William Durch, Joris Larik, and Richard Ponzio (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198805373
- eISBN:
- 9780191843440
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805373.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This book is about how humankind can manage global problems to achieve both security and justice in an age of antithesis. Global connectivity is increasing, visibly and invisibly—in trade, finance, ...
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This book is about how humankind can manage global problems to achieve both security and justice in an age of antithesis. Global connectivity is increasing, visibly and invisibly—in trade, finance, culture, and information—helping to spur economic growth, technological advance, and greater understanding and freedom, but global disconnects are growing as well. Ubiquitous electronics rely on high-value minerals scraped from the earth by miners kept dirt-poor by corruption and war. People abandon burning states for the often indifferent welcome of wealthier lands whose people, in turn, pull in on themselves. International bucket brigades are too little, too late—and some throw gas on the flames. Humanity’s very success, underwritten in large part by lighting up gigatons of long-buried carbon for 200 years, now threatens humanity’s future. The global governance institutions established after World War Two to manage global threats, especially the twin scourges of war and poverty, have expanded in reach and impact, while paradoxically losing the political support of their wealthiest and most powerful members. Their problems mimic those of their members in struggling to adapt to new problems and maintain trust in institutions. This volume argues, however, that a properly mandated, managed, and modernized global architecture offers unparalleled potential to midwife solutions to vexing issues that transcend borders and capacities of individual actors, from conflict and climate change to poverty and pandemic disease. The volume offers “just security” as a new conceptual framework for evaluating innovative solutions and strategies for institutional reform.Less
This book is about how humankind can manage global problems to achieve both security and justice in an age of antithesis. Global connectivity is increasing, visibly and invisibly—in trade, finance, culture, and information—helping to spur economic growth, technological advance, and greater understanding and freedom, but global disconnects are growing as well. Ubiquitous electronics rely on high-value minerals scraped from the earth by miners kept dirt-poor by corruption and war. People abandon burning states for the often indifferent welcome of wealthier lands whose people, in turn, pull in on themselves. International bucket brigades are too little, too late—and some throw gas on the flames. Humanity’s very success, underwritten in large part by lighting up gigatons of long-buried carbon for 200 years, now threatens humanity’s future. The global governance institutions established after World War Two to manage global threats, especially the twin scourges of war and poverty, have expanded in reach and impact, while paradoxically losing the political support of their wealthiest and most powerful members. Their problems mimic those of their members in struggling to adapt to new problems and maintain trust in institutions. This volume argues, however, that a properly mandated, managed, and modernized global architecture offers unparalleled potential to midwife solutions to vexing issues that transcend borders and capacities of individual actors, from conflict and climate change to poverty and pandemic disease. The volume offers “just security” as a new conceptual framework for evaluating innovative solutions and strategies for institutional reform.
M. I. Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823271641
- eISBN:
- 9780823271696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823271641.003.0005
- Subject:
- Information Science, Communications
This chapter introduces the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet and Ten Internet Rights and Principles (IRP Coalition 2011, 2013). Under the leadership of the Internet Rights and ...
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This chapter introduces the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet and Ten Internet Rights and Principles (IRP Coalition 2011, 2013). Under the leadership of the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition at the UN Internet Governance Forum, the IRPC Charter is the outcome of a cross-sector collaboration between civil society organizations, human rights experts, scholars, and representatives from the (inter-) governmental and private sector to provide an authoritative, human rights-based legal framework for decisions around internet design, access and use. Essential to this project’s success was an early decision to anchor the work in precursor civil society initiatives and international law. The coalition building strategy that underpins the Charter brought a range of actors together, face-to-face and online, in the spirit of web-enabled collabowriting based on “multistakeholder participation”. A commitment to forging alliances and cooperation across diverse sectors in order to ensure human-centered internet policymaking has been a key factor in the success of the IRPC Charter to articulate a viable framework for rights-based agenda-setting in a policymaking terrain dominated by powerful techno-commercial interests and competing political agendas.Less
This chapter introduces the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet and Ten Internet Rights and Principles (IRP Coalition 2011, 2013). Under the leadership of the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition at the UN Internet Governance Forum, the IRPC Charter is the outcome of a cross-sector collaboration between civil society organizations, human rights experts, scholars, and representatives from the (inter-) governmental and private sector to provide an authoritative, human rights-based legal framework for decisions around internet design, access and use. Essential to this project’s success was an early decision to anchor the work in precursor civil society initiatives and international law. The coalition building strategy that underpins the Charter brought a range of actors together, face-to-face and online, in the spirit of web-enabled collabowriting based on “multistakeholder participation”. A commitment to forging alliances and cooperation across diverse sectors in order to ensure human-centered internet policymaking has been a key factor in the success of the IRPC Charter to articulate a viable framework for rights-based agenda-setting in a policymaking terrain dominated by powerful techno-commercial interests and competing political agendas.
Kieron O’Hara
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- July 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197523681
- eISBN:
- 9780197523711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197523681.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter describes some of the controversies around the large US influence on Internet governance, and the attempts by the International Telecommunication Union Working Group on Internet ...
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This chapter describes some of the controversies around the large US influence on Internet governance, and the attempts by the International Telecommunication Union Working Group on Internet Governance to exert more influence on behalf of other national governments, not least China and Russia. Internet governance multistakeholderism is described, with its mix of governments, NGOs and private sector organizations, using technology (code), regulation, and norms, and we see how the Internet decomposes into a stack of protocols. The discussion is exemplified by ICANN’s governance of the Domain Name System (DNS), and by the difficulties of the move from IPv4 to IPv6. The dual functions of openness as both an engineering standard and a moral standard are described. Openness implies transparency, bottom-up, permissionless innovation, the end-to-end principle, efficient data transport, resilience, redundancy, interoperability, scalability, and generativity.Less
This chapter describes some of the controversies around the large US influence on Internet governance, and the attempts by the International Telecommunication Union Working Group on Internet Governance to exert more influence on behalf of other national governments, not least China and Russia. Internet governance multistakeholderism is described, with its mix of governments, NGOs and private sector organizations, using technology (code), regulation, and norms, and we see how the Internet decomposes into a stack of protocols. The discussion is exemplified by ICANN’s governance of the Domain Name System (DNS), and by the difficulties of the move from IPv4 to IPv6. The dual functions of openness as both an engineering standard and a moral standard are described. Openness implies transparency, bottom-up, permissionless innovation, the end-to-end principle, efficient data transport, resilience, redundancy, interoperability, scalability, and generativity.
Wolfgang Kleinwächter
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262042512
- eISBN:
- 9780262271936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262042512.003.0416
- Subject:
- Information Science, Communications
This chapter focuses on the evolution of civil society participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process and the rise of “multistakeholderism” as a new principle with the ...
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This chapter focuses on the evolution of civil society participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process and the rise of “multistakeholderism” as a new principle with the potential to inform more of information and communications technology (ICT) global governance. After discussing the role of the WSIS in fostering a new trilateral relationship among governments, private industry, and civil society and in promoting international diplomacy, the chapter looks at the Carlsbad Treaty of 1819, the debate over the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), the Global Information Infrastructure Initiative, and the Working Group on Internet Governance.Less
This chapter focuses on the evolution of civil society participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process and the rise of “multistakeholderism” as a new principle with the potential to inform more of information and communications technology (ICT) global governance. After discussing the role of the WSIS in fostering a new trilateral relationship among governments, private industry, and civil society and in promoting international diplomacy, the chapter looks at the Carlsbad Treaty of 1819, the debate over the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), the Global Information Infrastructure Initiative, and the Working Group on Internet Governance.
Milton L. Mueller
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262014595
- eISBN:
- 9780262289665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262014595.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter presents the concluding part of the book and analyzes new global governance ideologies and scopes in the Internet-enabled world. It also discusses the challenges of nation-states in ...
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This chapter presents the concluding part of the book and analyzes new global governance ideologies and scopes in the Internet-enabled world. It also discusses the challenges of nation-states in securing cyberspace, revisits the concept of multistakeholderism in Internet politics, and briefly emphasizes the Access to Knowledge element along with some important concepts of the preceding chapters. The chapter concludes with a note on cyber-libertarianism, and states that the requirement of future frameworks is inevitable in securing the Internet and its governance.Less
This chapter presents the concluding part of the book and analyzes new global governance ideologies and scopes in the Internet-enabled world. It also discusses the challenges of nation-states in securing cyberspace, revisits the concept of multistakeholderism in Internet politics, and briefly emphasizes the Access to Knowledge element along with some important concepts of the preceding chapters. The chapter concludes with a note on cyber-libertarianism, and states that the requirement of future frameworks is inevitable in securing the Internet and its governance.
Shawn M. Powers and Michael Jablonski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039126
- eISBN:
- 9780252097102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039126.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter examines how multistakeholder institutions reflect dominant political and/or economic interests, arguing that the discourse of multistakeholderism is used to legitimize arrangements ...
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This chapter examines how multistakeholder institutions reflect dominant political and/or economic interests, arguing that the discourse of multistakeholderism is used to legitimize arrangements benefiting powerful, established actors like the United States and its robust Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. After a brief discussion of what is actually at stake in debates over internet governance, the chapter provides an overview of the origins and theory of the multistakeholder process. It then considers how seemingly participatory, inclusive, and consensus-driven decision-making structures provide legitimacy for existing political and economic interests by using three case studies: ICANN, the Internet Society (ISOC), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It shows that, by incentivizing inclusion and consensus, multistakeholder processes risk stifling legitimate dissent from external actors who have no interest in lending legitimacy to the facade of an apolitical negotiation.Less
This chapter examines how multistakeholder institutions reflect dominant political and/or economic interests, arguing that the discourse of multistakeholderism is used to legitimize arrangements benefiting powerful, established actors like the United States and its robust Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. After a brief discussion of what is actually at stake in debates over internet governance, the chapter provides an overview of the origins and theory of the multistakeholder process. It then considers how seemingly participatory, inclusive, and consensus-driven decision-making structures provide legitimacy for existing political and economic interests by using three case studies: ICANN, the Internet Society (ISOC), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It shows that, by incentivizing inclusion and consensus, multistakeholder processes risk stifling legitimate dissent from external actors who have no interest in lending legitimacy to the facade of an apolitical negotiation.
Shawn M. Powers and Michael Jablonski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039126
- eISBN:
- 9780252097102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039126.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This book has argued that the real cyber war is a competition among different political economies of the information society. It has shown how discourses of “internet freedom” serve to legitimize a ...
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This book has argued that the real cyber war is a competition among different political economies of the information society. It has shown how discourses of “internet freedom” serve to legitimize a particular political economy of globalism and how the increasingly vocal call for information sovereignty serves a legitimating function for state efforts to govern highly complex societies in a world wired for globally instantaneous communications. By emphasizing four lines of conceptual inquiry—history, social totality, moral philosophy, and praxis—a political-economy framework places the internet-freedom movement in the broader geopolitical and economic context within which strategic actors are competing for resources and power. The book has also examined the various economic and political interests at stake in debates over internet governance by focusing on Google's efforts to dominate each of the four distinct aspects of the information economy, the economics of internet connectivity, and the myth of multistakeholderism. In closing, the book revisits the idea that data is the new oil.Less
This book has argued that the real cyber war is a competition among different political economies of the information society. It has shown how discourses of “internet freedom” serve to legitimize a particular political economy of globalism and how the increasingly vocal call for information sovereignty serves a legitimating function for state efforts to govern highly complex societies in a world wired for globally instantaneous communications. By emphasizing four lines of conceptual inquiry—history, social totality, moral philosophy, and praxis—a political-economy framework places the internet-freedom movement in the broader geopolitical and economic context within which strategic actors are competing for resources and power. The book has also examined the various economic and political interests at stake in debates over internet governance by focusing on Google's efforts to dominate each of the four distinct aspects of the information economy, the economics of internet connectivity, and the myth of multistakeholderism. In closing, the book revisits the idea that data is the new oil.
Kieron O’Hara
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- July 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197523681
- eISBN:
- 9780197523711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197523681.003.0021
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The final chapter summarizes the ideas of Four Internets. The Internet needs to remain connected, while its governance should allow different ideologies to flourish simultaneously, without imposing ...
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The final chapter summarizes the ideas of Four Internets. The Internet needs to remain connected, while its governance should allow different ideologies to flourish simultaneously, without imposing their view on the rest. Governance should pursue common interests while respecting cultural diversity. The prominent role of the United States remains an issue, although it has historically been a good steward of the infrastructure, and probably better than any alternative, including the multilateral structures promoted by nations like China and Russia. Governance is currently multistakeholder and ad hoc, but informal, emergent arrangements are probably better and more flexible than something neater and designed. Innovation and network effects need to be fostered, but policymakers will, on occasion, have to intervene against (perceived) negative externalities. New Internets will emerge over time; a COVID-19 Internet is imagined and described, for example. New technologies, such as quantum computing, will create new stresses, requiring a constant focus on resilience.Less
The final chapter summarizes the ideas of Four Internets. The Internet needs to remain connected, while its governance should allow different ideologies to flourish simultaneously, without imposing their view on the rest. Governance should pursue common interests while respecting cultural diversity. The prominent role of the United States remains an issue, although it has historically been a good steward of the infrastructure, and probably better than any alternative, including the multilateral structures promoted by nations like China and Russia. Governance is currently multistakeholder and ad hoc, but informal, emergent arrangements are probably better and more flexible than something neater and designed. Innovation and network effects need to be fostered, but policymakers will, on occasion, have to intervene against (perceived) negative externalities. New Internets will emerge over time; a COVID-19 Internet is imagined and described, for example. New technologies, such as quantum computing, will create new stresses, requiring a constant focus on resilience.
Pradip Ninan Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199494620
- eISBN:
- 9780199097869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199494620.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
Internet governance (IG) became a global issue after the Snowden revelations that highlighted the fact that there was mass spying by privately owned companies on behalf of the NSA. This chapter deals ...
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Internet governance (IG) became a global issue after the Snowden revelations that highlighted the fact that there was mass spying by privately owned companies on behalf of the NSA. This chapter deals with the politics of IG, the ambivalent nature of India’s shifting commitments to the multistakeholder model, and the role played by civil society in Internet politics in India against the background of ICANN’s own history and contemporary status. The Indian government’s position on IG is complex given that it has adopted both a statist attitude towards its governance and considered the ITU as a natural governor of the Internet, along with a position that is supportive of multistakeholderism, although this ethic is not reflected in its facilitation of civil society involvements at a local level.Less
Internet governance (IG) became a global issue after the Snowden revelations that highlighted the fact that there was mass spying by privately owned companies on behalf of the NSA. This chapter deals with the politics of IG, the ambivalent nature of India’s shifting commitments to the multistakeholder model, and the role played by civil society in Internet politics in India against the background of ICANN’s own history and contemporary status. The Indian government’s position on IG is complex given that it has adopted both a statist attitude towards its governance and considered the ITU as a natural governor of the Internet, along with a position that is supportive of multistakeholderism, although this ethic is not reflected in its facilitation of civil society involvements at a local level.