not only is power being redefined by IT, but so is powerless. Can even the most totalizing state restrict the access of its citizenry to soft power? Can the benefits of IT be gained without enduring the related forms of vulnerability? As with the discovery of dynamite, is IT being perceived by the powerless as a potential equalizer? Or will IT contribute to the stability of hierarchical arrangements of privilege and wealth?

It is illuminating, I think, to ponder such questions in relation to two limit cases: China and the United States. Here are important examples of large and influential states that are seeking to exploit IT, and yet control its potential adverse consequences.

China would like to be modern without relinquishing authoritarian control over its population. China is concerned about the subversive impact of alien ideas, and realizes that IT is difficult to control. And yet, its ambition to continue on the path to superstate state depends on a receptivity to IT at all levels of society. Will China be able to reconcile its economistic objectives with its ideological effort to avoid democratization? Whatever the eventual answer, it will help us understand better the relationship between IT and the state, especially whether the state can take advantage of IT for market purposes, while avoiding the erosion of state power.

With the United States, the same tension is posed in relation to global arbiter of political and strategic development, especially with respect to achieving and retaining military dominance. Some of these issues surfaced in the Gulf War context, but only preliminarily and superficially. Will the US government find itself challenged by rivals among global market forces that seek to shape geopolitics in accordance with economistic criteria? Or will militias and militant elements in civil society initiate new patterns of cyber-warfare that give the weak new sources of strength?