Governing Global Electronic Networks

Experts analyze the global governance of electronic networks, emphasizing international power dynamics and the concerns of nondominant actors. The burgeoning use and transformative impact of global electronic networks are widely recognized to be defining features of contemporary world affairs. Less often noted has been the increasing importance of global governance arrangements in managing the many issues raised in such networks. This volume helps fill the gap by assessing some of the key international institutions pertaining to global telecommunications regulation and standardization, radio frequency spectrum, satellite systems, trade in services, electronic commerce, intellectual property, traditional mass media and Internet content, Internet names and numbers, cybercrime, privacy protection, and development. Eschewing technocratic approaches, the contributors offer empirically rich studies of the international power dynamics shaping these institutions. They devote particular attention to the roles and concerns of nondominant stakeholders, such as developing countries and civil society, and find that global governance often reinforces wider power disparities between and within nation-states. But at the same time, the contributors note, governance arrangements often provide nondominant stakeholders with the policy space needed to advance their interests more effectively. Each chapter concludes with a set of policy recommendations for the promotion of an open, dynamic, and more equitable networld order. Contributors Peng Hwa Ang, Jonathan D. Aronson, Byung-il Choi, Tracy Cohen, Peter F. Cowhey, William J. Drake, Henry Farrell, Rob Frieden, Alison Gillwald, Boutheina Guermazi, Cees J. Hamelink, Ian Hosein, Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, Don MacLean, Christopher May, Milton Mueller, John Richards, David Souter, Ernest Wilson III, Jisuk Woo

The transnational architecture of global information networks has made territorial borders less significant. Boundaries between spaces are becoming blurred in the evolving information age. But do information and communication technologies networks really lead to a weakening of the nation-state? This volume revisits the 'retreat of the state' thesis and tests its validity in the 21st century. It considers cyberspace as a matter of collective and policy choice, prone to usurpation by governance structures. Governments around the world are already reacting to the information revolution and trying to re-establish their leading role in creating governance regimes for the Information Age. The volume comes at a historical moment when new political dynamics are detected and new conceptual models are sought to categorize the attempts to deal with global/transnational issues. It will intrigue the reader with expert-level analysis of the role of the state in the emerging global/supranational governance structures by providing historical context and conceptualizing trends and social dynamics.

`Cyberspace' is the emerging invisible, intangible world of electronic information and processes stored at multiple interconnected sites. The digital revolution leads to `convergence' (of telecommunications, computer/Internet and broadcasting) and to dynamic multimedia value chains. Deregulation and competition are major driving forces in the new interactive electronic environment. This volume contains normative proposals for `cyber'-regulation, including self-regulation, grounded on developments in the EU, US and the Far East, in international organisations (WTO, OECD, WIPO, ITU), in business fora, in NGOs, in the `Internet community' and in academic research. The multi-actor (government, business, civil society) and multi-level analysis (subsidiarity) pertains e.g. to ex-ante and ex-post access-regulation, competition, network economics (external effects, essential facilities), public interest principles (human dignity, free speech, privacy, security), development and culture, consumer protection, cryptography, domain names and copyright. Lawyers, regulators, business executives, investment bankers, diplomats, and civil society representatives need shared essentials of plurilateral `governance' to safeguard both competition and public interest objectives, at a scale congruent to `cyberspace', in the transition to an `international law of cooperation'.

This volume explores the many complex issues and challenges that confront governments, technocrats, business people and others as they try to create and implement rules for a truly global interoperable Internet.

The volume explores the consequences of recent events in global Internet policy and possible ways forward following the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12). It offers expert views on transformations in governance, the future of multistakeholderism and the salience of cybersecurity. Based on the varied backgrounds of the contributors, the book provides an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on international relations, international law and communication studies. It addresses not only researchers interested in the evolution of new forms of transnational networked governance, but also practitioners who wish to get a scholarly reflection on current regulatory developments. It notably provides firsthand accounts on the role of the WCIT-12 in the future of Internet governance.

This book discusses the international legal issues underlying Internet Governance and proposes an international solution to its problems. The book encompasses a wide spectrum of current debate surrounding the governance of the internet and focuses on the areas and issues which urgently require attention from the international community in order to sustain the proper functioning of the global network that forms the foundation of our information fuelled society. Among the topics discussed are international copyright protection, state responsibility for cyber-attacks (cyberterrorism), and international on-line privacy protection. Taking a comparative approach by examining how different jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union, China and Singapore have attempted various solutions to the problem of Internet Governance, the author offers a practical solution to the problem and is a proponent of International Internet Law. Kulesza suggests that just as in the case of International Environmental Law, an Internet Framework Convention could shape the starting point for international cooperation and lead to a clear, contractual division of state jurisdictional competences. International Internet Law is of particular interest to legal scholars engaged with the current challenges in international law and international relations, as well as students of law, international relations and political science. The issues discussed in the book are also relevant to journalists and other media professionals, facing the challenges of analyzing current international developments in cyberspace.

"In this Council Special Report, Robert K. Knake briefly examines the technological decisions that have enabled both the Internet's spectacular success and its troubling vulnerability to attack. Arguing that the United States can no longer cede the initiative on cyber issues to countries that do not share its interests, he outlines an agenda that the United States can pursue in concert with its allies on the international stage. This agenda, addressing cyber warfare, cyber crime, and state-sponsored espionage, should, he writes, be pursued through both technological and legal means. He urges first that the United States empower experts to confront the fundamental security issues at the heart of the Internet's design. Then he sketches the legal tools necessary to address both cyber crime and state-sponsored activities, including national prohibitions of cyber crime, multilateral mechanisms to prevent and prosecute cyberattacks, and peacetime norms protecting critical civilian systems, before describing the bureaucratic reforms the United States should make to implement effectively these changes." --From publisher description.

This book discusses: tools of electronic delivery of government services; modernizing government; E-citizen, E-business, E-government; applying knowledge management principles; becoming a wired nation; community access; lifelong learning; smart communities; cyberlaws and regulations; inter-agency co-ordination; electronic benefit transfer; web interactive network of government services; electronic democracy and the changing face of democracy; access, empowerment, governance in a wired world; advocacy on-line; tools; the lessons of experience. Includes case studies from Great Britain, Canada, USA, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.