Strategic and geopolitical implication of Networks
Résumé
Internet is built over equipments and infrastructures that are positioned in the geographical space and are therefore subject to different forms of physical, political or economic constraints. These physical component anchor strongly Internet in the terrestrial space. Overcoming these constraints have entailed colossal investments and for classical actors like governments or economic players, communication cables, satellites, data centres, servers, etc., are vectors of power enforcement.
Nonetheless, the Internet has opened a new dimension to cybernauts and let them the access to new abilities or services, even through circumventing existing local constraints. The interplay of local constraints and global advantages shapes the structure of the new space called the « cyberspace ». By shaping the way information is exchanged and flowing in the cyberspace, the Internet changes the distribution of power.
The Internet measurement research community has been involved, in the past decade, with multidisciplinary research at the frontier between geopolitics ad political sciences, and networking research. Several work investigating the censorship and politically motivated interference with Internet traffic has been published in major networking conference like, IMC, SIGCOMM, etc. Internet measurements are also becoming a major tool in Geopolitics, that helps understanding how governments try to control the newly emerged cyberspace.
The aim of this event is to discuss the issues and importance of this interdisciplinary research and the strategic and geopolitical implication of Networks.