The traditional paradigm of international relations focuses on formal states, relationships, and organizations. In our digital age, that way of thinking is increasingly divorced from reality. Instead, global affairs are shaped by “hidden networks.”
From the advent of cryptocurrencies for the transfer of digital assets to seemingly innocuous online communities like Reddit, technology is taking center stage in powering the global underground. Criminal organizations don’t need to meet in person—they can exclusively communicate online. Countries attack not overtly with tanks but through discreet cyberattacks. Information isn’t exchanged through traditional news outlets, but disseminated and sorted by algorithms and machine learning whose actions even their own developers struggle to understand. Social movements can take advantage of decentralization to thwart censorship and build transnational networks.
