Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/321976 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] Internet Policy Review [ISSN:] 2197-6775 [Volume:] 14 [Issue:] 2 [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 1-27
Publisher: 
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin
Abstract: 
This article explores the implications of the infrastructural turn in internet governance, a policy shift where nation-states increasingly assert sovereignty through material interventions in the internet's physical and technical architecture. I propose a typology of six strategies that nationstates deploy over key locations and levers within the internet infrastructure, referred to as points of control. These strategies include subsidising new network edges to circumvent certain nodes, adding a neutralising layer around points of control, breaking up key nodes, diversifying governance, hijacking the point of control, or creating smaller local nodes. Each strategy is illustrated by an example of how a nation-state deployed it within a particular context. The typology provides scholars with a novel analytical framework for examining internet governance preferences, while offering policymakers a practical roadmap for advancing digital strategic autonomy and resisting coercion, and shaping initiatives like the Non-Aligned Tech Movement. By focusing on how governments exercise infrastructural power, the article contributes to debates on sovereignty and digital decolonisation, while challenging the paralysing narrative of internet fragmentation.
Subjects: 
Internet governance
Points of control
Digital sovereignty
Infrastructural turn
internet fragmentation
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Article

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