Global Internet Governance and Europe: A Regional International Organization Perspective

Résumé En

The past decade of Internet governance issues and opportunities has been tumultuous andtransformation-filled. Much work has been done on nation-states, new institutions such as ICANN or theInternet Governance Forum or even the private sector. Less work focuses on the roles of internationalorganizations, including long-standing regional international organizations such as the Council of Europe(CoE) and their interactions with other key actors including the European Union. This paper takes a relativelylong term view of international organizations and the European Union in the complex and uncertain internetgovernance ecosystem, beginning with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and its craftingof an institutional innovation, the Internet Governance Forum, convened for the first time in 2006 in Athens,Greece. Using case study data from our research project on international organizations involved in internetgovernance, it reports and analyzes findings from the Council of Europe (COE). Particular attention is paid tothe COE role in the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance, highlighted in WSIS outcomedocuments and especially to the trajectory of such roles and any accompanying tensions and possibilities.The paper tracks a non-linear trajectory from a regional international organization as a region-widecoordinating mechanism for nation-state members to a global stakeholder itself. In so doing, the paperprovides data regarding initial outcomes of this trajectory with special reference to power and possibilities ofregional international organizations in the decade ahead.