infrastruktur digital – Neopolitique

The Political Economy of Digital Infrastructure

October 1, 2026 • by MIchael Baker • 0 Comments

For decades, the political economy of global trade was defined by physical commodities—oil pipelines, shipping lanes, container ports, and heavy manufacturing supply chains. Digital networks, by contrast, were romanticized as weightless, borderless, and entirely market-driven utilities governed by private engineering consortia and frictionless market forces. Today, that illusion has vanished. The global political economy has…

Technology & Politics

Why Digital Sovereignty Is Becoming More Important

September 24, 2025 • by MIchael Baker • 0 Comments

For decades, the globalization of technology operated on a frictionless premise: data, software, cloud infrastructure, and hardware components flowed freely across planetary networks, managed by transnational tech conglomerates under the assumption of a borderless digital commons. In the 21st-century network society, that era of techno-optimistic interdependence has ended. Digital sovereignty—the capacity of a state, society,…

Geopolitics

Why Digital Infrastructure Matters to Global Politics

August 20, 2025 • by MIchael Baker • 0 Comments

For centuries, global political power was determined by geography, physical borders, and the tangible instruments of statecraft. Governments projected power across oceans, defended territory with standing armies, and secured economic dominance through shipping lanes, factories, and physical resource extraction. In the 21st-century network society, that Westphalian calculus has been fundamentally re-engineered. Digital infrastructure is no…

Analysis

How Digital Infrastructure Has Become a Political Issue

July 18, 2025 • by MIchael Baker • 0 Comments

For decades, physical infrastructure—roads, railways, power grids, and telephone lines—was treated as a neutral matter of engineering and economics. Governments funded or regulated these systems to ensure public utility, while citizens viewed them as background plumbing that quietly enabled modern life. In the 21st-century digital ecosystem, that era of infrastructural neutrality has completely vanished. Digital…

Technology & Politics

The Political Importance of Digital Infrastructure

March 13, 2025 • by MIchael Baker • 0 Comments

For decades, political and economic analyses treated the internet as an ethereal “cloud”—an invisible, borderless space floating entirely above traditional geopolitics. Infrastructure such as fiber-optic cables, data centers, server farms, and satellite constellations was viewed as the neutral domain of telecommunications engineers and commercial corporations, operating far away from the concerns of statecraft and sovereignty.…

Analysis

The Growing Importance of Digital Public Spaces

January 1, 2025 • by MIchael Baker • 0 Comments

For centuries, the concept of the “public space”—the Athenian agora, the town square, public parks, and independent cafes—served as the bedrock of democratic life. These physical arenas were where citizens gathered to debate ideas, hold institutions accountable, form social solidarity, and negotiate the terms of a shared society. In the 21st century, the center of…