Internet Governance in a Multipolar World: Challenging American Hegemony

Abstract

This article traces the evolution of Internet governance, beginning with the earliest trans-Atlantic Internet ‘community’ associations that formed in the 1970s, up to and including the present mosaic of semi-private ‘self-regulating’ agencies headquartered mostly in the US. The effectiveness of the current system of Internet governance, based in large measure on US-sponsored bodies such as the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is assessed and contrasted with an emerging international paradigm that seeks greater cross-border harmonisation and multilateral oversight of cyberspace resources. Political disputes arising amongst governments and other interested stakeholders concerning allegations of American regulatory unilateralism are examined. Fuelled in part by a digital divide between the technological haves and have-nots, the battle for the heart and soul of the Internet has reached fever pitch, without any definitive prospects for achieving a global consensus. Special emphasis is placed on emerging US–EU policy differences, as well as divergent North–South positions within the UN-sponsored Working Group on Internet Governance and related conferences. Strategies for enhanced international coordination of Internet governance, building on existing organisational structures and processes, are proposed.