The Unbearable Lightness of International Relations : Technological Innovations, Creative Destruction and Assemblages

How could one oversee the monumental modern landscape that has been created by over 250 years of continuous technological innovations? Notwithstanding a few students of international relations who have insisted in taking notice, technology has remained an exotic subject matter in International Relations theory (IR). While the interest in technologies is recently growing most IR scholarship remains silent: the fact that we live in a fully integrated and interconnected technological world is absent from textbooks and introductions to IR. Neither exists theoretical approaches and paradigmatic debates that are concerned with technologies; nor a specific intra-disciplinary subfield. Against this background, this book explores how technological innovations could be theorized and integrated into IR theories. Revisiting the inroads of theoretical approaches to technologies, it highlights the lightness of IR scholarship. I argue that the general framework of IR is untenable because it looks at the world as if there were no materials or rather, as if the pervasive presence of artifacts and infrastructures would have no theoretical relevance for conceptualizing and examining world politics. Drawing on ontological and epistemological understandings from anthropology, innovation economics, and science and technology studies, I take issue with the philosophical foundations of the discipline. The notions, concepts and practices, which ultimately sustain and legitimize this lightness, are interrogated. It is shown that the neglect of technological innovation does not merely result from coincidental intellectual moves. It is rather the result of the “Cartesian complex” – the foundational commitment that renders IR a purely social science that deliberately excludes non-humans and hybrid material modes of agency. A radical refashioning is therefore required to the extent to which IR theory aims to accommodate the highly complex and elusive subject matter of technological innovations. This conceptual catharsis does not primarily touch upon epistemological concerns. What is at stake is the limitation of ontological parameters that sustain IR theories. To make sense of the messy technological landscapes, the material agency, and the technologically mediated practices, the prevailing logocentric wisdom needs to be transcended. Against premature metaphysical closure, this book thus contributes to the task of ontological expansion. Firstly, it develops an alternative meta-theoretical foundation coined “explorative realism”. A new meta-theoretical matrix is proposed that renders wider ontological parameters intelligible. Especially, the “double-mixed” zone encourages ontological expansion via notions of heterogeneous agency and process philosophy. This implies that IR scholars avoid treating time, space, knowledge, artificial objects, and built environments as constants but as always croproduced. A coproductive commitment opens up new empirical issues and concerns as well as radically different theoretical puzzles. It also implies overcoming Cartesian dualism, abandoning intentionality-based notions of agency, and forgetting the “level of analysis” assumption. Secondly, this book advances a theoretical toolbox consisting of the interrelated concepts of “assemblages” and “creative destruction”. The former term signifies actor-networks entailing both humans and non-humans. The latter captures the ways in which technological innovations alter or destabilize assemblages across all levels through a process of translation. This theoretical vocabulary also reconceptualizes the meaning of “power”, “authority” with reference to technological innovations. Three open-ended classifications and three models of creative destruction enable the mapping of magnitudes of translations, the changing size and topologies of assemblages and the shifting power and authority. These efforts to theorize technological innovations, then, support empirical research on global transformations and processes of emergence with a set of conceptual tools that allows locating and systematizing cases, puzzles, and scales in relation to assemblages. The study of technological innovations is productive and challenging. It leads to the discovery of novel empirical landscapes and inspires a creative questioning of IR’s foundations. As such, while responding to the stunning absence of theoretical approaches in IR that make sense of technological innovations, this study contributes to the articulation of both a post-international and post-Cartesian version of IR

Strategizing as multi-modal and rhetorical discursive practice: a case study of the BHP Billiton's failed acquisition of Rio Tinto

This thesis took a discourse approach to analyze BHP Billiton’s failed acquisition of Rio Tinto in 2007-08 to better understand what happens during strategizing. The research highlighted the structure and dynamics of the discourse, as well as the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. In doing so, the thesis provided new insights into how actors were able to influence such important strategic events. The thesis adopted a multi-modal discourse analytic framework and analyzed media reports, corporate videos, press releases and communications to shareholders, as well as slides and full transcripts of key presentations by both BHP and Rio leadership. The analysis identified the main internal and external actors as either decision-makers (BHP’s leadership, shareholders, competition regulators) or influencers (Rio’s leadership, analysts, media, customers). It further identified a range of multi-modal discursive practices and rhetorical strategies that were brought to bear to negotiate the meaning of three key constructs that shaped the discourse, that is, the additional value pool, the fair share exchange ratio, and the impact on competition. Further, the findings showed how time and context were discursively constructed and influenced the meaning of the three key constructs. These findings enabled a number of contributions to the discourse and M&A literature. While most research into acquisition discourses has routinely ignored the pre-acquisition discourse, this thesis focused on the period preceding the transaction. An initial contribution was to show that, in a pre-acquisition discourse, external actors were not a passive audience but played a significant role as rhetor and audience. Also, while previous empirical studies of discourse have emphasized the role of language, this thesis considered multi-modal discursive practices, including speech, writing, imagery, location and calculative devices. The thesis made a further contribution by showing how actors worked to persuade each other through multi-layered rhetorical strategies that were also brought to bear through non-linguistic modes. This contribution was extended by showing how these practices functioned as transgression markers that signaled convergence or divergence of meaning of the key constructs. A detailed analysis of calculative devices enabled further contributions. An initial contribution was that it showed how calculative devices developed as boundary objects over four stages: identification, calculation, negotiation, and objectification. Further, the thesis showed how calculative devices were imbued with logos and ethos through, for example, the calculative logic, accounting standards and data sources that were woven together in the symbolic manipulations of the device. Lastly, the thesis showed how calculative devices acted as boundary objects, and made a contribution to theory by proposing a third criterion, legitimacy, to complement widely acknowledged criteria of adaptability and commonality. In addition to these dynamics, the thesis outlined a discursive epistemology of strategizing through its analysis of the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. While the role of time and context is widely acknowledged in organizational discourse, it remained unclear what was specific to strategizing. The thesis argued that the purpose of strategizing is to construct and negotiate new or improved options for a preferred future and the actions to bring this about, and made a contribution to a discursive epistemology of strategizing by showing how temporal and contextual work in strategizing extends the horizon of discourses that relate to the future and discourses that relate to the broader discourse. This reconstructs the tapestry of interwoven discourses that make up the local strategy discourse, and creates new strategic options

Strategizing as multi-modal and rhetorical discursive practice: a case study of the BHP Billiton's failed acquisition of Rio Tinto

This thesis took a discourse approach to analyze BHP Billiton’s failed acquisition of Rio Tinto in 2007-08 to better understand what happens during strategizing. The research highlighted the structure and dynamics of the discourse, as well as the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. In doing so, the thesis provided new insights into how actors were able to influence such important strategic events. The thesis adopted a multi-modal discourse analytic framework and analyzed media reports, corporate videos, press releases and communications to shareholders, as well as slides and full transcripts of key presentations by both BHP and Rio leadership. The analysis identified the main internal and external actors as either decision-makers (BHP’s leadership, shareholders, competition regulators) or influencers (Rio’s leadership, analysts, media, customers). It further identified a range of multi-modal discursive practices and rhetorical strategies that were brought to bear to negotiate the meaning of three key constructs that shaped the discourse, that is, the additional value pool, the fair share exchange ratio, and the impact on competition. Further, the findings showed how time and context were discursively constructed and influenced the meaning of the three key constructs. These findings enabled a number of contributions to the discourse and M&A literature. While most research into acquisition discourses has routinely ignored the pre-acquisition discourse, this thesis focused on the period preceding the transaction. An initial contribution was to show that, in a pre-acquisition discourse, external actors were not a passive audience but played a significant role as rhetor and audience. Also, while previous empirical studies of discourse have emphasized the role of language, this thesis considered multi-modal discursive practices, including speech, writing, imagery, location and calculative devices. The thesis made a further contribution by showing how actors worked to persuade each other through multi-layered rhetorical strategies that were also brought to bear through non-linguistic modes. This contribution was extended by showing how these practices functioned as transgression markers that signaled convergence or divergence of meaning of the key constructs. A detailed analysis of calculative devices enabled further contributions. An initial contribution was that it showed how calculative devices developed as boundary objects over four stages: identification, calculation, negotiation, and objectification. Further, the thesis showed how calculative devices were imbued with logos and ethos through, for example, the calculative logic, accounting standards and data sources that were woven together in the symbolic manipulations of the device. Lastly, the thesis showed how calculative devices acted as boundary objects, and made a contribution to theory by proposing a third criterion, legitimacy, to complement widely acknowledged criteria of adaptability and commonality. In addition to these dynamics, the thesis outlined a discursive epistemology of strategizing through its analysis of the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. While the role of time and context is widely acknowledged in organizational discourse, it remained unclear what was specific to strategizing. The thesis argued that the purpose of strategizing is to construct and negotiate new or improved options for a preferred future and the actions to bring this about, and made a contribution to a discursive epistemology of strategizing by showing how temporal and contextual work in strategizing extends the horizon of discourses that relate to the future and discourses that relate to the broader discourse. This reconstructs the tapestry of interwoven discourses that make up the local strategy discourse, and creates new strategic options

Model Based Systems Engineering Approaches to Chemicals and Materials Manufacturing

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is part of a long-term trend toward model-centric approaches adopted by many engineering disciplines. This work establishes the need for an MBSE approach by reviewing the importance, complexity, and vulnerability of the U.S. chemical supply chains. The origins, work processes, modeling approaches, and supporting tools of the systems engineering discipline (SE) are discussed, along with the limitations of the current Process Systems Engineering (PSE) framework. The case is made for MBSE as a more generalizable and robust approach. Systems modeling strategies for MBSE are introduced, as well as a novel MBSE method that supports the automation tailored and extended to support the analysis of chemical supply chains. This work demonstrate the potential of MBSE approaches in chemical manufacturing by presenting two cases studies involving two different Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), Atropine and Albuterol. The conclusion offers a prospectus on developmental opportunities for extracting greater benefit from MBSE in the design and management of chemical supply chains

Engineering Division

The objectives of the Engineering Division are to provide an association for those having an interest in library and information science as they apply to engineering and the physical sciences and to promote the use of materials and knowledge for the benefit of libraries and other educational organizations