This chapter outlines the significance of the digital revolution for International Relations. The first section establishes the political context that shaped the development of the internet, showing how this informed both its technical building blocks and modes of governance. The second section explains how these new technologies also entailed a distinct set of vulnerabilities. In doing so, it highlights the emergence of cybersecurity as an issue of national security, including the potential for cyber warfare between states. The third section introduces the politics of social media platforms that have enhanced pro-democracy movements such as the Arab Spring, but also driven polarisation, fostered extremism and been harnessed by a range of actors, from terrorist groups and intelligence services through to diplomats and even heads of state. The final section tracks the rise of internet sovereignty, which began in the early 2000s and has since become a significant international political tension point. We highlight how some states have sought to control information within their geographical borders, and use online censorship, propaganda and surveillance to govern their populations.

The systemic crisis we face today imposes the need for a new paradigm of global order and governance that takes into account the dynamics brought by globalization.

First and foremost, the fate of mankind as a whole now faces a series of very large-scale threats. These threats require an endeavor beyond just optimizing nation-states’ self-interests, because they are of their nature transnational not international. Issues such as climate change, environmental problems, cybercrime, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terror have now reached a scale that presents a threat to everyone, everywhere, and are becoming increasingly difficult to resolve purely through inter-state relations based on “territorial sovereignty and hegemonic geopolitics” . There is a clear need for a comprehensive new system of values in which states and concerned international civil society can participate to address these threats to humanity’s shared destiny, together with conventions based on such a system.

From this perspective in the eight chapter of the book the principal elements of a vision for a possible new global order are analysed and the author’s recommendations on a result-oriented UN reform process are discussed.