Telecommunications and information networks: Growing international tensions and their underlying causes

Abstract

This article explores the growing international tensions over information networks and the conflict related to the underlying telecommunications networks that lies at the heart of the matter. Telecommunications policy and practice is changing significantly in many countries and at the international level. Tensions and conflict are identified as taking place on four levels: conflict over underlying values, conflict between and among different industry groups, political conflict among nations, and an emerging trade politics related to the application of services trade principles and rules to telecommunications and information services. These levels of tension/conflict should not be treated as distinct and mutually exclusive, but rather as overlapping and interactive, emphasizing the complex and increasingly serious nature of this important issue.