New Delhi, Nov. 25 -- The Cobweb World and the Digital Public Sphere

International relations scholar John Burton's Cobweb Theory argues that states are no longer the sole channels through which societies interact. Today, people engage globally through countless digital pathways that the state cannot fully control. In earlier times, international interactions passed almost entirely through state authorities, who had extensive surveillance capacity.

But the internet shattered those barriers. A young person in India can now witness protests in Chile or police violence in the US, not as distant events but as instantly relatable. What once appeared only in newspapers now unfolds in real time, with emotional intensity.

The global has become ...