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On Saturday 09 June 2012 10:53 PM, Norbert Bollow wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:20120609172354.C43F8819F@quill.bollow.ch"
type="cite"><br>
<pre wrap="">Hi Parminder
How do you propose to convince the US government to agree to giving
this role out of their hands?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Hi Norbert, <br>
<br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">I largely gave my
response to this question in my previous email, responding to Bill's.
We can get some gleanings of the answer if we think of the same
question in other contexts - why would china and russia change their
international stances, or ITU reduce its efforts to gain more power,
just because CS wants it to?<br>
<br>
Even a dictator needs and seeks some kind of legitimacy, which comes in
various forms. On the issue of status quo of US's unilateral
control/oversight over CIRs, it is the, so called, technical community
and by large also the 'global' IG related civil society that has
provided the legitimacy to the present unfair, unjust and undemocratic
model. If these constituencies and actors withdraw this legitimacy - by
putting a more democratic model on the table - and speaking and
advocating about it with the same energy and intent as they do against
ITU's or China/ Russia's designs - I can assure you that it would
immediately begin to make a very big difference to the state of the
global IG play today. <br>
<br>
At present, while ITU and a China or Russia has to be rather apologetic
and even somewhat furtive in putting out their positions, US, with the
legitimacy it has been able to establish in the tech community and the
CS is rather blasé about putting out very patently undemocratic and
unfair propositions in the global governance space. If this legitimacy
is withdrawn, much can change as a result. Such soft power is all that
CS has, but we should know how to exercise it effectively. <br>
<br>
In fact, if we let US know, regularly and clearly, what we think about
its global IG positions, it will also give that much more legitimacy
and strength to our oppositions to positions that come from the other
side - say, the ITU and some developing countries. <br>
<br>
It is for this reason that I had proposed a model that at the same time
as it seeks internationalisation of CIR oversight also seeks legal
guarantees to safeguard the basic model of decentralised CIR and tech
standards model. Presenting such a well rounded proposal/ model which
does not look partisan and one-sided will help build the legitimacy,
and thus the strength, of civil society and the IGC.<br>
<br>
best regards, parminder </font><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:20120609172354.C43F8819F@quill.bollow.ch"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Greetings,
Norbert
</pre>
</blockquote>
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