Module Information

This module employs an innovative use of technology for teaching designed to immerse the students in the very technologies we will be studying and analyzing. Concepts of transparency, accountability and legitimacy of information in democratic and non-democratic states frame the material covered in this module. By engaging with Internet Freedom both as a human right and as a foreign policy, students will have an opportunity to explore and analyse the complex and often contradictory ways in which this increasingly important and influential principle is discussed in global politics.

The module begins by laying some conceptual groundwork for the analysis of Internet Freedom. What ideas, norms and values influenced those developing Internet technology in the 1970s and 80s? To what extent do those ideas shape and influence our use of the Internet today? And significantly, how do ideas about privacy and access to information differ in different states? The module then moves on to an examination of Internet Freedom as a human right. Here we engage with the debates and justifications that propelled the UN Human Rights Council to declare Internet Freedom a universal human right in 2012. Not surprisingly, there was some contention around this decision and we will explore the nature and outcomes of those debates. We then move on to analyse Internet Freedom as a foreign policy discussing the origins, objectives, and exercise of this approach. Here we focus on some key actors that promote it; the US and the EU, to explore how norms about Internet technology are being incorporated into debates about global politics. The next part of the module looks at resistance to Internet Freedom. We examine the motivations behind China and Russia's response to the implementation of Internet Freedom as well as the response from states during the Arab Spring uprisings. Having already examined Internet Freedom as both a human right and a foreign policy, looking at resistance to it becomes more nuanced and raises questions of hegemony, the durability/fragility of sovereignty and global civil society. The final part of this module explores some of the potential problems that lie ahead for Internet Freedom. This section provides an opportunity to examine the opportunities and challenges of marrying the promotion of human rights with a foreign policy agenda.

Part One: Concepts and Background
Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture 2: A Framework of Liberalism
Lecture 3: Universality andHuman Rights
Lecture 4: Western Norms and the Birth of the Internet

Seminar 1: Introductory Concepts and Background (F2F)

Part Two: The Emergence of Internet Freedom as a Human Right
Lecture 5: Internet Freedom as a Human Right: Debates and Justifications
Lecture 6: Internet Freedom as a Human Right: Key Actors - The UN, NGOs and Civil Society

Seminar 2: Internet Freedom as a Human Right (Online)

Lecture 7: Essay Writing Workshop
Lecture 8: Internet Freedom in Practice

Seminar 3: Practicing Internet Freedom (F2F)

Part Three: Internet Freedom as a Foreign Policy
Lecture 9 : Internet Freedom as a Foreign Policy: The US
Lecture 10: Internet Freedom as a Foreign Policy: Beyond the US

Seminar 4: Internet Freedom as a Foreign Policy (Online)

Part Four: The Future of Internet Freedom
Lecture 11: The Limits of Internet Freedom: Problems for the West
Lecture 12: The Limits of Internet Freedom: Problems for the Rest

Seminar 5: Problems of Internet Freedom (Online)

Lecture 13: Enforcing Internet Freedom: Jurisdiction and Intermediary Liability
Lecture 14: Internet Freedom Mach II: Decoupling Human Rights and Foreign Policy

Seminar 6: The Future of Internet Freedom (F2F)

Lecture 15: Wrap up and Revision
Lecture 16: Optional Exam Workshop

Recently declared a universal human right by the UN, Internet Freedom is rapidly becoming a dominant normative framework for political approaches to how the Internet should be incorporated into civil, commercial and political structures. As the UN defines it, Internet Freedom is comprised of the right to access the Internet and the right to anonymity on the Internet. At first glance, these seem uncontroversial but in fact, Internet Freedom is quite contentious as it can come into conflict with cyber security. Internet Freedom is regarded as both a safeguard for civil society and a threat to national security. This module examines the competing views on this important concept and explores the ways in which it is shaping the global politics of the Internet.
Increasingly, international politics is understood to be engaged with, influenced by and impacting upon dimensions of new technology such as the Internet. Power, conflict, sovereignty, global economics, international law and many more aspects of state relations are in need of reassessment in the context of the cyber dimension. This is an emerging field of study and one that is being led by the new Masters program initiated in this department. This course will introduce undergraduate students to a range of issues that are currently driving academic debates in this area, enabling them to develop an understanding of some of the complex and nuanced ways in which international politics and new technology intersect.
The teaching methods are integrated with the course content in this module. Students will be expected to engage with online material and four of the six seminars will be conducted online through the Discussion Board tool on Blackboard. Students will remain in their seminar groups, regardless of whether the seminar is face to face or online as large online discussions have been found to be less effective pedagogically. The online seminars are expected to attract the same time commitment as the face to face seminars. Students should spend approximately 30 minutes writing their own response to the week's material and 30 minutes engaging with their peers and the lecturer. Online forums will be marked weekly and the assessment is designed to gauge students' engagement with the readings and the lectures as well as their critical thinking skills. It is not a writing assessment – students are permitted to use colloquial language on the online forum. Once a week (with the student’s permission) an annotated ‘post of the week’ will be circulated. This supports students to develop their own skills through modeling. In addition, students will be provided with a rubric outlining the expected word length and the essential components of a good post. They will be graded against this rubric and encouraged to self-assess their own posts.
Online forums have proven very effective in three ways. First, they can provide a much more inclusive means for students to express their ideas – particularly those less inclined to speak in a group or those with language challenges. Second, because of this, online forums can provide a more comprehensive picture of how students understand the material, allowing for directed teaching to address empirical misunderstandings or conceptual confusion. Finally, online forums facilitate peer learning which, when adequately supervised, can be very powerful.