History of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU): Transnational techno-diplomacy from the telegraph to the Internet

by Gabriele Balbi (Editor), Andreas Fickers (Editor)

Overview

This book focuses on the history of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), from its origins in the mid-19th century to nowadays. ITU was the first international organization ever and still plays a crucial role in managing global telecommunications today. Putting together some of the most relevant scholars in the field of transnational communications, the book covers the history of ITU from 1865 to digital times in a truly global perspective, taking into account several technologies like the telegraph, the telephone, cables, wireless, radio, television, satellites, mobile phone, the internet and others. The main goal is to identify the long-term strategies of regulation and the techno-diplomatic manoeuvres taken inside ITU, from convincing the majority of the nations to establish the official seat of the Telegraph Union bureau in Switzerland in the 1860s, to contrasting the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance (supported by US and ICANN).

History of the International Telecommunication Union is a trans-disciplinary text and can be interesting for scholars and students in the fields of telecommunications, media, international organizations, transnational communication, diplomacy, political economy of communication, STS, and others. It has the ambition to become a reference point in the history of ITU and, at the same time, just the first comprehensive step towards a longer, inter-technological, political and cultural history of transnational communications to be written in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110669602
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	06/08/2020
Series:	Innovation and Diplomacy in Modern Europe , #1
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gabriele Balbi, USI, Universityà della Svizzera italiana

Andreas Fickers, University of Luxembourg

Table of Contents

Introduction: The ITU as Actor, Arena, and Antenna of Tech no-Diplomacy Gabriele Balbi Andreas Fickers 1

Part I ITU as a Global Actor in the History of Telecommunications

1 The Russian Empire and the International Telegraph Union, 1856-1875 Marsha Siefert 15

2 ITU, Submarine Cables and African Colonies, 1850s-1900s Andrea Giuntini 37

3 When Techno-Diplomacy Failed: Walter S. Rogers, the Universal Electrical Communications Union, and the Limitations of the International Telegraph Union as a Global Actor in the 1920s Richard R. John 55

4 ITU, the Development Debate, and Technical Cooperation in the Global South, 1950-1992 Christiane Berth 77

5 The Rising Role of China in the Promotion of Multilateral Internet Governance, 1994-2014 Gianluigi Negro 107

6 Is the International Telecommunication Union Still Relevant in "the Internet Age?" Lessons From the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WOT) Dwayrte Winseck 135

Part II ITU as an Arena of Techno-Diplomatic Negotiations for Emerging Technologies

7 Telegraphic Diplomacy From the Origins to the Formative Years of the ITU, 1849-1875 Simone Fari 169

8 The International Radiotelegraph Union Over the Course of World War I, 1912-1927 Maria Rikitianskaia 191

9 Technology Taking Over Diplomacy? The 'Comité Consultatif International (for) Fernschreiben' (CCIF) and its Relationship to the ITU in the Early History of Telephone Standardization, 1923-1947 Christian Henrich-Franke Léonard Laborie 215

10 A Union of Nations or Administrations? Voting Rights, Representation, and Sovereignty at the International Telecommunication Union in the 1930s Heidi Tworek 243

11 ITU Exhibitions in Switzerland: Displaying the "Big Family of Telecommunications," 1960s - 1970s Anne-Katrin Weber Roxane Gray Marie Sandoz, with the collaboration of Adrian Stecher 265

12 Techno-Diplomacy of the Planetary Periphery, 1960s-1970s Nina Wormbs Lisa Ruth Rand 297

13 The ITU Facing the Emergence of the Internet, 1960s-Early 2000s Valérie Schafer 321

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

"Balbi’s and Fickers’ book not only offers new international perspectives on the global history of “techno-diplomacy” – an area of historiography at the intersection of the history of diplomacy and of technology that has so far opened up interesting new transnational prospects primarily on Europe.It also helps closing a surprising gap in the burgeoning field of the history of international organisations. Finally, it presents a highly instructive example that the history of communication technology goes much further back in time and is much more political than we tend to assume." Jan-Henrik Meyer, Max-Planck-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie, in: https://www.hsozkult.de/review/id/reb-29489?title=g-balbi-u-a-hrsg-history-of-the-international-telecommunication-union

From the Publisher