Programme for International Governance and GigaNet host forum to debate the future of Internet policy.

The workshop on “The Global Governance of the Internet: Intergovernmentalism, Multistakeholderism and Networks”, jointly organised by the Graduate Institute’s Programme for the Study of International Governance (PSIG) and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet), was held on May 17-18 at the Institute. It brought together Internet governance scholars and stakeholders to reflect on current governance practices in this emerging field, their limitations and challenges as well as potential models for the future.

Following welcome remarks by Professor Thomas J. Biersteker, Director of the Programme for the Study of International Governance, and Milton Mueller of GigaNet, two round-tables addressed the issues of the role of intergovernmental organisations and networks in Internet governance and the future of the multistakeholder governance model. Participants in these round-tables included Graduate Institute Professor David Sylvan and a number of other accomplished academics and practitioners.

Three keynotes presentations discussed the “Cold War Metaphor in Internet Governance”, “Governance without Governors”, and “Intergovernmentalism and Internet Security”. Nine academic papers were presented on the second day. The rich exchanges during the workshop clustered around several cross-cutting themes such as the limitations of multistakeholderism in Internet governance, and the future of Internet governance. The need to overcome existing tensions was also a recurrent theme during the workshop.

While tensions exist, international cooperation is increasing in the field; and inter-governmental organisations are evolving in order to play a key role in this regard. Some participants advocated for an improved and enhanced multistakeholderism. Others explored new principles that could strengthen multistakeholderism, such as Internet freedom and Internet universality. It was also acknowledged that these principles have limitations as well. The need for new ideas, new principles, and even a new social contract in Internet governance were stressed.

Thus, the workshop offered an opportunity to reflect on crucial issues of Internet governance in a period of vivid policy debates. The quality of the contributions illustrated the abundance of emerging ideas on Internet governance and foreshadowed the richness of future policy debates and scholarly research.