Science, technology and international relations

These impacts may be classified as operating through one of four main mechanisms: (1) changing the architecture of the international system: its structure, its key organizing concepts, and the relations among its actors; (2) changing the processes by which the international system operates, including diplomacy, war, administration, policy formation, commerce, trade, finance, communications, and the gathering of intelligence; (3) creating new issue areas, new constraints and trade-offs in the operational environment of foreign policy, a term which includes not only political constraints on international action, but also constraints imposed by the laws of natural and social science; and (4) providing a source of changed perceptions, of information and transparency for the operation of the international system, and of new concepts and ideas for international relations theory.