Networks and States: The Global Politics of Internet Governance by Professor Milton L. Mueller

SYNOPSIS
The tension between territorial government and the global Internet has become a recurring theme in discussions of how to govern the Internet. With the rise of national filtering-censorship initiatives and intensifying debates over national cyber-security efforts, it is often assumed that the Internet will inevitably be subordinated to the traditional system of nation-states. This presentation contests that thesis, and shows how Internet governance poses novel and fascinating global governance issues that profoundly challenge the traditional nation-state’s dominance of communication-information policy. Drawing on theories of networked governance, Milton Mueller provides a broad overview of Internet governance from the formation of ICANN to the present day, including the clash at the World Summit on the Information Society, the formation of the Internet Governance Forum, recent reforms of ICANN and the rise of national-level Internet control and security concerns.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Milton Mueller is Professor at Syracuse University School of Information Studies. He is also XS4All Professor at the Technology University of Delft, specializing in the Security and Privacy of Internet Users, a part-time position running concurrently with his appointment at Syracuse. Mueller received the Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. He has conducted research on the political economy of telecommunications and the Internet for 25 years. He is a founder of the Internet Governance Project, a consortium of university scholars working on global Internet policy issues. His widely read book Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2002) provided the first scholarly account of the privatization of critical Internet resources. His new book: Networks and States: The global politics of Internet governance, will be released by MIT Press in 2010. Mueller has been active in ICANN, the regional Internet address registries, WSIS civil society, and the Internet Governance Forum.