INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND EXPANSION OF THE EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR SECURITY AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EXPANSION OF THE EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM MCGEEHANAPRIL 25, 2000“We are at risk. America depends on computers. They control power delivery, communications, aviation, and financial services. They are used to store vital information, from medical records to business plans, to criminal records. Although we trust them, they are vulnerable -- to the effects of poor design and insufficient quality control, to accident, and perhaps most alarmingly, to deliberate attack. The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb""Computers at Risk," National Research Council, 1991.“We need to understand the exact nature of the challenges posed by Information and Communication Technologies to existing societies and economies. We need to know what we mean by the "information society" and the "creative economy." Above all, we need to imagine how ICTs may develop not just in rich urban societies but in all societies, in all countries, and in all sectors of these societies and countries. While the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are becoming more aware of the "haves" and "have-nots" within their own societies, there is a similar but much larger division between "haves" and "have-nots" on a global scale. Can ICTs help to close the gap?”Howkins, John. “Development and the Information Age,” United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, 1997. I. IntroductionThe origins Information Technology can be traced back to the first forms of spoken and written language. However, within the context of the 20th century, IT refers to the development and use of machines, whether they are computers, c...
