“The truth is that In this digital world, we all are pensioners and live in the prison and surveillance 24/7, Yes, in the prison of SmartPhones, Sims card, Social applications and definitely Artificial Intelligence (AI).” ~ Dr. Rana Danish Nisar ~
Welcome to digital cold war: truth is bitter and the world ready for this bitterness
By Dr. Rana Danish Nisar
Without any doubt, World has arrived at a new age which can be known as “Digitization”. The digital revolution is sweeping on the planet of earth. Coming on a point, Interestingly, in the retrospective lenses, the cold war was the rift among capitalism and communism.
The 20th century is the witness of the conflict among the two winning players of World war II, the USA and the USSR. In simple words, it was the war for establishing the possible next global order and who will run the global order of capitalism or communism in the coming future. Apart from the details of the cold war from the end of world war II and till the last decade of the 20th century, eventually capitalism got the crown of success soon after the demise of the USSR. With the threshold of the 21st century, the politics and international relations, norms, values, foreign policies and state priorities have been changed.
Today , we are seeing a new term in international relations “New Cold War ” which is in depth different from the previous one. This time the tussle is between the USA and China. According to some political pundits ,this is not a war but it’s a hype or propaganda created by the writers, security specialists and think tanks. But on the contrary, the realistic approach tells another story. Actually, this is not a traditional cold war but the “Data/Digital/Virtual” Cold war among two powers. In other words, from my perspective, this is the rise of “Digital neo-Colonialism”. A state who has more data and computational technology will definitely and consequently rule the world. The previous approaches have been replaced by the new ones. Owing to the advancement in computational research, Artificial intelligence, sceptical research, machine learning, the characters of warfare have been totally changed.It seems a paradigm shift in the characters of warfare.
The contemporary international relations take the two powers the USA and China in this ongoing Cold war. But , on the divergent side, owing to the rise of Multipolar global order, every major power is part of this digital-cold war and it has consequently global implications. Simply, this is the era of “Data/Digital Dictatorship “ or “Data-Hegemony” and 4G, 5G, 6G technology. The previous concepts may be replaced by the new ones i.e. from hegemonic peace theory, democratic peace theory to Data/Digital–Hegemonic theory etc.
This century is the century of “Computational-Hegemony”. In this “Real-Computational Politics “, China and the USA are leading powers followed by the western world, Israel and India as well. In the classic cold war, states were working on military modernization, build-up nuclear nukes, heavy defence budgets etc but now the states are working on AI (Artificial intelligence) which has really severe global impacts. The 2G and 3G technologies are replaced by 5G and 6G technologies rapidly.
The plot of the classic Cold War was very simple because it had two main actors, the United States and the USSR, while behind the curtain the other actors played their minor roles. The Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan were the most serious events of the Cold War. And in fact, almost 32 years after the end of the Cold War, the world is still having serious repercussions from it.
Moving ahead, In this era of digital cold war, the USA and China are not only two players but we all are the players in this Real-Digitization Politics”. Today, artificial intelligence is more advanced as compared to imagination. The social applications i.e. Whatsapp, Facebook, Tinder, Twitter, Line, Viber etc and mobile phones, Sims cards and others are the tools to get the information. There is no doubt that“In this digital world, we all are pensioners and live in the prison and surveillance 24/7, Yes, in the prison of SmartPhones, Social applications and definitely Artificial Intelligence (AI).” On one question, Dr. Ali Abass argues that “through social applications, all our personal data and secret information are at risk. At any time, our personal data may leak”. out. Everything, yes moving towards digitization and artificial intelligence and depth integration of technologies i.e. Digital-Governance, Digital-warfare, Digital-Space war, Digital-Terrorism, Digital-Globalization and Digital-International Relations.
In this digital-cold war, China is playing well and is focusing on advanced computational technology. China is not in the position to repeat the same mistakes of the USSR. Even China doesn’t want any war, conflict with its neighbours or with the USA. China is intelligent and follows its notion of a harmonious and peaceful world. Almost two months ago, China successfully conducted the test of artificial sun for beneficial purposes which seems really a credible invention of the 21st century. On the other hand, the USA is advancing its technology in all domains.
Today, we are living in a period of the world which seems like the silence of the ocean before a storm or tornado. We all don’t know what will happen next but the truth is that the blood may be faced by the next generation. The states are trying to go outside (outer space) and make their hegemony there which seems that heavens may turn into hell by using the negative usage of this advanced computational technology and digitization.
Rana Danish Nisar – The author is a PhD (International Relations) Student at the School of Politics and International Studies (SPIS). He holds Mphil in (International Relations), Masters in (Pakistan Studies), and Masters in (International Relations) degrees. He won acceptance Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations HPAIR (USA), 2017. His research interests are broadly in South Asian Affairs, South Asia Geo-Politics, India-Pakistan Relations, South Asian Nuclear Politics, US and South Asia, Indian Ocean, Security studies, South Asian developments studies.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).