The road towards global governance system today has the thrust of a substantial and definitive tool that did not exist three decades ago: new technologies and global information and communications networks.
Today, for the first time, we are facing a unique opportunity to transform ourselves into a different society, into a global society.
According to the Brookings Institution, cyber space already covers four billion people worldwide. This is an unprecedented expansion: between 2000 and 2015, Internet penetration increased sevenfold, from 6.5% to 43% of the world’s population.
This digital frenzy is nowadays virtually free, and it seems impossible to regulate and control. Capitalism is a system of flows, not of things, and flows cannot be easily regulated or controlled in the 21st century world.
Globalization undoubtedly encounters obstacles, but the technological changes that favour interconnectivity will continue to promote, nevertheless, a greater rapprochement between people, cities, regions and countries.
Parag Hannah coined the term “conectography” to refer to the set of technologies and infrastructure necessary for information and commercial exchange to flow freely between nations and highly connected cities.
Thus, he says, the determining factor of the importance of a country – the true key to success – will be its connectivity, not its geographical location: “There are many types of flows in the global connected system: resources, goods, capital, technology, people, data and ideas. And there are many types of frictions: borders, conflicts, sanctions, distance and regulations. (…) Future conflicts will no longer have to do with creating new frontiers but with how to control connections. “
Interesting reflections to consider when working on a future of changes in an increasingly integrated international society.
