Description
Norms of responsible state behaviour in the cyberspace are at the forefront of shaping the global governance of the Internet. However, cybernorms development likewise reflects stratification in international society bolstered by hierarchies of knowledge production, here a model of norm diffusion that relies on socialisation to the international liberal order. In effect, although contestation is necessary for norms legitimacy, the global liberal democratic coalition for “free, safe, and secure” Internet defends against cybernorms contestation, seeks to depoliticise the process by replicating the norm socialisation model, and thus diminishes prospects for democratic internationalism. Meanwhile, Internet ‘sovereigntists’, that is, actors that favour regime-controlled regulation of the Internet, call for democratisation of the global governance of the Internet but relativise cybernorm contestation and thus hollow out its democratic potentialities. The paper engages literature on emotions, anxiety and psychoanalysis in International Relations to re-interpret the current gridlock as an enactment that affectively suits all parties while re-entrenching the impasse. The enactment mediates anxiety over identity, supported by apparently rational claims to establishing a framework for responsible state behaviour. By crystalising the affective and psychosocial character of international norms, the paper further ponders the limits of cybernorms in de-escalating global antagonism, and facilitating democratic internationalism more broadly.
