Regime Conflicts at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Thomas F. Ruddy

The United Nations opened the first ever World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2003. Per the mandate given to hold WSIS by the ITU in 1998, the event was supposed to focus on using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development (ICT4D, or “E-Development”). However in this broad field there were many other players besides the ITU and its UN partners, and it proved difficult to induce those existing authorities to cede power to the new venue. The event is scheduled to continue in Tunis in 2005.

Negotiations are the usual form that actors choose for progress on goal to be achieved multilaterally. However WSIS is not a venue for negotiations, but rather a showcase and networking space. This paper strives to apply regime theory and institutional economics to the conflicts that arise when existing regimes are challenged by the ITU and its WSIS partners (including UNESCO and the UN ICT Task Force). The paper presents the interests of four of the other main institutions involved, which more closely reflect those of the United States: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Group of Eight major industrialized nations (G-8).

WSIS Geneva produced a mandate to UN SG Kofi Annan to set up groups to continue working on the issues of Internet governance and financing, and to report its results to WSIS Tunis. Answers to issues other than Internet governance and financing will have to be sought elsewhere. Nonetheless the emphasis on Internet governance emerging from WSIS Geneva is a confirmation of this paper’s contention that regimes are important.

Full Text