ABSTRACT
Many debates and criticisms of global Internet governance revolve around competing ideas about who should govern the Internet and through which mechanisms, organizations, or institutions. This chapter provides a brief overview of the background to Internet governance, which is essential to understanding how some of the less orthodox elements came to be. It provides an overview of two major debates that have shaped, and will continue to shape global Internet governance: Who should govern (multi-stakeholder and multilateral models)? And what constitutes legitimacy in an Internet governance body? In addition to questions about which actors should participate in global Internet governance, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been at the center of an ongoing debate about what actually constitutes a legitimate Internet governance institution. The chapter focuses on the emerging issues that are likely to shape Internet governance in the coming years. Significant factors are used to illustrate these broader questions about international organization and global governance.
