At the Crossroads of Globalization and Digitization: Global Internet Governance as a Science Diplomacy Terrain

Résumé En

Among major contemporary changes in world politics, global internet governance and diplomacy are both at the crossroads of globalization and digitization. On the one hand, internet-related policymaking at the national, regional and global levels is challenged by multifaceted digital disruptions that profoundly transform power relations, in social, economic, normative, institutional and geopolitical terms.On the other hand, the very nature of diplomacy is transforming, with diplomacy agents extending to different categories of state and non state actors; diplomacy fields developing into a myriad of formal and informal discussions on almost any and all matters; and diplomacy processes now including a wide variety of practices and means.Both mutations are the subject of many debates and analyses trying to clarify the variety of concepts characterizing each of them. This paper rather takes a converging perspective at the encounter of these two major transformations, through the understanding of global internet governance as a science diplomacy terrain. It also discusses how such a converging perspective could constitute a momentum for Europe as a global actor to address global challenges, channel democratic values and share knowledge to build common visions, especially with its neighborhood, and improve international relations.