The Evolution of International Policy Agendas in the Regulation of Electronic Communications: the Internet and Telecommunications

1 The author would like to extend thanks to the UK Political Studies Association for funding his attendance at this conference 2 ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the recent evolution of global regulatory policy agendas in two key parts of communication media: the Internet and telecommunications. It explores the key regulatory governance ideas and practices that have come to the fore in shaping these fast-moving policy arenas, commenting in the process on the place of regulatory competition and cooperation therein. It places particular focus on how, in different ways, selected global institutional contexts have played vital roles in shaping telecommunications and Internet policy agendas and the implications of this. In doing so, it explores a number of key junctures in the evolution of regulatory policy at the international level, highlighting the positions of Northern and Southern states at moments of policy change. The paper " s findings tend to underpin the assertion that sectoral internationalisation in telecommunications and the Internet have reinforced-rather than created a context for change in-the traditional order of North-South relations. 3 INTRODUCTION This paper focuses on the recent evolution of global regulatory policy agendas in two key parts of communication media: the Internet and telecommunications. It explores the key regulatory governance ideas and practices that have come to the fore in shaping these fast-moving policy arenas, commenting in the process on the place of regulatory competition and cooperation therein. Though related (through their function of providing means of electronic network communication) the Internet and telecommunications have very different origins and evolutionary histories, making the recent period of internationalisation of each interesting from a comparative perspective. For both Northern and Southern states, telecommunications has strong historical foundations at the national level. This influenced not only the developmental character of telecommunications domestically but also shaped perspectives on, and operational arrangements for, international telecommunication. Nevertheless, as the paper shows, within the last 25-30 years there have been transformative developments in the nature of telecommunications in both these respects across the globe shaped by policy agendas prosecuted at the international level. The Internet, by contrast a much more recent development, has grown rapidly " outwards " internationally from the USA. The task of developing a regulatory governance system at the international level for it has been prominent though is still very much a work in progress.