International Relations in the Digital Era

Abstract

International Relations face unprecedented epistemological and practical challenges in the digital age, characterized by uncertainty, complexity, and volatility. This chapter analyzes these challenges using a transductive, geopolitical, and geoeconomic methodology, arguing that technological transitions reconfigure spaces of materiality and power, giving rise to new forms of confrontation, multidimensional crises, and strategic competition. The analysis identifies that digitality strains traditional theoretical frameworks, generates ethical-legal dilemmas surrounding privacy and data, and amplifies algorithmic biases and North-South power asymmetries. Case studies such as the conflict in Ukraine, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and the exploitation of critical resources in Africa illustrate this reconfiguration. It concludes that International Relations must adopt an interdisciplinary and critical approach, building epistemologies from the Global South, to explain and transform the dynamics of a hyper-connected yet profoundly unequal world.