Techno-geopolitics and the Sociopolitical Aspect of Information Science: A Case Study of the US Cyber Strategy in the Obama Administration

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Prof., Department of Transregional and Global Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22034/ijism.2026.2022560.1395
Abstract
 
The study of Sociological aspects of information science, as the interplay of science and social structures, gained academic attention and popularity throughout the 1980s. Today, cyberspace, as a primary domain for information creation, dissemination, and consumption, is the subject of extensive sociopolitical research and analysis. Meanwhile, Cybersecurity is an emerging component of national security and continues to play a more crucial role in international relations. A vast body of literature has emerged on how politics and international relations are influenced by the emergence of cyberspace. This literature regards cybersecurity as a dimension of national security and considers its role in international relations. This article examines the relationship among cyberspace, national security, and geopolitics. It focuses on the United States of America as a cyber power to examine how cyber issues have been linked to the national security agenda and have informed decision-making in the country in the 21st century. This renders the entire work a case study and sheds light on the American approach to addressing the cyber threat in the Information Age. Relying on an extended version of the Copenhagen School and its theory of securitization, and using process-tracing as the research method, the author argues that, as an instance of the interaction between technology and geopolitics, the US cyber strategy in the Obama Administration involved a securitization process aimed at stabilizing America’s informational superiority. The process is then analyzed within a framework of the country's security priorities and information policy in the 21st century.
 
 

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Volume 24, Issue 1
Winter 2026
Pages 199-226

  • Receive Date 09 February 2024
  • Accept Date 10 February 2026