Global Internet Governance and Europe: A Regional International Organization Perspective
Résumé
The past decade of Internet governance issues and opportunities has been tumultuous and
transformation-filled. Much work has been done on nation-states, new institutions such as ICANN or the
Internet Governance Forum or even the private sector. Less work focuses on the roles of international
organizations, including long-standing regional international organizations such as the Council of Europe
(CoE) and their interactions with other key actors including the European Union. This paper takes a relatively
long term view of international organizations and the European Union in the complex and uncertain internet
governance ecosystem, beginning with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and its crafting
of an institutional innovation, the Internet Governance Forum, convened for the first time in 2006 in Athens,
Greece. Using case study data from our research project on international organizations involved in internet
governance, it reports and analyzes findings from the Council of Europe (COE). Particular attention is paid to
the COE role in the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance, highlighted in WSIS outcome
documents and especially to the trajectory of such roles and any accompanying tensions and possibilities.
The paper tracks a non-linear trajectory from a regional international organization as a region-wide
coordinating mechanism for nation-state members to a global stakeholder itself. In so doing, the paper
provides data regarding initial outcomes of this trajectory with special reference to power and possibilities of
regional international organizations in the decade ahead.
Domaines
Science politique
Origine :
Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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