Open Networks, Closed Regimes

by Kalathil, Shanthi; Boas, Taylor C.

• ISBN13: 9780870031946
• ISBN10: 0870031945
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for Intl Peace

Summary

As the Internet diffuses across the globe, many have come to believe that the technology poses an insurmountable threat to authoritarian rule. Grounded in the Internet's early libertarian culture and predicated on anecdotes pulled from diverse political climates, this conventional wisdom has informed the views of policymakers, business leaders, and media pundits alike. Yet few studies have sought to systematically analyze the exact ways in which Internet use may lay the basis for political change.In Open Networks, Closed Regimes, the authors take a comprehensive look at how a broad range of societal and political actors in eight authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries employ the Internet. Based on methodical assessment of evidence from these cases --China, Cuba, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt --the study contends that the Internet is not necessarily a threat to authoritarian regimes.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Acronyms	xiii
The Conventional Wisdom: What Lies Beneath?	1	(12)
Wired for Modernization in China	13	(30)
Channeling a ``Limited'' Resource in Cuba	43	(27)
Catching Up and Cracking Down in Singapore, Vietnam, and Burma	70	(33)
Technology and Tradition in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt	103	(32)
Beyond Blind Optimism	135	(20)
Notes	155	(24)
Glossary	179	(4)
Works Cited	183	(18)
Index	201	(16)
About the Authors	217	(1)
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace	218