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PREFACE
- State University of New York Press
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- Additional Information
PREFACE The essays that follow are the product of lengthy processes of conferring, writing, and rewriting on the part of their authors. From the beginning our goal was to bring together scholars who had contributed seminal work on the complex relationships between information technologies and global politics and who would then pool their expertise to clarify and further extend understanding of phenomena that seem ever more relevant to the course of events. While readers will have to decide for themselves whether we have, collectively, achieved this goal, the editors are persuaded that the lengthy collaboration has been a fruitful and rewarding experience. The collaboration went through three face-to-face iterations. The first occurred in August 1996, with a workshop composed of both comparativists and international relations (IR) specialists in San Francisco sponsored by the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics, section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The second involved a one-day conference on Information, Power and Globalization held on January 24, 1998, in Memphis and funded by the BellSouth Foundation and the University of Mississippi. On this occasion outlines of the various projects and the papers they might yield were thoroughly discussed. During the summer of 1998 the authors circulated first drafts of their chapters to others, with each writer assigned as a “referee” for at least two other chapters. The third iteration of our collaboration, another workshop sponsored by the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section of the APSA, then occurred on September 2, 1998, at the Association’s meeting in Boston. Subsequently , the final drafts were prepared and sent out for review by SUNY Press. During this lengthy and complex process the editors incurred a number of debts which they are pleased to be able to acknowledge. Needless to say, we are grateful to APSA’s Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics Section for sponsoring the two workshops on the issues and papers discussed in this volume . Woody Kay, Frank Laird and Vicki Golich were especially helpful with workshop logistics and funds. Likewise, without the support of BellSouth Foundation we could not have convened the second iteration under such conducive circumstances. Our thanks go also to the referees for SUNY Press who, while ix encouraging us with their approval, also provided feedback that helped to improve the book’s quality. We also wish to express appreciation to several other scholars who were closely associated with the project either throughout or in particular workshops: Monique Moleon, Debora Spar, Tim Sinclair, and Virginia Walsh. Valuable help was provided by graduate assistants Ted Sirianni, Simona Folescu and Sarah Gilchrist. Finally, but no less gratefully, we wish to acknowledge Zina Lawrence, Priscilla Ross, Michael Rinella, and Laurie Searl at SUNY Press for their support and guidance through the many stages that have culminated in publication. Most importantly, we feel a deep indebtedness to our fellow authors for their participation and their readiness to rework their chapters in response to the many suggestions that came their way. In addition, having worked together over such a long stretch of time, each editor wishes to express an overall feeling about the experience. J. P. Singh considers this project to be one of his most constructive scholarly experiences. The volume would have been impossible without the level of collegiality and intellectual commitment that all the participants made. In particular, J. P. Singh is profoundly thankful to his co-editor for his support throughout the project. Co-editorship has been an inspiring experience for Singh and he is thankful to Rosenau for his practical and creative insights, many of which have helped to shape this volume’s quality. The volume has made Singh a strong believer in group projects and edited volumes! Singh also thanks his partner Chuck Johnson for his continual encouragement and important help with many aspects of this project. He is also grateful to his new colleagues at Georgetown University, especially Linda Garcia and Diana Owen, for providing him with an invigorating professional environment. Likewise, Rosenau wants to emphasize that although alphabetic order has been used to list the editors, the order in no way reflects the division of labor between them. The idea for the project, the conferences, and this book originated with Singh. He and Rosenau collaborated throughout the project, but Singh hosted and funded the conferences that launched and sustained the project and he then gave considerable feedback to the authors in the process of their writing a final draft. Lastly we are impressed with the thought that this...