Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer

Author:Ian Bremmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Campaigns & Elections, Diplomacy, Geopolitics, History & Theory, International Relations, Political Ideologies, Political Process, Political Science
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2018-04-24T03:00:00+00:00

INFORMATION

In the twenty-first century, questions of trade and protectionism aren’t limited to goods and services. Data has become an increasingly valuable and strategically important asset. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, in effect from May 2018, requires that all companies that process personal data in the European Union follow strict rules on data privacy. Developing countries have gone further with restrictions on government procurement of both software and hardware from foreign companies. Data localization laws in these countries mandate that personal data generated in the country must be stored in the country. In this case, as elsewhere, risk-averse China is leading the way and countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia are following, each for its own reasons. In some cases, these laws are intended to bolster national security, prevent espionage, and protect consumers from online criminals. But these rules and laws also restrict the free flow of information across borders and undermine the efficiency of global supply chains just like more traditional forms of protectionism.11

Governments will also build more walls to try to control the flow of more traditional forms of information across and within borders. In Egypt, China, and Turkey, the use of walls is literal, because these three countries imprison more journalists than any other. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Egypt jailed 25 journalists in 2016. China imprisoned 38, and Turkey incarcerated 81.12 Around the world, there were 259 journalists in jail at the end of 2016, the highest number since 1990.13 As the supply of bad news rises in line with the inability of governments to cope with looming economic, technological, and cultural changes, we can expect a lot more reporters to end up behind bars. To avoid this fate, many reporters will self-censor.

Instead of imprisoning individual journalists, it’s often much more efficient to simply shut down the growing number of media outlets that report the news in ways that state officials don’t like. To choose one of dozens of possible examples, in May 2017 the Egyptian government abruptly announced it had shut down twenty-one news websites that had been critical of the government. These websites were accused, predictably, of “spreading lies” and “supporting terrorism.”14 Among these websites was Al-Jazeera, a state-dominated news network based in Qatar that had frightened and angered governments across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011, first with coverage of the story of Tunisian vegetable vendor Mohammed Bouazizi and then of the advance across the region of the Arab Spring. Less than two weeks after Egypt banned these twenty-one sites, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain took the unprecedented step of severing all ties with Qatar, which they accused of supporting terrorist groups. Quarantine the reporter, quarantine the media outlet he works for, and, if possible, quarantine the government that backs them.

But journalists and websites are far from the only sources of information that the state might consider dangerous. Nongovernmental organizations that champion political, economic, and social reform have been shuttered in Russia, China, and even India.

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