DIGITIZATION: ITS VARIABILITY AS A VARIABLE IN THE RESHAPING OF CROSS-BORDER RELATIONS

The rapid proliferation of digital networks and the growing digitization of a broad array of economic and political activities have contributed to the formation of new or the expansion of older cross-border flows operating partly outside the formal interstate system. These types of flows can be seen as having the potential for weakening sovereign state authority as it has come to be constituted historically, particularly over the last century. Insofar as sovereign state authority is the key building block of the interstate system, changes in the former conceivably will have an impact on the latter. Further, these types of transformations conceivably also enable non-state actors to enter international domains once exclusive to states. This is perhaps best illustrated by specific features of the strengthened world of international non-governmental organizations.