The mobility of power: Technology, diffusion, and international system change

International relations defines systemic change as substantial changes to the distribution of power between states. A combination of uneven economic development and the enervating effects of global military competition are the most probable causes of such shifts. But major shifts in the balance of power are also marked by transformations in the nature of political and military power: changes to the rules, processes and implements international actors operate under or have at their disposal. The dissertation explores the interplay between the distribution of power and the nature of power through an investigation of the relationship between technological change and international systemic change. The two, together with the domestic institutions of technology development, are historically and contingently related; they are not linked in a linear or deterministic way. The German railway network of the late-nineteenth century and the American atomic bomb of the mid-twentieth, are used to illustrate this relationship.;Technology is an important missing factor in international politics. It is significant not only because it can favor one nation at the expense of others, but also because it affects the nature and logic of international politics. Political science generally treats technology as an extrinsic, non-social autonomous factor that emerges in a vacuum and acts on the international system. But new technologies do not spring up unexpectedly; technological change is bound up with both the operations of domestic institutions and of the international system. Domestically, educational, economic, military and political institutions shape the development of new technologies. The international system effects technological change as a byproduct of the military and political competition the system engenders, and through diffusion--the movement of technology from country to country. The dissertation argues, therefore, that technology is an important causal factor in systemic change. In addition, the dissertation demonstrates that the transforming technologies themselves are explained by an historical analysis that stresses the importance of international forces, domestic technology management institutions, and the international diffusion of technology.