Negotiating Internet Governance

Front matter

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NEGOTIATING INTERNET

NEGOTIATING INTERNET GOVERNANCE

Foreword

The global governance of the Internet is an ongoing, complex, contested, and unfinished project. In its early days, Internet governance could be characterized as a classic example of private authority in global governance, but as this book masterfully demonstrates, as the Internet's commercial and political salience increased over time, its governance evolved into a composite arrangement of public and private actors interacting in different multi-stakeholder initiatives. The governance of the Internet is more analogous to the global governance of the environment than it is to the governance of global trade. It is a regime complex with different governance and institutional arrangements in different issue domains and with no clear hierarchy among them. While the domain has become increasingly securitized in recent years, the emerging and highly imperfect governance of cybersecurity is only one aspect of contemporary Internet governance. In a regime complex like Internet governance, the nascent governance in one issue domain such as cybersecurity will invariably have implications for the governance of other important issue domains, such as freedom of expression and liberty, privacy and surveillance, fair access, and the global digital divide.

In this important new book, Roxana Radu situates the global governance of the Internet historically and traces its origins from the seemingly ad hoc assignment of domain names by private actors in the 1980s through its commetcialization in the 1990s to the ongoing series of global multi-stakeholder governance arrangements over the past two decades. As a participant in many key, formative meetings, she not only describes the historical development of governance arrangements, but also contributes to current policy debates on Internet regulation and digital developments. She identifies watershed moments defining power dynamics in Internet governance, proposes an original framework of analysis for mechanisms of governance at work across time in Internet policy, and offers a detailed analysis of the praxis of governance and how it evolves over time in light of the interaction between various instruments, actors, and logics at work. In that sense, the book translates global governance theory ideas and operationalizes core concepts, offering the first comprehensive study of Internet governance mechanisms at the global level.

The book shows how steering mechanisms come into being through various channels and individuals operating within a transnational policy network, and it also reveals shifts in governance patterns over a relatively long vili Foreword period of time (more than forty years). It also adds a new dimension to the investigation of governance articulation by examining anchoring practices in Internet governance. As such, it provides an important building block for a broader research agenda dedicated to the emergence of governance in new issue domains, refining our understanding of the genesis and structuration processes involved.

The current governance of the Internet is far from ideal from many different vantage points, but that does not mean that it is ungoverned or ungovernable. It simply means that the normative quality of the existing governance arrangements is deficient in some important respects, whether we are concerned with inclusivity, transparency, effectiveness, efficiency, adaptability, or fundamental fairness. This book makes a significant contribution to the ongoing debate about how the Internet should be governed. We need to understand the history of Internet governance, its evolution, its constant experimentation, and its past failures in order to participate in an informed way in the project of improving the quality of Internet governance today. With its historical overview, its comprehensive treatment of the subject, and its analytical framework for understanding the mechanisms of governance at work, this book provides a critical first step in this important project.

‘Thomas Biersteker The Graduate Institute, Geneva

Acknowledgements

Negotiating Internet Governance follows directly from my doctoral dissertation. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Thomas J. Biersteker, for his invaluable guidance throughout the PhD process and for his unchanged enthusiasm for my project since 2011. Precious contributions to this work also came from Professors Liliana Andonova and Nanette Levinson, whose comments helped me revise and update the content. Dr Nicole Stemlau at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Oxford welcomed the book project and offered crucial space and support to finalize it: an improved version of the book is available today as a result!

To my colleagues and friends at DiploFoundation and the Geneva Internet Platform: thank you for setting an excellent example of collaboration and for the steep learning curve I went through while working together. I am intellectually indebted to all the Internet governance experts I interacted with in the past seven years, during the many meetings attended, as well as during my research stays at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and the Institute for Technology and Society in Rio de Janeiro.

This project would not have been possible without the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, which I gratefully acknowledge.

My family’s support and encouragement was essential in completing this book, at a distance and in Geneva. Eugenia, Paola, and Piero were there when I needed it the most. I am extremely thankful for having been surrounded, at all times, by amazing friends, who made this journey as exciting as it could possibly be: Alex, Aura, Ezgi, Ioana P., Ioana T., Merih, and Rishabh.

Special thanks go to my partner, Alberto, always patient, loving, and inspiring.

Table of Contents

Navigating Global Governance

Internet Governance under the Magnifying Glass Global Governance—The Enactment ‘Thesis Research Focus, Central Question, and Argument Method Structure of the Book

2. Deconstructing Internet Governance: A Framework for Analysis