The reassertion of the state: governance and the information revolution

This chapter outlines a framework for understanding the role of the state in international affairs in the context of the information revolution. By looking at three main understandings of the concept of governance, this chapter will show that the information revolution has yet to live up to the promise of disintegrating national boundaries and borders. Despite the fact that the world has indeed 'changed' in many ways, this chapter reveals that governments have found ways to ensure that the nation state remains crucially important; the case of eGovernment is used to show how the ICT revolution is being garnered by states. The chapter starts with a discussion of governance as a concept, focusing on the main trends in the literature, with a particular focus on the impact of ICTs. This will then be related to the growth in attention by public administrations in eGovernment. Finally, the chapter will conclude with a summary of several issues relating to new conceptions and understandings of governance and their relationship with the information revolution.