Virtual States explores the role of the state in a rapidly globalizing, wired society. It presents a theoretical and historical introduction to the internet, its place in both the developed and the developing world, and its impact on society.

Although the internet brings out new disparities--between the information rich and the information poor--it also has the potential to break down the boundaries of national identity. Jerry Everard argues that while information technology poses fundamental challenges to the inclusionary/exclusionary processes of state-making, this will not mean the decline but rather the mutation of the state. Everard goes on to look at the different ways in which states react to the wired society, covering issues such as war, censorship and the reactions of those excluded from this society.