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Under what conditions does science influence environmental policy? International Relations (IR) scholars, such as Peter M Haas, have argued that to gain political influence, science should not connect to policy before scientific consensus has been reached. We take this suggestion as a point of departure for investigating how science is and should be connected to policy in international environmental governance. Using insights from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), the contribution of IR is critically discussed, both to present its limitations and, primarily, to further develop the understanding of scientific consensus within IR and the need for separation and connections between science and policy. The organization and performance of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including the various assessments made by scholars from IR and STS, is used as an illustrative case. From the discussion of IR and STS and the role of the IPCC in climate policy, we conclude that the focus within STS on contextual and informal factors could shed light on how science and technology are understood by IR scholars, who focus more on the formal organizational design of the interplay between science and policy.

This essay develops a theoretical framework for understanding the connection between technological transformations & change in the international system & puts the information revolution in its proper context -- as another in a line of technology-system transformations. The analysis proceeds in two steps: first I conceptualize technology as politics. Technology is inherently political in at least two ways: the construction of technologies is subject to political contestation & technology can be understood as a certain kind of practical knowledge, embedded in material artifacts & in the institutions built to manage them. The second step draws on Buzan & Little's idea of interaction capacity to conceptualize technology as a component of the international political system. This two-step approach draws our attention to the national & transnational institutions that develop new technologies & to the international systemic dimension of certain sociotechnical systems. In the end, this approach provides a framework for understanding technological change, including the information revolution, in an international political context. In particular, it draws attention to political debate over the shape & content of a global information infrastructure. Adapted from the source document.

Der Autor beschreibt am Beispiel der Mikroelektronik in Japan quantitative Effekte (z.B. Sinken der Arbeitslosigkeit) und qualitative Entwicklungen, die er in einer durch neue Technologien verursachten Anreicherung von Arbeitsinhalten sieht. Näher diskutiert werden die Wirkungen auf den Arbeitsmarkt (Erhöhung der Flexibilität), das Lohnsystem (Transformierung vom Prinzip der Orientierung des Lohns am Lebensalter und an der Firmenzugehörigkeit zum Leistungslohn) sowie das Verhältnis zu den Gewerkschaften (die zunehmend die berufliche Weiterbildung im Bereich neuer Technologien unterstützen). (psz)

The research will discuss about the impacts of technology disruption in international relations. This study aims to increase awareness about several disrupted areas in international politics, particularly in security niche. It will also examine technology disruptions in Indonesia as one of the Global South countries and see the gaps between South and North relations in the field of cyber security. This article also argues that multidiscipline and multi-stakeholder approach through cyber diplomacy is the most feasible solution to tackle the issues arising from technology disruption.

In advances in both physical and digital aspects of technology have led to the development of powerful new technologies such as so-called Autonomous Weapons Systems, algorithmic software tools for counterterrorism and security, or "smart" CCTV surveillance. International Relations (IR) answers to "the question concerning technology," to borrow from M. Heidegger's seminal essay, have come with quite a degree of variance, depending on assumptions about the essence of the international system, the possibilities and conditions for change or stability, and the general relationship between technology, politics, and society. In IR, agency has been most prominently discussed as part of the "agent-structure problem". Starting from the question whether human agency or the social structure within which it is embedded determines international action, debates about agency have mostly been concerned with how to situate agency and structure vis-à-vis each other, as well as vis-a-vis monocausal structuralist or intentionalist theories.