Technology (DP IB Global Politics: HL): Revision Note

Technology in global politics

A set of topic areas is presented for the study of global political challenges to facilitate your explorations. These should not be seen as fully discrete or disconnected topics, but rather as overlapping areas of study that can contribute to understanding and addressing global challenges.

You can conduct an in-depth study of two of the topic areas—for example, security and health—or you may choose to explore the interconnections of multiple topic areas based on a selected case study.

• Technology has transformed how political actors communicate, organise, exercise power and wage conflict

• The political implications of technology are far-reaching — affecting governance, warfare, human rights, development and social organisation

• Technology is both a tool for political actors and a site of political contestation in itself

Why is technology a global political challenge?

• Technology develops faster than the political and legal frameworks designed to govern it, creating significant regulatory gaps

• Technology concentrates power in the hands of those who control it

  • States with advanced cyber capabilities and large technology corporations can exercise enormous influence over others

• The benefits and risks of technology are distributed unequally

  • The digital divide excludes some populations from the benefits of digital technology while leaving them exposed to its political consequences

• Technology challenges traditional concepts of sovereignty

  • Cyberattacks cross borders without physical intrusion; information spreads globally regardless of national censorship

• Technology is dual-use

  • The same tools can empower citizens and oppress them, enable development and accelerate environmental harm, facilitate communication and spread disinformation

Key terms and concepts

A useful analytical lens: the governance gap

• One of the most productive ways to read a technology case study is through the governance gap - the structural mismatch between how fast technology develops and how slowly political and legal frameworks adapt to it

  • It won't be the right lens for every case, but it has analytical traction on most of them

• This gap is what creates the political space in which the topic's central conflicts play out

Technological development

• New technologies emerge faster than regulatory frameworks can adapt

• Governance gaps allow technology to be used in ways that existing law does not cover

Power concentration

• States and corporations with advanced technology gain disproportionate capabilities

• Others face surveillance, intellectual property theft or exclusion from digital markets

Information environment shifts

• Social media and algorithms reshape how people receive and evaluate information

• Disinformation spreads rapidly

• Political polarisation deepens

• Democratic deliberation is undermined

Security implications

• Cyberattacks target critical infrastructure, elections and military systems

• Traditional security frameworks are inadequate for threats that cross borders without physical action

Digital inequality

• Unequal access to technology persists between and within states

• Those without digital access are excluded from economic opportunity, political participation and public services

Backlash and fragmentation

• States respond with censorship, internet shutdowns and national digital borders

• The global internet fragments into national networks, reducing the free flow of information and deepening geopolitical divides

Current and recent technology challenges

• With those concepts and the governance-gap framework in place, the contemporary world presents five major technology challenges that affect states at every level

  • Cybersecurity

    • Protecting digital systems, networks and data from hostile attack

    • Targets include critical infrastructure (power grids, financial systems), government networks and private corporations

    • State-sponsored cyberattacks blur the line between espionage, sabotage and warfare

    • E.g. the SolarWinds hack (2020), in which state-linked actors compromised US government and private sector systems

  • Information warfare and disinformation

    • The use of technology to spread false information, manipulate public opinion and interfere in political processes

    • Social media algorithms amplify emotionally engaging content - which is often false or extreme — over accurate but moderate material

    • Disinformation campaigns have been used to undermine trust in democratic institutions, scientific consensus and electoral outcomes

    • E.g. the use of social media campaigns to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election

  • Surveillance and digital authoritarianism

    • States using technology to monitor and control their populations - including facial recognition, location tracking and social media monitoring

    • Raises profound human rights concerns about privacy, free expression and political dissent

    • Democratic states also use surveillance technology, raising questions about accountability and the rule of law

    • E.g. China's social credit system; AI-powered facial recognition used to surveil the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang; internet shutdowns by authoritarian governments during periods of protest

  • Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems

    • AI is transforming decision-making in governance, warfare, policing and employment

    • Algorithmic bias - AI systems can reproduce and amplify human prejudices, producing discriminatory outcomes at scale

    • Autonomous weapons raise fundamental questions about accountability when lethal force is exercised without direct human control

  • The digital divide

    • Unequal access to digital technology and the internet within and between states

    • Shapes economic opportunity, political participation and access to public services

    • The divide operates along lines of wealth, geography, gender and age — and intersects with other forms of inequality

Internet penetration rate by country, 2024

• Approximately 63% of people worldwide had reliable access to the internet in 2024, including:

  • 57% of people in the developing world

  • 90% of people in the developed world

• Approximately 2.6 billion people remain without internet access globally, concentrated in lower-income states (UN data)

Technology at different levels

Actors and stakeholders

• When researching a case study on technology, students should identify a range of actors and stakeholders

  • Nation-states

    • Develop offensive and defensive cyber capabilities

    • Regulate technology within their territory and negotiate international norms

    • May conduct state-sponsored cyberattacks or disinformation campaigns

  • Large technology corporations

    • E.g. Google, Meta, Microsoft and Huawei

    • Control significant global digital infrastructure and shape information environments through algorithms

    • Collect and monetise vast amounts of user data; operate across borders with limited international accountability

  • Hackers and cybercriminal organisations

    • Non-state actors who conduct cyberattacks for financial gain, political purposes or at the direction of states

    • The line between independent hackers and state proxies is frequently blurred

  • Civil society and digital rights organisations

    • E.g. the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Access Now

    • Advocate for privacy rights, internet freedom and accountability of technology companies and governments

  • International organisations

    • E.g. the UN GGE and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

    • Attempt to develop international norms, standards and agreements for technology governance

  • Individuals and communities

    • Both users of technology and subjects of technological surveillance

    • Rights to privacy, free expression and equal digital access are central to all technology governance debate

Example case studies

• The following examples illustrate the kinds of case studies students could develop for this topic area

Links to earlier course content

• The technology topic area connects to all four areas of the IB Global Politics course

Links to the other HL topic areas

• A case study on technology will frequently connect to other HL topic areas - identifying these links is essential for question 3