Lessons from WikiLeaks

The globalization process will gradually deliver its unique products that will naturally affect existing global arrangements. These products will be a mixed blessing for political systems: from the weakened power and monopoly of nation-states vis-à-vis the expanding information network, to the increasing importance of national boundaries, which appear to be contradictory.

The latest global phenomenon, WikiLeaks, has ushered in controversial debates on deconstruction of the nation-state’s jurisdiction. If we believe in the ‘Information Revolution’, a network society and the mounting power of the media, the leaked documents published by Julian Assange and his team is the most natural product of this process. Here, I will try to set forth the different theories and evaluations of the WikiLeaks phenomenon, from the most skeptical to the most optimistic, free from micro-level viewpoint:

- Publication of sensitive information by WikiLeaks is the natural product of the network society of the Information Age, perpetuated by believers in open society and the free circulation of information, and advocators of transparency in global affairs. The best term to describe WikiLeaks’ efforts is perhaps “deconfidentialization” of political systems. The consequence of WikiLeaks actions is not social or political disorder, rather, that the modern world should get accustomed to transparency.

- Debates between supporters of progressive democracies –such as in Scandinavian countries, where WikiLeaks was born- and advocates of the nation-state system have been going on for three decades. The focus relates to the demarcation of official state documents and media feed, an effort to provide a new definition of classification of data and tackle structural paradoxes that undermine national interests.

- Whatever the intentions of WikiLeaks, it demonstrates the true nature of the single hegemon of the world, the United States, which overlooks the international community self-centeredly and from the point of an omniscient narrator that entitles itself to judge the rest of the world. The realistic vein of the published data is its cornerstone.

- WikiLeaks has disclosed the most natural confidential diplomatic structures of the world, which are everything but modern and complex and reveal the private side of diplomatic actors. The labeling of documents in foreign ministries of countries, from confidential to ultra-confidential, bespeaks of the inaccessibility of diplomatic procedures for the public. Classification of data tempts the media to gain access to them.

- Behind-the-scene diplomatic negotiations rely on personal information, individual psychology and character analysis of key decision-makers of the target countries. Thus, they move beyond the formal diplomatic protocols. They may breach international laws and take advantage of intelligence service data and the military arm.

- Despite the US administration’s gesture of anger, the content of WikiLeaks’ documents, from the unity of Koreas, terrorism in Latin American and the Iran-Arab rift, to Britain’s failure to establish security in Afghanistan, will ultimately serve the interests of Washington.

- WikiLeaks’ move is in fact an interaction inside a network society, which has engaged the political elite, world leaders and those who have access to information networks. It will have no impact on millions of individuals who are not part of this network and have more basic, worldly concerns. WikiLeaks speaks of the domestic fight between the hegemon capitalism networks and of course it never undermines the system that feeds it. Its ultimate direction serves the interests of capitalism and perpetuates new plans to accumulate wealth via manipulating the virtual society. Software battles are the military strategy of the Information Age, explicitly addressed in the new national security doctrine of powerful countries.

Responses to WikiLeaks’ disclosure range from fervent enthusiasm to ultimate neglecting. Le Monde, The Guardian and The New York Times, all leading media of their countries, have shown strong interest in the revealed cables, but how should Iran react to the complicated game of WikiLeaks?

It seems that the best reaction to the release of these documents is regarding them as personal, raw and un-evaluable date –and nothing more- by US diplomatic envoys in their private bilateral and multilateral negotiations. Just like other diplomatic data, the Iranian foreign ministry should study these documents before making any hasty decisions that could harm our national interests. Otherwise we have unintentionally helped the hegemon system build up its road map for continued rule in the following decades.