Diplomacy in the information age: the use of information technologies in verification

One of the major arguments of this dissertation is that the information revolution has had significant impact on verification of existing international agreements. To support this argument, the relation between information revolution and international relations is tackled by examining systemic and unit level effects as well as impacts of information revolution on security, conflict management and international cooperation, and then the theory and practice of verification is discussed in detail with emphasis on regime theories and issues challenging verification. Finally, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) are selected as two case studies for the purpose of analyzing the impacts of information revolution. At the conclusion, based on the findings from the operations of the IAEA and the CTBTO, it is suggested that verification has become even more useful in international relations since it became more effective in detecting cheating thanks to the new information technologies.