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In this article, we advance the literature on publics in international politics by exploring the nexus between publicness and big tech companies. This nexus finds a significant expression in the increasing impact of big tech companies to mediate disputes over societal problems, deliver social goods and rearticulate public-private relationships. We develop an analytical framework by combining recent scholarship on assemblage theory and publics, allowing us to understand publicness as enacted in practices which revolve around issues and rearticulate relations of authority and legitimacy. To demonstrate the value of the framework, we show how Microsoft is involved in assembling publicness around cybersecurity. Microsoft does so by problematising and countering state-led cybersecurity activities, questioning the state as a protector of its citizens and proposing governance measures to establish the tech sector as authoritative, and legitimate “first responders.” With this rearticulating of public-private relations, we see the emergence of a political subject for whom security is not solely the right of a citizen secured by the state but also a customer service provided as per a service agreement. The study hence offers important insights into the connection between publicness and cybersecurity, state and big tech relations, and the formation of authority and legitimacy in international politics.
In this article, we advance the literature on publics in international politics by exploring the nexus between publicness and big tech companies. This nexus finds a significant expression in the increasing impact of big tech companies to mediate disputes over societal problems, deliver social goods and rearticulate public-private relationships. We develop an analytical framework by combining recent scholarship on assemblage theory and publics, allowing us to understand publicness as enacted in practices which revolve around issues and rearticulate relations of authority and legitimacy. To demonstrate the value of the framework, we show how Microsoft is involved in assembling publicness around cybersecurity. Microsoft does so by problematising and countering state-led cybersecurity activities, questioning the state as a protector of its citizens and proposing governance measures to establish the tech sector as authoritative, and legitimate “first responders.” With this rearticulating of public-private relations, we see the emergence of a political subject for whom security is not solely the right of a citizen secured by the state but also a customer service provided as per a service agreement. The study hence offers important insights into the connection between publicness and cybersecurity, state and big tech relations, and the formation of authority and legitimacy in international politics.
At a time when the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) concept continues to be an object of widespread controversy, particularly with BRICS countries openly condemning the way it has been implemented by Western states, the question of the future evolution of the norm remains uncertain. While the constructivist literature initially pointed to the consolidation of the norm which was widely accepted by heads of states during the 2005 World Summit, the application has been criticized by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) for being Western-led and biased, oriented toward regime-change and reminding the world of a new type of colonial enterprise. BRICS members embraced this perspective, and condemned in unison the Libyan intervention for going beyond the scope of its mandate and occasioning greater harm than it prevented. The authors of this article analyse BRICS perspectives on the “Responsibility to Protect” and seek to understand whether the geopolitical formation could, by unifying and building up on contestation mechanisms, contribute to the renewal and rebuilding of this doctrine, thus ensuring its greater credibility. The qualitative investigation is based on the study of interviews conducted with experts from BRICS and some western countries. The findings indicate that if BRICS member states succeed in adopting a common conceptual perspective, the global acceptance of the “Responsibility to Protect” could increase but that all the new checks and balances advocated by them could lead to delays in interventions to prevent human rights abuses moving forward.
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