INTERNATIONAL ACTORS AND THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

As the technologies of the Information Age become more widely diffused and adopted, certain impacts will have similar effects at the international system level of analysis, the international actor level, and within individual states, corporations, organizations, and institutions. Here, we present four of the most prominent. Increased Quantity, Dispersal, and Flow of Information. As advanced information and communication technologies become less expensive and easier to use, they will be more widely adopted and increasingly employed. They will no longer be limited to "leading edge" industries and organizations nor will they be limited to only select organizational functions and processes. In fact, these technologies will become the typical means of doing business in all kinds of fields and organizations. As a result, more and more information will inevitably become accessible at every level from the international system level to the individual actor level. More and more people, institutions, and organizations will have more access to and need for information. Except for the most sensitive national and corporate data, this increased quantity of data will be accompanied by increased dissemination and access as the locations at which information is located and can be accessed proliferate.

The increased dispersal of information will offer significant advantages. First, because it will be available at more sites, more users will be able to access information. Second, as a institutions and organizations that value education and initiative. The proliferation of the ability to analyze information will likely carry with it a demand to decentralize decision making and empower more people in decision making processes.

In many quarters, this demand is likely to make good sense to those in positions of authority and to be perceived as improving efficiency. In these cases, demand from below for decentralized decision making may well be joined by initiatives from above for the same end result. In all likelihood, then, decision making will become more decentralized as the Information Age progresses. Indeed, as discussed in earlier chapters, this is already happening in many areas of the business world, in banking, in government and the military and in other sectors of society as well.

Conversely, some international actors, institutions, and organizations will seek to maintain centralized control of decision-making capabilities, especially in more traditional societies, institutions, and organizations. This, too, will be an understandable culturally dependent reaction. We already see this occurring as some states and other international actors seek to minimize the number of locations where information can be stored, to limit access to certain types of information, and to curtail the free flow of information.

Information Age is fast approaching. Thus, the time to begin examining the questions and issues raised in this anthology is now. The answers that we develop will allow us to influence trends, policies, and events that will play roles in determining what the Information Age becomes