The Twilight of Sovereignty : How the Information Revolution Is Transforming Our World (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a thoughtful essay, the chairman emeritus of Citibank offers shrewd observations of how the information revolution has affected the U.S. economy, manufacturing, international trade, corporate management styles and the global financial system. Wriston identifies the "new electronic superhighway" comprised of satellite and broadcast technologies and computers as a driving force behind an integrated world economy. He underscores the importance of intellectual capital, which, he claims, is often overlooked by managers and economists. However, his McLuhanesque central thesis paints a rosy picture unsupported by the evidence. The information age, he argues, is empowering ordinary citizens, driving nations toward cooperation with one another and diminishing the power of governments and corporations even as the "global conversation" advances civil and democratic rights. Wriston overstates his case, calling the fax machine "the pamphleteer of the late twentieth century."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wriston, chairman emeritus of Citibank and the author of Risk and Other Four-Letter Words ( LJ 3/1/86. o.p.), provides convincing evidence of a threat to national sovereignty resulting from rapid advances in information technology. He describes the marriage of computing and telecommunications as having created an electronic network that unifies the world into one global market of ideas, data, and capital, all capable of moving with lightning speed to any part of the planet. This influence of technology on international financial markets has outpaced the ability of governments to control national economies and old political borders. Such a global market threatens the very concept of sovereign nations. Wriston warns that leaders must face squarely the magnitude of technological change or risk falling into oblivion. A provocative work for informed lay readers.
- Joe Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company (September 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684194546
• ISBN-13: 978-0684194547
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #712,971 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prescient, March 28, 2005

By	J. Dretler (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In "The Twilight Of Sovereignty", the late Walter Wriston, former Chairman of Citicorp spoke to the positive transformative effects of information technology and the subsequent rise of transparency and democracy through globalization. Although this book was written in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his commentary about the spread of modern communications and how better communications will enable the forces of globalism to erode the power of local tyrannies, empower individuals and promote democracy was prescient. His comments predate those of Walter Russell Mead in "Power Terror War And Peace" by several years, but are clearly in agreement. In `Twilight" Wriston's view that the so-called managerial class has outlived its usefulness as a communications hierarchy and is now superfluous or even destructive to operational efficiency is a clear example of what Mead calls the Millennial Capitalist replacement of the Fordist managerial state. Wriston also set the stage for Thomas Barnett's call for transparency and globalism as a means to fight terrorism in Barnett's recent book, "The Pentagon's New Map". In Wriston's view "the law of technology is the law of convergence" and "as information technology brings the news of how others live, the pressure for freedom will be irresistible". This is a more eloquent if a less detailed discussion than Barnett's chapter entitled `Mind the Gap', but the train of thought is essentially the same. This book is more a survey than the intensive development of the ideas that Wriston proposed, but it may be that he just assumed a degree of literacy that is no longer general. His historical references include Max Weber, whose theory of state has sovereignty emerging from the exclusive use of legitimate violence, and Frederick Hayek, whose individual choice based market solutions establish him as the intellectual heir of Adam Smith. Wriston also included modern commentators like Carver Mead and George Gilder who rejoice in the ever- accelerating pace of technological change. Wriston said that change is a constant in the global marketplace and that "change is what Americans deal with best." Although somewhat dated, I recommend this book as a concise general preview of the technological globalist argument from one of its original proponents.

15 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most alarming book since Orwell's 1984, October 26, 1997

By	[e-mail] (Skokie Il) - See all my reviews

Walter Wriston emvisions a world where corporations exercise totalitarian control. With control of financial markets, they are able to make or break nations who stand in the way of their eternal drive for greater and greater profits. Mr. Wriston asks us to trust that the corporations' managers are now more enlightened while he acknowledges that they have a brutal history. This book should be a wake up call to any one who is not a member of the stock-holding privileged class that our future lies in sweatshops unless we act now to stop the multi-national corporations.