the decline of traditional heavy industries around the world, information technology was regarded as the industry of tomorrow. Coupled with this economic value was the great strategic and military importance of IT. In the information technology age, computer-power became as important as firepower. Technology transfer and trans-border data flow assumed the strategic and political importance of conventional armaments sales.
The book reviews the development of the world IT industry and examines the present and likely future of IT at that time, along with its social and political implications. The author introduces the notion of 'IT colonialism'—with the flag following trade rather than trade following the flag.
The volume includes a study of the essential requirements for worldwide unity in industry standards and concludes with a proposal for the utilisation of scarce human resources via cooperative research and development.