Understanding
cybergeography: visualizing how cyberspace and
geopolitics interact
Speaker
Kavé Salamatian
(University of Savoie)
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The
Internet is nowadays a major component of the
contemporary world. Nonetheless, networks do
not emerge in the void. They interconnect
physical or logical agents that exists
concretely and are therefore subject to
different forms of physical, political or
economic constraints. The network
itself extends the abilities of its
participating nodes and therefore go beyond
the local constraints by opening new spaces
or dimensions. This the interplay
of local constraints and global advantages
that shapes the structure and properties of
these new spaces. Internet and the cyberspace
are built over equipment and infrastructures
that are positioned in the geographical space.
These physical component anchor strongly
Internet, and the cyberspace, in the
terrestrial space. Cyberspace is a
virtual and vaporous cloud that is rooted
firmly in the concrete of geographic,
economic, political, and physical
interferences and constraints.
Overcoming these constraints have entailed
colossal investments and for classical actors
like governments or economic players,
communication cables, satellites,
data-centers, servers, etc., are vectors of
power enforcement.
Generally
the distribution of Internet infrastructures
in the terrestrial space poses classical
problems in geography and geopolitics, like
spatial planning or spatial inequalities, etc.
One could therefore incline to think that
Internet can be treated as any other
infrastructure network like roads, pipelines,
or energy transfer grids. Thus, the addition
of a new type of artefact to classical
geography or geopolitics should not transform
the way of strategic thinking. However, a more
precise analysis of the concept of cyberspace
shows other dimensions to the discussion. We
all have an intuitive feeling about the
"cyberspace", but is it a new space
or just an extension of the space that have
been studied for a long time by geographers?
Do humans have the same appropriation
relationship with the cyberspace as we observe
in classical geography? if yes, can we talk
about cyber-territories and discuss about the
power struggle to control them?
Nonetheless,
projecting any power needs information to
decide its usage and to control its action. By
shaping the way information are exchanged and
are flowing in the cyberspace, the Internet
changes the distribution of power. During the
past two decades, new actors have emerged that
build their power, i.e., their ability to
impact both the real world and the cyberspace,
through gathering information of diverse
nature. These actors project their "
cyber-power " to dispute to each other "
cyber-territories ". This competition
has not remained in the cyber-dimension and
is concretely changing the contemporary
world. In a nutshell, real world
power shape the Internet and in return the
Internet changes the very basic nature of
power. Understanding how this evolving
interaction loop acts and shapes the
contemporary world economics, politics and
geography is of paramount importance.
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