Governing Cyberspace: Issue Frames, Institutional Springboards & Consolidation

• In Event: Dynamic Evolution of International Regime Complexes (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

How is a newly emerging issue situated in an institutionally crowded governance space? How in particular should such issues be framed, substantively and institutionally, within existing or new forums? During the emergence of a regime complex with contested policy boundaries, it is likely that both competitive regime shifting and regime creation occur. Alternative frames emerge in the presence of resourceful actors with different preferences who choose between delegating new agenda items to existing institutions or creating new forums and conventions. If existing institutions are used to claim authority over a governance issue, their secretariats will likely pursue differentiation strategies. Tension between frames is likely to lead to policy adjustments in which entrepreneurial actors (or “framers”) focus on the high-stakes battleground(s) and de-emphasize low-stakes issues. Such adjustments reduce differentiation overall but also harden remaining differences among institutions and elevate the authority of some multilateral forums over others. We use the issue area of cyberspace, which emerged exogenously through technological change, to examine these conjectures. Cyberspace encompasses a broad range of legal, economic, societal and political issues that did not fit neatly within preexisting forums. Alternative frames were contested in many global and regional intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder organizations. Over time, tensions between human rights, trade, national security, and development frames consolidated around the latter two within the United Nations.

Authors

• Stephanie Claudia Hofmann, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

• Patryk Pawlak, EU Institute for Security Studies