[governance] FW: [liberationtech] Chinese preparing for a "Autonomous Internet" ?

[parminder]

On Monday 25 June 2012 07:17 PM, Riaz K Tayob wrote:
> Parminder
>
> Can this issue of the Chinese proposal (whatever its technical merits 
> or demerits - which if taken in the context of the debate of a single 
> root - is neither here nor there) not be seen as a response to 
> recalcitrance of the international community to get a legitimate (and 
> effective) governance system? This along the evolutionary path this 
> issue has followed from the marginalisation of the importance of CIR 
> at WSIS, to IGF-MS and "enhanced" cooperation failing to even raise 
> the issue meaningfully (with lots of cheerleaders in civil and uncivil 
> society "doing what is possible")...
>
> In other words the problem IS ICANN, and Internet Civil Society 
> discourse... In this context, de jure USG "control" over the CIR  of 
> "net" the moves by the Chinese are hard to dismiss ethically, unless 
> one has some serious tolerance for double standards... or am I getting 
> it wrong again?

Riaz,

While I agree that the manner in which Internet's technical architecture 
is being managed today can be seen as providing the justification for 
alternatives of the kind presented by China in its 'Autonomous Internet' 
proposal, I think it is quite a dangerous move. The attempt obviously is 
to map the Internet over geo-political boundaries of nation states, 
which would nullify some of the most important promises and potentials 
of the Internet.

A transnational Internet provides a transnational socio-political force 
that causes significant tension to the nation state wise organisation of 
our societies. If properly harnessed, this positive tension can confront 
and possibly correct many negative features of our current macro social 
organisation. I wont go into the detials here, but the drift of this 
assertion I am sure will be clear to you.

However, at the same time, the same trans-nationality of the Internet 
has two very important negative effects

(1) it further entrenches the trend opened up by globalisation whereby 
global capital is increasingly rid of any kind of political controls, 
the latter being nation-state based, at least at present. This will 
remain so till appropriate global political structures are built, which, 
as we have seen, are strongly resisted by many for obvious reasons.

(2) It enables the US at the head of a unipolar world to extend its 
political, social, economic and cultural control in a manner that would 
have been hitherto impossible, before the Internet age.

Obviously, as we have seen, the two negative effects (1) and (2) act 
strongly in concert, and we are witnessing the emergence of a new 
unipolar economic-political system, centred in the US, but catering 
mostly to its richer classes, and secondarily to the co-opted richer 
classes of other counties (including from the developing countries). 
This new global economic-political system ( i am looking for a pithy 
name for it, suggestions are welcome :) ) employs the Internet as one of 
its principal techno-social means of global control and domination.

So, we, as in those interested in the global public interest, are facing 
two opposing pulls, whereby the trans-nationality of the Internet has 
both significant good and bad impacts. The main political question that 
we face is; how we can preserve the good impacts to the maximum and at 
the same time fight and resist the negative trends.

This requires nuanced responses in the IG space. We cannot allow 
Internet's promising transnationality to go away, as attempted by the 
Chinese proposal, but at the same time we must strongly confront the 
growing power of the global business and the US, and the emerging 
problematic alliances between them. I understand that this can best be 
done by strengthening global governance institutions, in a manner that 
employs both idealism and pragmatism, meaning sufficient historical 
continuity. This is one of the prime responsibilities of the global 
civil society, to which, regrettably it hasnt risen as yet.

regards, parminder



>
> Riaz
>
> Riaz
>
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