PREFACE - Jovan Kurbalija

THE WANING OF THE STATE AND THE WAXING OF CYBERWORLD by Richard Falk

In his keynote address Professor Richard Falk discusses changes in modern society brought about by information technology, with special emphasis on the future of the state. Professor Falk draws a distinction in this context between IT as an instrument used by states in their quest for power and IT as an agent transforming market forces and various sectors of civil society. Using the example of the Gulf War, he highlights the extensive use of high-technology weapons systems, based to a large extent on IT. Topics related to the interplay between the role of the state and the emergent cyberworld are organised into three main clusters: a) world order as a mind-game; b) the emergence of a race between "soft power" and "soft targets;" and c) power versus powerlessness in the web of The Web. Although the prevailing tendency seems to indicate that IT will challenge the static world order based on the central position of the state, one should not exclude the possibility that IT could be used to stabilise and further strengthen the static state-centric world order.