Study Title in English: Reconstructing International Reality in the Digital Age: A Post-Structuralist Reading of the Knowledge Problematic and Cyber Warfare

Abstract

This study aims to deconstruct the epistemological foundations of positivist and rationalist theories within the field of International Relations (IR), and to philosophically and critically reconstruct the triadic relationship between discourse, knowledge, and international reality in the digital age. It seeks to demonstrate how the international security reality is constructed through the mechanisms of the "constitutive-performative turn" and the (power/knowledge) regimes associated with smart warfare and artificial intelligence (AI).The central epistemological problem resides in the erosion of tangible, material, and geographical explanations due to cyberspace flows. This prompts the core question: How do digital discursive practices and the algorithmic systems of cyberwarfare contribute to reconstructing international and security realities, while dismantling traditional Westphalian concepts of sovereignty and power in contemporary and future environments? The study proceeds from the hypothesis that as the pace of comprehensive digitization accelerates, the material nature of the international system dissolves in favor of an "algorithmically-constructed hyperreality." Consequently, discourse and knowledge are no longer mere reflections of power struggles; rather, they have become the foundational, performative power that generates and constructs concepts of security and threat, while manufacturing "regimes of digital truth." The findings reveal the disintegration of the geographical (inside/outside) binary, coinciding with the rise of a new ontological agency of transnational tech conglomerates and hybrid actors at the expense of the state's exclusive monopoly. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the "cyber threat" is a discursive construction deployed by elites to legitimize policies of exception and surveillance, and that generative AI is driving the international system toward an "algorithmic narrative hyper-pluralism" that dissolves epistemological certainty. The study concludes with the imperative of instigating an epistemological revolution in IR that departs from positivist reductionism toward a "critical-reflexive turn." This turn serves as a tool for ethical and political responsibility capable of deconstructing the discourses of technology militarization and the monopolization of automated truth regimes, thereby paving the way for alternative digital politics that place human security and societal freedom at the forefront of the digitized international order.