The Global War for Internet Governance

by Laura DeNardis

A groundbreaking study of one of the most crucial yet least understood issues of the twenty-first the governance of the Internet and its content

The Internet has transformed the manner in which information is exchanged and business is conducted, arguably more than any other communication development in the past century. Despite its wide reach and powerful global influence, it is a medium uncontrolled by any one centralized system, organization, or governing body, a reality that has given rise to all manner of free-speech issues and cybersecurity concerns. The conflicts surrounding Internet governance are the new spaces where political and economic power is unfolding in the twenty-first century.
 
This all-important study by Laura DeNardis reveals the inner power structure already in place within the architectures and institutions of Internet governance. It provides a theoretical framework for Internet governance that takes into account the privatization of global power as well as the role of sovereign nations and international treaties. In addition, DeNardis explores what is at stake in open global controversies and stresses the responsibility of the public to actively engage in these debates, because Internet governance will ultimately determine Internet freedom.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Technology, Science

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Laura DeNardis is one of the world’s leading Internet governance scholars and a professor in the School of Communication at American University. She is the author of The Global War for Internet Governance and other books.

Reviews

[Josh]

Perhaps I am dumb, perhaps this book is bad. Probably both.


This book was incredibly well researched, but also incredibly inaccessible.

[Alicoluk]

Today everything is connected, as humans, we can access most of the things that we want in minutes with the help of this connectivity. Internet is one of the most fundamental tools, mediums for our society. It will be too naive to think that such a big thing like the internet is not governed and there are not controllers of this big power. Yes, there is not a single entity that can decide what to do and regulate the internet, but there couple of control and governance point of the internet. This book explains these governance points, the decision-making processes which are not in the favor of end-users but in the favor of big companies like content providers (youtube, facebook) and service providers( at&t), the anonymity of the internet users versus advertisement driven revenues and much more.

The book is very well structured and with little prior knowledge about how the internet works, any reader can easily understand it. The governance of the internet analyzed from different points of view. The governance of the internet is handled via big companies which collects enormous data, also governments, technologies, cultures have big impact on governance. I recommend this book to all the tech-fellows.

[Cold]

Provocative title, balanced content. DeNardis relentlessly dissects internet governance issues without a hint of ideology. A thorough bred technologist.

[Joaquín Maquieira]

DeNardis is the best. I'm looking forward to reading The Internet in Everything.

[Onkar Hoysala]

Interesting read, but can get a little boring. It sort of ends like a journal paper, rather than a well argued book (saying "...and there needs to be more public awareness about governance of the Internet."). While there are tons of examples given, some points such as the how the private organisations involved in Internet governance get their legitimacy could have been explored much better. She has skimmed through various different aspects of Internet governance, specified what their intricacies are, but not really gone in-depth into them. But then again, maybe this book was not meant to be an in-depth study of those aspects. 3/5, could've been way more interesting. (Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World was a lot more fun to read)

[Aram Sinnreich]

Though very drily written, with few anecdotes and little window dressing, this book is a stupefyingly well-researched, well-organized, insightful analysis of the complex and interrelated mechanisms that regulate the development and use of internet technologies around the globe. I assigned the entire book to my doctoral students at Rutgers for a single week's session, leading to perhaps the best class all semester. This book can inspire a thousand productive conversations and inquiries, and will be a vital reference work for me in the years to come.