Technology is blurring national borders, politics is tightening them
the driverless car is in Dublin, is the decision taken by the Irish government, the car’s original code writers in California or a software programmer in Hyderabad to whom maintenance is outsourced?
If different national jurisdictions have different fine print on something that should be so apparent – prioritising a human life – how will it affect insurance and investment decisions, including transnational ones, in relation to infrastructure that lies within damage-causing distance of a driverless car while it is attempting to evade a jaywalker?
The sociology and economy of the machine will determine a specialised discipline in 21st century diplomacy and trade negotiations. Already the large cyber-attack has displaced the nuclear-tipped missile as the proximate threat.
Finally, technology is blurring national boundaries just as politics is tightening them. Innovation and capital have impinged upon the domain of the state at a juncture when statism, nativism, identity and nationalism are making a comeback.
As such, while the nation-state will remain the fundamental unit of reckoning in the international system, it will have to engage with, almost Brownian-motion like, other units and stakeholders in a fluid medium where disorder may have both permanence and legitimacy.
On its part, geopolitics will have to reconcile to 50 shades of grey, a departure from the black-white binary that framed the Anglo-Saxon ethic.
THE MORAL QUESTION OF HOW A DRIVERLESS CAR WILL DECIDE BETWEEN HITTING A JAYWALKER AND DAMAGING THE CAR HAS BEEN DEBATED. THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE – SAVE THE HUMAN LIFE
be peer-group contact and not a strong radical lineage. Of course, after joining the terror fold, expressing radical thoughts in the social media at times becomes a potent weapon in some cases. This is seen to gain attention give them the high moral ground to defend their acts of violence.
Not surprisingly, therefore, we have not yet come across lone-wolf attacks in the Valley which are a prominent tactic of radicalised elements elsewhere in the world. In the words of Marc Sageman ,the CIA veteranturned-scholar, lone-wolf attacks constitute “leaderless jihad”. The present form of terrorist violence in the Valley does not reflect this. Consequently, almost all the suicide attacks are the handiwork of foreign terrorists from across the border and not homegrown ones.
Finally, the activities of these groups are largely seen as purely criminal acts involving robbery, killings ,extortion and so on. Some of the recent incidents of weapons snatching and bank robberies have established that the individuals involved in them are more prone to crime in the garb of militancy and are seen gloating about their achievements on social media rather than displaying any radical commitment.
The local elements in terror folds operate like gangs with no centrally organised hierarchy or command structures, hence Pakistan plays a key role in coordinating and organising them.
The challenge lies in handling them effectively through the legal instruments of the State. Studies across the world have revealed that a robust legal framework involving effective prosecution of these entities can scale down terror incidents and win the trust of society.