Technology and International Transformation: The Railroad, the Atom Bomb, and the Politics of Technological Change (review)

This contribution to political science tackles a much-neglected but important topic—the interactions between technological and political systems and their consequences for international relations. Herrera chooses to deal with them through two extended case studies, the railroad and nuclear weapons, and he discusses the implications of his findings through the briefer discussion of a third case, the emerging digital information technologies at the end of the twentieth century.

The intellectual context of this work is international systems theory. Herrera prefaces his cases with a useful discussion of basic models for explaining systemic changes in international relations, adding his own account of the basic ways in which scholars talk about technological change. A central point is that theoretical discussions of international relations typically acknowledge the role that technological change can have in altering international systems, but they almost never incorporate an understanding that such change itself takes place within (and is shaped by) social, economic, and political contexts that are themselves aspects of the relations between nations.

Herrera's two case studies are not, in fact, stitched together very well. The railroad is introduced in general terms as a product of British industrialization, but its origins and initial development are not examined. Most of the discussion is about Germany's adoption of railroads and the role of the Prussian state—particularly the army—an interesting subject in its own right, and Herrera synthesizes the scholarship on it well. Much more abbreviated is his discussion of colonial railroads, a subject of substantial interest and complexity. Uppermost in his treatment are the military functions of railroads and the means by which European powers explored them. Although not unreasonable, this focus may not do justice to the subtler but arguably more profound effects on the international system of railroads as instruments of economic and cultural power.

Herrera's second case study, the development of the atomic bomb, is a much less convincing venue for developing his argument. Much of the study deals with descriptions of the German educational system, the place of physics within that system, and the variety of influences that led to a decline of physics in Germany at the expense of its rise in the United States, particularly in the period from 1920 to 1940. Although this well-known story is certainly worth retelling in the context of international politics, it does not well illustrate the more fundamental linkages between technological and international change. The realignment of power that ensued with the introduction of atomic weapons is a well-worn subject, only briefly summarized by Herrera. The exceptional nature of these weapons makes the case seem less pertinent, rather than more, for supporting his overall case. Finally, the discussion of contemporary information technologies is so cursory and sketchy that the skeptical reader will not find much to support Herrera's larger case, and the sympathetic reader will probably find little that is original.