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

Wriston, Walter B.

ISBN 10: 0684194546 / ISBN 13: 9780684194547

Published by Scribner, NewYork, 1992

1st Edition/2nd Printing. SIGNED (inscribed) by author on title page. $25.00 price present on DJ flap. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 047814

Synopsis:

Walter B. Wriston, the former chairman of Citicorp, is among the most innovative financiers of our time. In The Twilight of Sovereignty he lucidly reveals the vast geopolitical implications of the massive information revolution in progress around the globe.
Human intelligence and intellectual resources are now the world's prime capital, Wriston shows. Instant global communication - the marriage of satellites, television, fax, cellular telephones, and worldwide computer networks - has had and will continue to have world-shaking consequences. The fundamental result is that national boundaries are increasingly irrelevant, and the traditional power and perquisites of sovereignty are disappearing. The effect of this revolution, says Wriston, is the formation of a new global democratic order: "No matter what political leaders do or say, the screens will continue to light up, traders will trade, and currency values will continue to be set, not only by sovereign governments but by global plebiscite," he writes. Today, there can be no more unreported Chernobyl disasters. There can be no more Pearl Harbor-like surprises. The vast migrations on every continent; the drive of informed peoples for self-determination; the collapse of the Soviet empire; the democratization of Latin America; the outburst of ethnic rivalries - all become understandable in the challenging light of Wriston's persuasive analysis.
Wriston stresses that in the information revolution, technology itself is of secondary importance. His larger vision is of the transformation of our public and private institutions. Within the corporation, too, the twilight of sovereignty is near. The immediate and simultaneous availability of data to those at every level of authority within the corporation means that in today's business world, traditional executive power is ended. Looking to the future, Wriston outlines the new management philosophies and radically changed managerial structures that will follow the end of corporate centralization.
The Twilight of Sovereignty reaffirms Walter Wriston's stature as one of the most cogent thinkers of our time.

Reviews: 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.

Wriston (Risk and Other Four-Letter Words, 1985), former chief of Citibank and an emir of Wall Street prior to its Era of Excess, ponders the future and finds it pretty good. Information, factual and financial, electronically girdles the globe like the rings of Saturn. Knowledge, more than ever, is power in the global village, and information is wealth. Information, resolved into the thousand points of computer light on the trading floors of the world, is a form of wealth, Wriston says, that no sovereign nation or transnational corporation will be able to control or contain. With the advent of instantaneous communication, national borders dissolve. Mighty enterprises are no longer situated in particular places, subject to simple authority. Current accounting theory is inadequate and the notion of gross national product is outdated. Information, the author continues, is ``the virus that is carrying the powerful idea of freedom to the four corners of the world, and modern technology assures that sooner rather than later everyone on the planet will have heard the message.'' Wriston places scant value on the future value of fixed wealth, like real estate, and he doesn't discuss oil. He assumes that the information forming the new wealth will be true (he spends some time on cryptography) and that the messages of freedom will be honest. He doesn't discuss the need to handle the handlers, the creators of the S&L debacle, and the junk-bond pirates, all masters of misinformation through modern technology. His thesis, nevertheless, is potent and curiously attractive. Discursive, thoughtful, and full of significant implications for the future of world economics and public policy. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Twilight of Sovereignty : How the ...
Publisher: Scribner, NewYork
Publication Date: 1992
Binding: Hard Cover
Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: 1st Edition