Technopolitique
Comment la technologie fait de nous des soldats
A sharp, current essay on how digital technology, AI and platform power have turned citizens into actors in a permanent informational and geopolitical conflict, by a prominent French tech-politics scholar.
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- Authors
- Asma Mhalla
- Published
- 2024
- Publisher
- Seuil
- Pages
- 288
- Language
- French
Read this if
Readers who want a contemporary French framing of the politics of technology — surveillance, AI, platform power, information warfare — at the intersection of geopolitics and daily life.
Skip this if
Readers wanting technical or security how-to; it's a political essay and big-picture argument, not a practitioner's text.
Key takeaways
- A very current (2024) French framing of technology as a domain of permanent geopolitical and informational conflict.
- Mhalla is a widely-followed voice on tech politics — the argument is sharp and contemporary.
- Big-picture and political: read for the framing of AI/platform power, not for technique.
Notes
The most contemporary book on this French shelf, connecting AI, platform power and geopolitics. Read it for the present-tense framing that the older strategy books predate.
What to read before
What to read before Technopolitique →Beginner · 2020
The Hacker and the State
Ben Buchanan's argument that state-on-state cyber operations are not deterrence-shaped (like nuclear) but signaling-shaped: countries use cyber to shape the environment, not to threaten escalation. Builds the case from declassified incidents.
Beginner · 2023
A Hacker's Mind
Bruce Schneier extends the security-engineering frame of "hacking" to law, finance, politics, and tax: every rule-based system has exploitable seams, and the wealthy and powerful exploit them constantly.
Beginner · 2018
The Perfect Weapon
The NYT national security correspondent's account of how cyber weapons became the tool states reach for short of war, from Stuxnet to Russian election interference. Strong on the politics and decision-making, light on the technology.
What to read next
What to read after Technopolitique →Advanced · 2011
Cyberattaque et cyberdéfense
An academic, systematic treatment of cyberconflict — doctrines, actors, attack and defence scenarios — from a CNRS researcher who is one of France's most prolific scholars of cyberwar.
Intermediate · 2018
Cyber
A strategic analysis of cyber conflict as permanent, sub-threshold warfare — and what France and Europe should do about it — by a former senior French strategist and a consultant.
Intermediate · 2012
Cyberstratégie
An early French military-strategic treatment of cyberspace as a theatre of operations — doctrine, deterrence and the determinants of a national cyber policy — by a French officer and strategist.
Explore similar books
Alternatives to Technopolitique →Intermediate · 2018
Cyber
A strategic analysis of cyber conflict as permanent, sub-threshold warfare — and what France and Europe should do about it — by a former senior French strategist and a consultant.
Intermediate · 2015
Introduction à la cyberstratégie
A foundational French introduction to cyberstrategy — treating cyberspace as a domain of strategic thought — by a former officer and strategy scholar.
Intermediate · 2014
Cybertactique
The tactical companion to Cyberstratégie — how cyber operations are actually conducted, from planning to execution — by a French officer and strategist.