*The Technopolar Paradox
*/The Frightening Fusion of Tech Power and State Power
/
Ian Bremmer
May 13, 2025
In February 2022, as Russian forces advanced on Kyiv, Ukraine’s
government faced a critical vulnerability: with its Internet and
communication networks under attack, its troops and leaders would soon
be in the dark. Elon Musk—the de facto head of Tesla, SpaceX, X
(formerly Twitter), xAI, the Boring Company, and Neuralink—stepped in.
Within days, SpaceX had deployed thousands of Starlink terminals to
Ukraine and activated satellite Internet service at no cost. Having kept
the country online, Musk was hailed as a hero.
But the centibillionaire’s personal intervention—and Kyiv’s reliance on
it—came with risks. Months later, Ukraine asked SpaceX to extend
Starlink’s coverage to Russian-occupied Crimea, to enable a submarine
drone strike that Kyiv wanted to carry out against Russian naval assets.
Musk refused—worried, he said, that this would cause a major escalation
in the war. Even the Pentagon’s entreaties on behalf of Ukraine failed
to convince him. An unelected, unaccountable private citizen had
unilaterally thwarted a military operation in an active war zone while
exposing the fact that governments had remarkably little control over
crucial decisions affecting their citizens and national security.
continua qui:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/technopolar-paradox-ian-bremmer-fusion-tech-state-power
