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Pre-University Paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 13 Punkte, Gymnasium Königsbrunn (-), language: English, abstract: “When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web... Now even my cat has its own page.“ This quotation by Bill Clinton from 1996 describes exactly the evolution of the Internet. Only a few years ago, hardly no one of us had any idea what the Internet really was, what it would be good for, or how we might use it. Today most of us could not even live without it just for one day. We permanently use the Internet for so many purposes. News, entertainment, communication, file sharing, shopping, education and many more things like these. Nowadays the Internet is also a basic element for various sectors which totally depend on it, such as telecommunication, the economy or infrastructure. But how does this highly complicated system actually work? And how is it possible that each web site can be reached any time by everyone worldwide?
How and why the US government gave up its control of ICANN, the global coordinator of internet names, numbers, and protocols—and what the geopolitical consequences were. In 1997 the U.S. decided that the Internet should be governed not by governments, but by something called the “global Internet community.” In Declaring Independence in Cyberspace, Milton Mueller tells the story of why it took 20 years of organizational and geopolitical stuggle to make that happen. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), created in 1998, was the US government’s answer to the question of who would control the Internet registries—a key part of the Internet infrastructure supporting domain names, network numbers, IP addresses, and other protocol parameters. Originally, ICANN was a bold institutional innovation based on a vision of Internet governance that was thoroughly globalized and independent of nation-states. Declaring Independence in Cyberspace explains where this vision came from, the problems posed by its implementation, and the organization’s near-self destruction in its first five years. The U.S. government refused to let go of ICANN for 15 years, triggering geopolitical conflicts over sovereignty and U.S. power. Mueller details why, what prompted its change of heart, and how the problem of making ICANN accountable to its community in the absence of U.S. government control sparked a political battle in Washington. His account gets to the very heart of a pressing question with profound global implications: Is state sovereignty the immutable foundation of global governance, or do new technological capabilities change the model?
How and why the US government gave up its control of ICANN, the global coordinator of internet names, numbers, and protocols—and what the geopolitical consequences were. In 1997 the U.S. decided that the Internet should be governed not by governments, but by something called the “global Internet community.” In Declaring Independence in Cyberspace, Milton Mueller tells the story of why it took 20 years of organizational and geopolitical stuggle to make that happen. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), created in 1998, was the US government’s answer to the question of who would control the Internet registries—a key part of the Internet infrastructure supporting domain names, network numbers, IP addresses, and other protocol parameters. Originally, ICANN was a bold institutional innovation based on a vision of Internet governance that was thoroughly globalized and independent of nation-states. Declaring Independence in Cyberspace explains where this vision came from, the problems posed by its implementation, and the organization’s near-self destruction in its first five years. The U.S. government refused to let go of ICANN for 15 years, triggering geopolitical conflicts over sovereignty and U.S. power. Mueller details why, what prompted its change of heart, and how the problem of making ICANN accountable to its community in the absence of U.S. government control sparked a political battle in Washington. His account gets to the very heart of a pressing question with profound global implications: Is state sovereignty the immutable foundation of global governance, or do new technological capabilities change the model?
In Ruling the Root, Milton Mueller uses the theoretical framework of institutional economics to analyze the global policy and governance problems created by the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses. "The root" is the top of the domain name hierarchy and the Internet address space. It is the only point of centralized control in what is otherwise a distributed and voluntaristic network of networks. Both domain names and IP numbers are valuable resources, and their assignment on a coordinated basis is essential to the technical operation of the Internet. Mueller explains how control of the root is being leveraged to control the Internet itself in such key areas as trademark and copyright protection, surveillance of users, content regulation, and regulation of the domain name supply industry. Control of the root originally resided in an informally organized technical elite comprised mostly of American computer scientists. As the Internet became commercialized and domain name registration became a profitable business, a six-year struggle over property rights and the control of the root broke out among Internet technologists, business and intellectual property interests, international organizations, national governments, and advocates of individual rights. By the late 1990s, it was apparent that only a new international institution could resolve conflicts among the factions in the domain name wars. Mueller recounts the fascinating process that led to the formation of a new international regime around ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In the process, he shows how the vaunted freedom and openness of the Internet is being diminished by the institutionalization of the root.
As the Internet grows and becomes more pervasive in all aspects of modern society, the question of how it should be governed becomes more pressing. Currently, an important aspect of the Internet is governed by a private sector, international organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages and oversees some of the critical technical underpinnings of the Internet such as the domain name system and Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. ICANN makes its policy decisions using a multistakeholder model of governance, whereby a “bottom-up” collaborative process is open to all constituencies of Internet stakeholders. A key issue for Congress is whether and how the U.S. government should continue to maximize U.S. influence over ICANN's multistakeholder Internet governance process, while at the same time effectively resisting proposals for an increased role by international governmental institutions such as the U.N. The outcome of this debate will likely have a significant impact on how other aspects of the Internet may be governed in the future, especially in such areas as intellectual property, privacy, law enforcement, Internet free speech, and cybersecurity. Looking forward, the institutional nature of Internet governance could have far reaching implications on important policy decisions that will likely shape the future evolution of the Internet.

ICANN Governance

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 96


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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.