Marissa Christman

LIS505, As. 3

4/29/10

Information Globalization in Review:

ICTs and the Nation-state Dynamic

Introduction

The recent mushrooming of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has

had significant impact on current neo-nationalist movements as global media weaken the locally

imaginative bonds of nationhood (Poster, 2008, 700). Nationalism and globalization have

collided in the theoretical and empirical realms for decades but many of those dialogues are

beyond the scope of this paper. This literature review focuses on the documented use of ICTs by

neo-nationalist groups in support of the theory that information globalization disrupts the

dynamics of the nation-state.

The Concept of Nation

It would be helpful to first clarify the concept of the state, which is a formal institution

with the authority to create and enforce policy. Technological relevance of the state tends to be

encapsulated by the term “techno-nationality,” but should be more precisely called “techno-

statism.” It makes more sense to use techno-nationality to refer to the technological relevance of

that nation as a socio-cultural entity. This ambiguity testifies to academia’s tendency to muddle

the concepts of nation and state. This perhaps signifies its reliance on their archaic affiliation

embodied in the nation-state which empirical analysis shows is becoming less relevant to

technological development (Montresor, 2001, 400-401). Chinese academics are particularly

guilty of this ambiguity, perhaps owing to the enigmatic character of the Chinese nation-state,

discussed below (Knight, 2006, 11). This paper attributes this decreasing relevance to the recent

global penetration of ICTs and its severing of the state from the cultural structure known as the

“nation.”

Though it is common to refer to religious, ethnic or racial groupings as “nations” (i.e.

“The Muslim Nation,” or “The African-American Nation”), the concept is most often associated

with the country or nation-state (i.e. “nation of China”). Benedict Anderson defined a nation as

“an imagined political community imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (Quoted in

Poster, 691). Nations are “limited” in that their existent depends on their exclusivity; certain

criteria must be met in order for a person to be accepted as part of the nation. A nation is

“sovereign” in that its members claim separation and autonomy based on their member statuses,

hence the plethora of nationalist political movements. Because the literature on this subject uses

this definition, this paper will also use Anderson’s definition of a nation as an expression of

culture that exists simply because its members imagine that it exists.

Why Information Globalization and ICTs Matter to the Nation-state

For the last century, nations or “imagined communities” worked to form governments

along national lines but ICTs allow for the diffusion of imagination across national, social, and

geographical boundaries (Poster, 699). The most important criterion for belonging to a nation

before the globalization of information was geographic proximity, which usually meant

administration by the same government, hence the dominance of the nation-state (Friedland,

2002, 391). But the widespread use of ICTs jeopardizes this organization.

The globalization of information and its cultural effects are owed almost exclusively to

ICTs, “Peer-to-peer media technologies… detach the body from its location in space, loosening

the binds to the local, and connect the writer with global culture. This shift involves an

‘intimacy’ with information machines that cannot be ignored” (Poster, 700). ICTs put the

production of culture into the hands of anyone with connectivity, thus drastically redefining the

criteria for nationhood (Poster, 699). The radical consumerism practiced by Chinese youth, for

example, is a practice that goes against a national conception of behavior, even though it is in

line with the emergent global capitalism (Knight, 10-11). People around the world are using

alternative criteria for inclusion into high-tech imagined communities and the state no longer

dictates the boundaries of the nation.

Before ICTs: State-controlled Nationalism

The New Order regime in Indonesia provides a great example of technology’s role in the

operation of the nation-state before the proliferation of ICTs. Indonesia experienced profound

technological growth during the 1970s and 1980s but the recent global economic crisis halted

any progress made in the ICT sector in the 1990s (Satriya, 2005). Indonesia still suffers from

underdevelopment in the ICT sector but its earlier rendezvous with technological development

speaks volumes to the political importance of ICTs in particular.

The Indonesian state began a development initiative in 1976 with the formation of its

aircraft industry, called Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN). Through the use of

nationalist rhetoric, public ceremony and ubiquitous symbolism, the state deliberately fused

technological development and patriotic Indonesian nationalism (Amir, 2007, 287-290). The

development of high technology became a source of national pride (Amir, 283). The state’s

deliberate manipulation of the Indonesian people nurtured a cultural obsession with high

technology that united the divergent groups in Indonesia. In this sense, “technology becomes a

medium of an imagined community” (Amir, 284). The idea, therefore, is not a new one but the

nation-state was the agent responsible for creating this imagined community through the

exploitation of the Indonesian people.

The fanaticism displayed within this imagined community by the Indonesian people in

the 1970s and 80s is called technological nationalism. Technological nationalism allows the state

to pursue its own interests under the banner of a people’s movement by creating the illusion of

progress toward technological and economic independence (Amir, 284). Technological

expenditures are justified as necessary for the success of the nation, and consequently, its people.

But technological development becomes the foremost priority of the nation, completely

disregarding poverty, environmental impact and traditional cultural values. Commoners suffer

because resource allocation is unbalanced yet supported by the disillusioned masses. The state-

created imagined community is a diversion so that the government may benefit from the sacrifice

of the Indonesian commoners (Amir, 292). This phenomenon is only possible in a pre-ICT

environment, wherein the state monopolizes culture through information control.

“Imagined Communities” Created by Ethnic Groups using ICTs

Sociologist Roger Friedland asserts, “As the state weakens and the public sphere empties

of sense, other sources of solidarity… grow: ethnicity, on the one hand, and religion, on the

other” (Friedland, 391). Imagined communities or “nations” based on alternative criteria, often

ethnicity or religion are important to this discussion because they operate independently of the

nation-state, robbing it of power and threatening it with obsolescence.

Since the 1990s, the sudden ubiquity of satellite television, the Internet and other ICTs

has shaped the Arab world. Residing in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the eastern

Mediterranean territories known as the Levant, Arabs are numerous and diverse. Previously

divided by national boundaries, the Arabs’ integrated use of ICTs has resulted in a shared Arab

consciousness or in other words, an imagined pan-Arab community. Scientific studies prove a

correlation between television viewing and the espousal of pan-Arab stances (Pintak, 2009, 192).

Moreover, satellite television has popularized Modern Standard Arabic and, some even say,

encouraged the formation of a pan-Arab lingua franca (Pintak, 194).

A survey of Arab journalists indicated that despite religious, philosophical, geographical

and socio-economic variance, they first identified themselves with a collective Arab public. They

control the global media outlet in question which indicates that they act as gatekeepers to the

Arabs’ imagined community, every day shaping the character of a new Arab collective. Arab

journalists digitally transmit the pan-Arab imagination to Arabs near and far, creating a digital

pan-Arab nation (Pintak, 207). Pan-Arabism has of yet failed to translate into political action.

Nonetheless, broadcasting communally imagined (a.k.a. national) ideas via ICTs is done

independently of the nation-state and one day it might be in opposition to it, demonstrating the

nation’s ability to exist independent of state.

Likewise, Nigerian Tuareg nationalists have created an imagined community or nation by

way of ICTs. Starting in 2007, Tuareg nationalists use extant forums and chat rooms or create

their own to transmit nationalist doctrine. The Nigerian government uses the web similarly in

attempts to counter the Tuareg brand of nationalism with an antithetical state-sponsored version

(Alzouma, 2009, 483). Though Nigeria’s ICT development indicators are among the lowest in

the world, their use of Internet cafes is considerable and the political elites tend be in the small

portion that have access anyway. Also important is the presence of a young student population

who serve as marks for online Tuareg nationalist agitators. The Tuaregs use ICTs to bridge the

educational riffs within Nigerian society. Online radio, video and photos serve as nationalist

propaganda for the illiterate. Tuaregs also use diasporic forums (discussed below) and chat

rooms to transmit their nationalist ideas to Tauregs living abroad. They have inducted

international non-government organizations, political parties and eminent Western personalities

into the ranks of their imagined community using Internet activity (Alzouma, 490). Their

influence extends even further via global media who report news sourced by Nigerian nationalist

websites (Alzouma, 493).

The Building of Online Imagined Communities via Digital Documents

Language has always mediated culture through cultural object such as folklore and

national anthems but ICTs allow cultural objects to be experienced by anyone in the world with

access to the Internet (Poster, 698). The Zionist youth movement is particularly affected by the

increased accessibility to cultural documents. The storage, transmission and discussion of

folklore are made easier by ICTs. Groups like Ariel and Bnei-Akiva use forums to discuss such

foundation documents with other Israeli nationalist youth. Ariel youths posted “Red Riding

Hood—the Haredic Version!” in a forum maintained by a nationalist/religious TV station in

Israel (Raufman & Ben-Cnaan , 2009, 44). This Zionist allegory probed important issues of faith

and nation. One comment read: “the integrated land of Israel is our Israel and we won’t share it

with anyone else.”

Ariel members bonded over the accordance of their values and identified the

incompatible values of their enemies. The irony is that Ariel youths compromise their shared

values, one of which is the segregation of genders into adulthood, by mixing through the use of

ICTs (Raufman & Ben-Cnaan , 52). Ariel youth are, in effect, participating in an online imagined

community wherein their religious nationalist sentiments are strengthened. But by doing so, they

expose their shared values, and consequently, the nation-state, to the degenerative effects of

globalization.

ICTs, the Nation-state and Diasporic Populations

The studies of diasporas, which are the mass relocations of people of a common origin,

do not augur well for the longevity of the nation-state dynamic. Diasporas have been shown to

slacken the bond between the nation and the state. Critical analyses have recently been

discovered that the massive Chinese diaspora in Thailand, for example, does not find Chinese

culture or Thai culture to be their primary identifiers. The most important part of their identities

is, instead, “the propensity to seek opportunities elsewhere” (Callahan, 2003, 485). Studies point

to an altogether separate diasporic culture among relocated populations. ICTs are instrumental in

this development. The World Huaren [Chinese] Federation’s Web Site for displaced Chinese

represents imagined diasporic communities wherein members of the Chinese diaspora bond

based on cultural objects in the global space of the Internet. Chinese diasporic websites even

interact with domestic websites to foster support for the rights of the diasporic Chinese

regardless of where they live (Callahan, 485). Again, the creation of a transnational imagined

community among diasporic Chinese suggests that nation no longer requires the presence of

state.

The emergence of conflicting Taiwanese and Chinese nationalisms coincides with the

rise in religious pilgrimages across the Taiwan Strait. Historically, Chinese worshippers of the

goddess Mazu have established a network of temples along the Taiwan Strait, reaching across to

the Taiwan coast and establishing an early Chinese Diaspora. Now at a time when Taiwan has

declared itself independent and China stakes its claim to it even more rigorously, the advent of

ICTs threatens the sovereignty of the fragile state of Taiwan through the strengthening of the

Mazu cult’s imagined ties to the mainland. The Mazu have, since the proliferation of ICTs,

established a transnational imagined community that crosses the Taiwan Strait. For example, the

Chinese Diaspora in Taiwan made religious pilgrimages to the mainland which were covered

extensively via live satellite broadcasts. To Taiwanese citizens, many of whom also belonged to

the Mazu cult, this broadcast was another cultural object around which the Mazu could base their

transnational imagined community. This endangers the fragile relationship between the nation of

Taiwan and the self-proclaimed Taiwanese state (Yang, 2004, 229-231).

Religious Nationalism as the Savior of the Nation-state Dynamic

As the example of the Mazu cult signifies, the greater use of ICTs coincides with an

increase in religious nationalist movements. This is due to globalization’s severing of the nation

from the state. As people build multi-ethnic, international relationships through the widespread

use of ICTs, nationality becomes increasingly insignificant and they search for other ways to

identify themselves (Friedland, 391-396). Disaffected citizens seek alternative criteria for their

imagined communities. Religious nationalism pairs the nation with religion to create a nation-

faith, a suitable alternative to the decaying nation-state.

For example, saving the ailing nation-state is the primary concern for Buddhist Sinhala

nationalists in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese Buddhists defend the nation-state against globalization,

which their leader, the Venerable Soma, perceives to be a destructive external force (Berkwitz,

2008, 73-4). Soma used ICTs to propagate recycled anti-colonial ideas in response to recent

problems (ironically caused by the same ICTs) within the Sri Lankan state (Berkwitz, 75-6, 81).

The commoditization of ICTs has been embraced by the Sri Lankan nation-state, resulting in its

conversion to a market economy, World Bank membership, occupational outsourcing, mounting

foreign debt, and intrusion by foreign developers. The state is not the only entity whose use of

ICTs contributes to the perceived globalization problem. Sri Lankan industries use ICTs to

institute foreign TV programming, engage with Norwegian peace mediators, and worsen their

reliance on imports. They promote foreign movies, foreign fashion, and the principal of

multiculturalism. Adding insult to injury, Sinhala Buddhists have recently been at odds with

Tamil separatists and Sri Lankan Muslims (Berkwitz, 82-3, 95, 97-8).

Soma’s Buddhist nationalism privileged local history and traditions, which were

perceived to be threatened by the global spread of ideas by ICTs (Berkwitz, 79). The Sinhala

people, fearing the extinction of their national culture in the face of economic and cultural

globalization, flocked to Soma’s message but his popularity would not have been possible

without his use of ICTs. He used the imported technologies of satellite TV, radio, and Internet

news agencies to publicize his local, religious, nationalist views.

Even more importantly, his use of ICTs transmitted his message to local and diasporic

Sinhalese (residing internationally). The same tactic was employed by Tamilnet.com nationalists

to gain global support for its movement despite the Sri Lankan media monopoly; ironically it is a

Sinhalese media monopoly (Whitaker, 2004, 489). The extensiveness of the Sinhala diaspora and

Soma’s use of ICTs to include them in his movement guaranteed his success. Nonetheless, he

was able to position himself against global culture because he addressed only Sinhalese

Buddhists, thus providing the exclusive criteria necessary to the formation of an imagined

community (Berkwitz, 77, 80, 92, 103). ICTs created the need for Soma’s localist brand of

Buddhist nationalism while, at the same time, they assured its success.

Revision of Nationalism after Information Globalization’s Deterioration of the Nation-state

The institution of the nation-state arose as a result of and in concert with nationalist

ideology. The deterioration of the nation-state by information globalization therefore makes

ideological revision a necessity. There is no place where this is more accurate than in Turkey.

The Turks boast of a long history of statism. Before the advent of the Turkish Republic, the

multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire stressed citizenship, rather than cultural elements, as the its

primary identifier. This political feature made the Turks particularly predisposed to nation-state

models. Thus, official Ataturk Nationalism, upon which the state of Turkey was founded, is

culturally ambivalent and completely reliant on the nation-state (Bora, 2003, 434-437).

But new forms of nationalism have emerged since the proliferation of ICTs. Liberal

Nationalism, for example, emerged at the end of the 1980s, in correspondence with the

introduction of global media. It differs ideologically from earlier nationalist discourses in that it

derives national pride not from the identifiers unique to Turkish culture but by Turkey’s ability

to “harmonize with universal standards” (Bora, 440). This ability of the Turks’ has since

solidified into a global consumer culture. This global consumer culture has, in large part,

replaced a Turkish national culture (Bora, 444). This change was made necessary by information

globalization via ICTs and made possible through the ideological revision of nationalism.

ICTs, the Nation-state and New Terrorism

ICTs contribute to the decline of the nation-state through terrorism, most of which is

performed under the banner of ethnic or religious nationalism. It is exceedingly common among

Islamic fundamentalists and even more so among American extremists (Whine, 2002, 232).

Hezbollah, for example, publishes a daily blog about its terrorist activities in Southern Lebanon

and the American militia movement grew for years under the radar of the U.S. government with

the help of ICTs. This “new terrorism” involves the creation of online transnational imagined

communities, which are crucial to extralegal organizations. The United Islamic Students

Association runs a password-protected website, providing for the exclusivity characteristic of

imagined communities (Whine, 234).

Moreover, ICTs democratize information by lowering the price of engaging in terrorist

activity. This removed the capital constraints that, in the past, made state-backing obligatory.

Terrorist and extremist groups thus have the economic and cultural capabilities that previously

required nation-state involvement (Whine, 236). More importantly, the extralegal nature of

terrorist groups ceases to be problematic because ICTs allow them to recruit members and

disseminate propaganda without help from the legitimate outlets that refuse them (Whine, 237).

Another important paradox emerges from New Terrorism’s use of ICTs: Many extremists,

especially religious fundamentalists, situate themselves against the forces of globalization while

using global media to disseminate their ideology (Whine, 240). In the case of new terrorism,

ICTs gave control to subversive elements whose success would have historically depended on

the nation-state for sustenance.

China the Enigma: Nation-state Dynamic and State-control of ICTs

Another indicator of nation-state decline is the defensive regulation of information flow

practiced by centralized nation-states since the influx of ICTs. In the ambitious yet ever reticent

People’s Republic of China (PRC), it is believe that the regulation of information flow need not

take a back seat to technological development as they have developed complex information

control systems to combat the intellectual freedom begotten by ICTs (Knight, 6). At least 12

government agencies participate in the world’s most complex ICT-based information filtration

system in China, which includes surveillance, promotion of self-censorship, physical removal of

sensitive content, and penalties for offenders including incarceration (Lum, 2006, crs2).

The danger that ICTs poses to the nation-state (as perceived by the PRC) are in line with

this paper’s intended argument. The Ministry of Public Security issued a regulatory publication

in 1997 which stated:

Individuals are prohibited from using the Internet to: harm national security; disclose state secrets; or injure the interests of the state or society. Users are prohibited from using the Internet to… transmit information that incites resistance to the PRC Constitution, laws, or administrative regulations; promotes the overthrow of the government of socialist system; undermines nation unification…(Quoted in Lum , crs-5).

It is apparent that the PRC understood, even then, the political implications of

Information Globalization via ICTs. Ironically, the PRC used ICTs to counter the threat to the

nation-state that those ICTs created in the first place. This threat is especially apparent in large,

diverse nation-states whose national borders have little historical significance. Of course, the

Chinese state could have unintentionally defended the nation-state organization in its campaign

to save “Chinese national culture.” It is unlikely, however, because the PRC focused only on the

cultural preservation that would stabilize the state; globalization’s erosion of China’s numerous

minority cultures did not warrant the Chinese state’s concern (Knight, 4-5).

Perhaps perceiving the proliferation of transnational imagined communities and looking

to permanently integrate the Chinese nation with the Chinese state, the PRC began to encourage

nationalist sentiment using ICTs. For example, a state-sponsored newspaper titled The People’s

Daily hosts an online bulletin board called “Strong Nation Forum” wherein Chinese citizens

discuss ways to strengthen the Chinese nation and engage in anti-foreign (namely anti-Japanese)

dialogue (Lum, crs-3). The PRC also disseminates nationalist propaganda by hiring students to

post pro-PRC declarations on popular forums and via nationwide text-messaging programs

(Crampton, 2010). As described earlier in the case of the Mazu pilgrimage to the mainland, it

seems to be taken for granted in China that ICTs are used exclusively to publicize state activities

because “the state is seen to propel society—not the other way around” (Yang, 230). The PRC’s

early detection of the incongruity between ICTs and the nation-state relationship and their

enactment of counter measures may, perhaps, be the reasons that their state still thrives.

Conclusion

All of this is not to say that the religious and ethnic imagined communities created with

the aid of ICTs are by any means homogenous. We must be careful in drawing concrete

conclusions from this phenomenon. The main purpose of studying the effect of globalization on

the nation-state dynamic, and specifically the use of ICTs by neo-nationalists, is to better

understand the nature of current cultural constructs. An increased understanding of the concepts

of the nation and state can only benefit the future, and perhaps it will prevent another so-called

“failure of imagination” as information globalization continues its course, touching cultural and

political structures around the world. An area requiring further study is the transformation of

information globalization at the advent of Web 2.0. Information has, for some time now, been a

commodity, making information globalization a truly capitalist endeavor but Web 2.0 marked the

advent of self-publication which changes everything.

Reference List

Alzouma G. (2009). The state and the rebel: Online nationalisms in Niger. Journal of Contemporary African Studies. 27 (4), 483-500.

Amir, S. (2007). Nationalist rhetoric and technological development: The Indonesian aircraft industry in the New Order regime. Technology in Society. 29 (3), 283.

Berkwitz, S. C. (2008). Resisting the global in Buddhist Nationalism: Venerable Soma's discourse of decline and reform. The Journal of Asian Studies. 67 (1), 73-106.

Bora, T. (2003). Nationalist Discourses in Turkey. South Atlantic Quarterly. 102 (2/3), 433-451.

Callahan, W. A. (2003). Beyond Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism: Diasporic Chinese and Neo-Nationalism in China and Thailand. International Organization. 57, 481-518.

Crampton, Thomas. “New media and Chinese nationalism.” May 16, 2008. Online video clip. Policy Innovations. The Carnegie Council. Accessed February 3, 2010.

Friedland, R. (2002). Money, sex, and God: The erotic logic of religious nationalism. Sociological Theory. 20 (3), 381-425.

Knight, N. (2006). Reflecting on the paradox of globalisation: China's Search for Cultural Identity and Coherence. China: An International Journal. 4 (1), 1-31.

Lum, T. G. (2006). Internet development and information control in the People's Republic of China. CRS report for Congress, RL33167. [Washington, D.C.]: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Retreived from http://www.ipmall.info/hosted%5Fresources/crs/RL33167%5F060320.pdf.

Montresor, S. (2001). Techno-globalism, techno-nationalism and technological systems: Organizing the evidence. Technovation. 21 (7), 399-412.

Pintak L. (2009). Border guards of the "Imagined" watan: Arab journalists and the New Arab consciousness. Middle East Journal. 63 (2), 191-212.

Poster, M. (2008). Global media and culture. New Literary History. 39 (3), 685-704.

Raufman R., & Ben-Cnaan R. (2009). Red Riding Hood: Text, hypertext, and context in an Israeli nationalistic Internet forum. Journal of Folklore Research. 46 (1), 43-66.

Satriya , E. (2005). Indonesia’s ICT: Everything is in transition. e-Indonesia Initiatives: Bandung. Retrieved from Scribd.com. http://www.scribd.com/doc/24118483/Indonesia%E2%80%99s-Ict-Everything-is-in-Transition

Whine, M. (2002). Cyberspace-a new medium for communication, command, and control by extremists. Peace Research Abstracts. 39 (2), 155-306.

Whitaker, M. P. (2004). Tamilnet.com: Some reflections on popular anthropology, nationalism, and the Internet. Anthropological Quarterly. 77, 469-498.

Yang, M. M.-h. (2004). Goddess across the Taiwan Strait: Matrifocal ritual space, nation-state, and satellite television footprints. Public Culture. 16 (2), 209-238.