States have been the primary actors in global affairs for nearly 400 years. Ian Bremmer argues that is starting to change, as a handful of large technology companies rival them for geopolitical influence.
Yes, but ... I think. So far this year, the war in Ukraine, the turmoil in markets, and the Chinese governments' control of tech all reminds us all how close we really are to the violence and political realpolitik that can very easily mute the power of mega tech.
Ian Bremmer in Foreign Affairs essay "The Technopolar Moment", Nov 2021
- It is time to start thinking of the biggest technology companies as similar to states. These companies exercise a form of sovereignty over a rapidly expanding realm that extends beyond the reach of regulators: digital space... think social engineering and cryptocurrencies
- globalists—firms that built their empires by operating on a truly international scale. These companies, including Apple, Facebook, and Google, create and populate digital space, allowing their business presence and revenue streams to become untethered from physical territory.
- national champions, which are more willing to align themselves explicitly with the priorities of their home governments, Huawei and SMIC
- the techno-utopians... "charismatic visionaries who see technology not just as a global business opportunity but also as a potentially revolutionary force in human affairs. In contrast to the other two groups, this camp centers more on the personalities and ambitions of technology CEOs rather than the operations of the companies themselves... Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the most recognizable example, with his open ambition to reinvent transportation, link computers to human brains, and make humanity a “multiplanetary species” by colonizing Mars."
- "A generation ago, the foundational premise of the Internet was that it would accelerate the globalization that transformed economics and politics in the 1990s. Many hoped that the digital age could foster the unfettered flow of information, challenging the grip of authoritarian holdouts who thought they could escape the so-called end of history. The picture is different today: a concentration of power in the hands of a few very large technology firms and the competing interventions of U.S.-, Chinese-, and EU-centered power blocs have led to a much more fragmented digital landscape."
- " it is simply no longer tenable to talk about big technology companies as pawns their government masters can move around on a geopolitical chessboard. They are increasingly geopolitical actors in and of themselves."
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