The impact of wikileaks on the state and its sovereignty

Abstract

WikiLeaks emerged due to the belief that states (often democratic) were not as transparent as they claimed to be. Prior to WikiLeaks, transparency was largely done through state mechanisms and information provided to the media through official spokespeople. Through its online platform, WikiLeaks has attempted to widen this information net and corridor; allowing anyone with access to information to leak it anonymously. This dissertation investigates the effect of WikiLeaks on state sovereignty. It is crucial that sovereignty is continually investigated in order to understand where human society and the governance of human society are heading. Is the state losing greater sovereignty due to the emergence of WikiLeaks? The dissertation argues that the state is losing some sovereignty due to a WikiLeaks diffusion of sovereignty to citizens globally. However, WikiLeaks (although very well known) is a small part of many developments that underpin greater diffusion of state sovereignty including the growing power of the internet, diversification of media and other new methods that force state accountability.