- 著者
-
山本 達也
- 出版者
- JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- 雑誌
- 国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2005, no.141, pp.115-131,L14, 2005-05-29 (Released:2010-09-01)
- 参考文献数
- 41
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the external environments of Middle Eastern governments, which require a serious commitment to the promotion of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), affect policies to control Internet information flow, and how it leads to a change in their domestic politics.Currently, we cannot confirm any leading hypotheses about the impacts of the Internet on authoritarian regimes that are widely accepted by political scientists. The main reasons for this is lack of statistical data, difficulties in obtaining sufficient material to discuss this theme, and the low Internet penetration rates in such countries.Of course, these hypotheses must surely exist in the Middle East and undoubtedly the relationship between Internet development and the political impacts on authoritarian regimes is an attractive research topic. However, the reasons mentioned above have caused certain limitations in carrying out such research. Therefore, this paper focuses on the regimes' Internet controlling policies, which is designed to block the free flow of information, and tries to expose the implications of political influences on authoritarian regimes by Internet development.When we focus on Internet controlling policies in authoritarian regimes, we should carefully assess the degree of governmental interference to the flow of information on the Internet. As figure 1 in my paper indicates, conceptually there are two different types of models regarding Internet controlling in authoritarian regimes. One model is that the government mediates and tries to control the flow of information on the Internet (model C), and the other model is that the government renounces Internet control completely (model D).There are two effective concepts to classify authoritarian regimes into model C or model D. The first concept is “network architecture, ” which is defined as the structural character of a network based on a code (software). The second concept is “network infrastructure architecture, ” which is defined as the physical structure of infrastructure to ensure data communication.As a result of my examination, most of the Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Egypt are categorized as model C, with only Jordan categorized as model D. The difference between Jordan and the other countries is explained by the engagement of US governmental organization on ICT strategy-making and revising processes, and the leadership of King Abdullah II, the head of the regime, who favors the introduction of policies that create competition in the ICT sector.The Jordanian decision to adopt model D leads a change in policymaking processes in the ICT field in Jordan, with transparency and accountability indubitably improved in this country. My paper concludes that the Jordanian case implies authoritarian regimes could adopt model D while keeping their authoritarian characters, and the perception and leadership of these regimes' heads would grasp the key for this change.