[governance] The WCIT End: Good or Bad?

["Kleinwächter, Wolfgang"]

Bertrand:
In any case, this is an outcome with no winners, rather a lose-lose-lose result given the amount of energy devoted to this.
 
Wolfgang:
I am not sure whether I could this subscribe. WCIT didn´t change anything and it is also not a "missed opportunity". The world can live with the old ITRs and countries which will  ratify the Dubai Treaty will use the new ITRs after 2015. This is good for issue like maritime communication, communication for disabled etc., but does not affect fundamentally neither international telecommunication nor the Internet. Dubai was a shadow boxing, it was a political test, the opening of a new debate on a higher level on the future of the Internet. Insofar Dubai was a good opportunity to get a better picture what is going on and where we will go in the years ahead. Here are my positive elements:
 
1. WCIT helped to push Internet Governance to a higher level in the political agenda. It is now a key issue as climate change, financial crises etc. This will help to strengthen IGF, the role of the UNCSTD EC WG and the WSIS 10+ process. And it will go to G8 and G 20 meetings.   
 
2. WCIT has helped to clarify the situation - at least among governments - who is where. We know now that there are two opposing concepts (the concept of national Internet segment and cybersovereignty/top down/ on the one hand and the concept of multistakeholder governance /bottom up/ on the other hand). It seems to me that efforts to bridge this conceptual gap is nearly impossible. This is a cold war scenario, however, even the cold war had different phases and included the Helsinki-process (as Matthias has us remembered recently). The traditional intergovernmental mechanism / treaty system has reached its limits and is unable to deliver what is needed to handle global problems.So the failure of an intergovernmental treaty making in Dubai should be seen as an encouragement to work towards an universal multistakeholder Framework of Commitments. 
 
3. WCIT has helped to understand that the so-called "swing states" (Brazil, India, Egypt, Kenia, Ghana etc.) will play a greater role. The interesting thing here is that developing countries with no or little CS involvement followed more or less Doc. 47-E while countries which had not only traditional PTT ministries in their delegations took a rather different approach. In all those countries we will see a growing national debate on how to position itself in the global dispute. As Indian´s minister Sibal has said in Baku: We (India) are for a free and open Internet, but we are want the respect of our Indian culture and its citizens and we are working for businesses headquartered in India. This will produce on the global level a number of interesting rainbow coalitions.
 
4. WCIT has strengthened the role of civil society. Probably CS is the big winner of WCIT. It  was well organized and played a crucial role in a number of delegations. Toure reserved 90 minutes for a dialogue with CS. Other governments did reach out to CS. It will be difficult for the ITU (and other IGOs) to go backwards. This is a big challenge for CS. Better access and broader recognition brings along more duties and higher responsibility. Will it be possible to revive the CS Plenary/Content & Themes from WSIS (2002 - 2005) in the forthcoming WSIS 10+ process? And can the IGC play a key coordination role?
 
So my summary is: Good news from Dubai, but a long way ahead of us. We know now better what works and what does not work and we have a clearer understanding of the various opposing concepts and positions of the various camps. 
 
Wolfgang

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