New Governance Strategies for a Government IT Policy

Abstract

Looking back to the not-so-distant past, one is struck to learn how much the world has changed in the last 30 to 35 years. New developments in major spheres of activity and new ways of knowing have altered, redefined or even transformed, in some cases, the ways we think, act and do things in the world. Changes are evident in all walks of life. In global politics, the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism have brought to the fore new actors and new issues. Nation-states are the principal but not the sole actors on the world stage. International organizations (IOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), transnational corporations, social movements and other non-state entities like media organizations and terrorist groups play an important role in setting the agenda and exerting influence on a global scale. Traditional concerns of sovereignty and security are still important, but policy-makers and academics are asked to re-conceptualize these concepts in lieu of the challenges posed by globalization and new threats to human security, like economic and ecological degradation, terrorism, massive immigration flows, the spread of infectious diseases and contamination of the food chain, to name a few.