In the last ten years, the interaction between human beings and technology has veered off the path of familiarity, and increasingly into the unknown. As virtual societies replace physical ones, computers control every aspect of human movement from traffic lights to flights and all human activity can be logged and catalogued into a cyber-database, the inexorable march towards ceding all control to technology is already underway. Given this fact, securing the safety of the state, as well securing the interactions between governments has now firmly entrenched itself entirely in technology. This reliance on technology can be looked at from two separate angles, from the point of view of inter-state interactions, and from the point of view of state security. 

In the case of inter-state interactions, the tech revolution has been a true boon. Whether it is people to people contact or official diplomatic dialogue at the highest level, advances in technology, especially communication technology have changed the way states interact with one another. The simplest and most effective impact has been on "soft power". During the Cold War, Voice of America, the radio station began to broadcast in Russian in the hopes of counteracting Soviet propaganda. Television shows and movies have done more to further dialogue in many parts of the world than high level peace talks. If technology has enabled people from different cultures to find commonalities and unexpected bonds, then it has also helped world leaders to have better control over their communications with each other. During the 60s, in the era of the iconic red phone, communication between rival superpowers like the US and the USSR was a complex and convoluted process and was often times consuming. Today, Presidents Medvedev and Obama can be on the phone with each other in a matter of seconds, regardless of which part of the world they are in. 

However, when it comes to state security, technology has created more problems than it has solved. Governments across the world have long been in the race of "who has the best technology?" and the belief that the country that possesses the most advanced weaponry or communication system has the advantage over the country that doesn't is not without merit. However, in the last two decades, incorporating technology into every aspect of state security has become routine. Satellites, data mining, phone taps, virtual searches, full body scanners, drones, radiation detection devices, the list goes on and on. The number of new devices and hi-tech processes now available to security forces is endless. However, terrorists and criminals also have access to the same level of technology, and often eschew safety conditions in order to gain the bigger and better weapon. Every time a technological solution is found for a problem, non-state actors simply find a way to surpass the latest roadblock. When Kevlar was invented, so too were armour piercing rounds. When tests were created to identify rare poisons, new poisons were invented that couldn't be detected by the tests. The internet has been manna for those espousing extremist ideologies. Anybody who believes anything can find kindred spirits from across the world, plan and execute acts ranging from simple peaceful protests to violent terrorist acts. 

The more disturbing aspect is that complete reliance on technology has now rendered most human beings incapable of performing most tasks without them. Volcanic ash in Europe shut down all airports and grounded all flights for a period of 5 days, costing billions of dollars in money, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers far away from home, and essentially causing untold chaos. Most states found that they did not have any solution to the problem, and they had become so used to having airplanes that they simply did not know how to deal with a world where no air travel was possible. It took days for European governments to recover and figure out ways to get their citizens back before any further damage was caused. Moreover, increasing reliance on technology has meant the concentration of all our information in certain places. According to Strategic Foresight Group's publication on "Global Security and Economy: Emerging Issues Report" an attack on the world's critical information systems could be catastrophic. Web based threats are steadily increasing and this decade has seen cyber security ranked alongside national security in many countries. 

It is useless at this point to debate whether the extent of technology permeating our state-level actions is good or bad. That action has been achieved and it is not conceivable that it will be reversed at any point, barring any earth-shattering occurrences. What's more, technology has truly brought the world together in ways that could not have been imagined even 50 years ago. What is more important is debating how best we can protect ourselves against the ills it can cause and finding foolproof safeguards, especially on matters of state security.