(Introduction from moderator: these are excerpts from postings by Madanmohan Rao, which he takes from his Internet World site http://netday.iworld.com/business/NATW.html. The first is quite provocative and the second more newsy.--Andy) -------------------------------------------------------------- Internet Aids U.S. Foreign Policy In The Information Age -------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. has strength in military power and economic production - yet, its more subtle advantage is its ability to collect, process, act upon, and disseminate information, according to Admiral William Owens and Joseph Nye, former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs in the Clinton administration. Like the nuclear umbrella which aided nuclear deterrence, an "information umbrella" could provide mutually beneficial relationships with select countries by providing situational awareness about military matters. In addition to the superiority of its intelligence collection, surveillance and reconnaissance - demonstrated by the precision-guided munitions used in Operation Desert Storm - the U.S. should also capitalise on "the soft side" of information power in the information age. This includes the dominance of U.S. popular culture in international film, television, and electronic communications, as well as the U.S. higher education system which draws 450,000 foreign students each year. The "slow, diffuse, and subtle process of winning hearts and minds" can be met by the U.S. Information Agency, the Voice of America, nongovernmental news organisations, and new communications technologies. For instance, of the 15,000 networks on the global Internet in early 1994, only 42 were in Muslim countries - in response, the U.S. Information Agency and the U.S. Agency for International Development have worked to improve global access to the Internet in these countries. "The beauty of information as a power resource is that, while it can enhance the effectiveness of raw military power, it ineluctably democratises societies," according to Owens and Nye. Congress should support the efforts of the USIA to exploit new technologies, such as setting up Web pages on democratisation and the creation of free markets. (Foreign Affairs; March-April 1996) China Moving To Control Internet Access --------------------------------------- Since the Chinese government started allowing commercial Internet accounts last spring, the number of Internet users in China has grown from a few thousand in the universities to 100,000. Martin Hu of the Beijing Internet-Networking Institute predicts one million people could be using the Internet in China by 2000. Of the one million personal computers sold in China last year, about 20 percent went to families. 17 percent of urban homes have phones now and up to 40 percent are expected to have them by 2000. For now, the strongest demand for the Internet comes from businesses, said Yang Jie, a telecommunications expert for the World Bank. Although the government is wary of the Internet, the information it brings in is simply too important for economic development. And China's leaders reportedly met several months ago and concluded that full control of the Internet was impossible in any case. The government's monopoly on access enables it to keep certain newsgroups off China's personal computer screens. While it is not hard to close certain sites, "there's no way to automatically detect the content," said Chi Chihong, a computer science professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The main abuse of the system so far has involved pornography, Chi said. "China is not closing the door to all information," said James Chu, CEO of the China Internet Corporation. "It's just requiring that all information coming in has to follow Chinese laws." (Associated Press; April 8, 1996) ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Andrew Oram - •••@••.••• - Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) Cyber-Rights: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/ ftp://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/Library/ CyberJournal: (WWW or FTP) --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore Materials may be reposted in their _entirety_ for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
