World Builders
Technology and the New Geopolitics

Examines geopolitics as a battle of visions whose outcome will be determined by technological dominance rather than physical territorial control.

Bruno Maçães (Author)

9781009397384, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 2025

274 pages
22.3 x 14.9 x 2.4 cm, 0.47 kg

'In an age when practice again races ahead of theory, when technology confronts us with new moral challenges such as virtual reality, there is great need for philosophical thinkers like Maçães who are able to throw light into the growing darkness surrounding us.' George Yeo, former Foreign Minister of Singapore and author of George Yeo: Musings

World politics has changed, claims Bruno Maçães. Geopolitics is no longer simply a contest to control territory: in this age of advanced technology, it has become a contest to create the territory. Great powers seek to build a world for other states to inhabit, while keeping the ability to change the rules or the state of the world when necessary. At a moment when the old concepts no longer work, this book aims to introduce a radically new theory of world politics and technology. Understood as 'world building', the most important events of our troubled times suddenly appear connected and their inner logic is revealed: technology wars between China and the United States, the pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the energy transition. To conclude, Maçães considers the more distant future, when the metaverse and artificial intelligence become the world, a world the great powers must struggle to build and control.

Prologue: World Building
Introduction: The New Geopolitics
1. 2018
2. 2020
3. 2022
4. 2024
To Conclude ....

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]