| dc.description.abstract | According to Moore’s Law, every 18 months technology is developed reducing electronic systems to half their previous size.1 The resultant impact upon the field of
information and communication has been revolutionary and can be framed in terms
of three orders of manifestation. The first order manifestation of the information revolution is technological and refers to the unprecedently cheap, fast and user-friendly
information devices that have been developed in the past two to three decades. Digitization, miniaturization and conversion of different media into each other have been
the impetus for a worldwide communications infrastructure – the apex of which is the
Internet. The first order (or technological) implications of the information revolution
have, in the second order, impacted on social, political and economic activities
allowing for the almost instant mobility of capital, the proliferation of multinational
corporations, the global reach of news media coverage, and cross-border mobilization
of individuals and interest groups. The behavioral implications of the information
revolution, in the third order, raise questions of a structural nature about the validity
of the nation-state, the expression of identity and the organization of the international
community. This article aims to tease out the ethical implications of the technological, behavioral and structural dimensions of the information revolution and in turn
international security in two ways. First, the impact of information technology (IT)
on contemporary ethical issues in the pursuit of international security, for example
weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and redistributive justice and human rights,
are explored. Second, IT also introduces a whole new set of ethical questions to international security issues. These questions are most often related to the causes and
conduct of war, personal privacy in opposition to state security, and information
inequality. | en_US |
