The Political Economy of Robots: Prospects for Prosperity and Peace in the Automated 21st Century, 2nd edition

by Ryan David Kiggins (Editor)

Overview

This collection examines implications of technological automation to global prosperity and peace. Focusing on robots, information communication technologies, and other automation technologies, it offers brief interventions that assess how automation may alter extant political, social, and economic institutions, norms, and practices that comprise the global political economy. In doing so, this collection deals directly with such issues as automated production, trade, war, state sanctioned robot violence, financial speculation, transnational crime, and policy decision making. This interdisciplinary volume will appeal to students, scholars and practitioners grappling with political, economic, and social problems that arise from rapid technological change that automates the prospects for human prosperity and peace. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031951718
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	08/31/2025
Series:	International Political Economy Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Ryan Kiggins is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Central Oklahoma, USA. He edited The Political Economy of Rare Earth Elements: Rising Powers and Technological Change, published as part of the International Political Economy series in 2015; and co-edited Toward an International Political Economy of Aritificial Intelligence: Prospects for Prosperity and Peace in the 21^st Century, also part of the the International Political Economy series  in 2021.

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Robots in Political Economy.- Chapter 2: The Politics of Global Value Chains.- Chapter 3: The Safe Hand: Liquidity, Money, and Financial Innovation.- Chapter 4: The New Algorithms Reshaping Human Labor: Policy Options for the Automated Workplace.- Chapter 5: Automatic Medicine? Technology and the Future of Primary Health Care.- Chapter 6: AI in Public Education: Humble Beginnings and Revolutionary Potential.- Chapter 7: Human Prospects in a World of Smart(er) Machines.- Chapter 8: Drug Smuggling and Automated Borders: A Losing Battle of Escalation or State/Non-State Symbiosis.- Chapter 9: Drug Smuggling and Automated Borders: A Losing Battle of Escalation or State/Non-State Symbiosis.- Chapter 10: Repressive Robots and the Radical Possibilities of Emancipated Automation.- Chapter 11: Repressive Robots and the Radical Possibilities of Emancipated Automation.- Chapter 12: Diplomacy's Lessons Learned: First World War Submarine Warfare and the 21st Century Drone.- Chapter 13: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Autonomous Policy Decision Making: A Crisis in International Relations Theory?.- Chapter 14: Comrades in Arms Revisited: Shifting Ground in the Era of AI and Robotics in Warfighting.- Chapter 15: Robots writing Chinese and Fighting Underwater.- Chapter 16: Armed Drones: Automation, Autonomy, and Ethical Decision-Making.- Chapter 17: Armed Drones: Automation, Autonomy, and Ethical Decision-Making.- Chapter 18: The Political Economy of Bots: Theory and Method in the Study of Social Automation.- Chapter 19: Outlook for Prosperity and Peace in the Emergent Global Political Economy of Robots.