Milton L Mueller
Professor
- School of Public Policy
Overview
Milton Mueller is an internationally prominent scholar specializing in the political economy of information and communication. The author of seven books and scores of journal articles, his work informs not only public policy but also science and technology studies, law, economics, communications, and international studies. His books Will the Internet Fragment? (Polity, 2017), Networks and States: The global politics of Internet governance (MIT Press, 2010) and Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace (MIT Press, 2002) are acclaimed scholarly accounts of the global governance regime emerging around the Internet. Mueller’s research employs the theoretical tools of institutional economics, STS and political economy, as well as historical, qualitative and quantitative methods.
Dr. Mueller’s prominence in scholarship is matched by his prominence in policy practice. He is the co-founder and director of the Internet Governance Project (IGP), a policy analysis center for global Internet governance. Since its founding in 2004, IGP has played a prominent role in shaping global Internet policies and institutions such as ICANN and the Internet Governance Forum. He has participated in proceedings and policy development activities of ICANN, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and regulatory proceedings in the European Commission, China, Hong Kong and New Zealand. He has served as an expert witness in prominent legal cases related to domain names and telecommunication policy. He was elected to the Advisory Committee of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) from 2013-2016, and appointed in 2014 to the IANA Stewardship Coordination Group. Dr. Mueller has also been a practical institution-builder in the scholarly world, where he led the creation of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet), an international association of scholars.
Projects:
- The Internet Governance Project
Founded in 2004, the Internet Governance Project (IGP) has grown to be a leading source of analysis of global Internet policy and Internet resource management that is widely read by governments, industry and civil society organizations. IGP both researches and analyzes global Internet policy issues on our blog and in our publications. We hold an annual conference and support graduate students and facilitate engagement by undergraduates.
- WebPKI and Nongovernmental Governance of Trust on the Internet
WebPKI is the transnational critical infrastructure you've never heard of. This project explores the way private sector governance mechanisms interact with PKI technology to produce trust and security on the global Internet. It will examine the intersection of private sector and governmental policy, including the vetting of national Certificate Authorities and the problem of nation-states not trusting each other. The research will also assess the economic sustainability of global PKI governance. It will focus in particular on the short- and long-term effects of Let’s Encrypt, a successful free certificate provider, and the ways changing CA market shares, competition among browsers and OS platforms, and other techno-economic trends affect the cooperative governance structure of WebPKI.
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School, 1989
- M.A., University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School, 1986
Interests
- Cybersecurity
- Economic History
- Economics of Telecommunications Networks
- Emerging Technology and Security
- Information Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection
- Information and Communications Technology Policy
- Political Economy
- Science and Technology Studies
- International Communication
Courses
- PUBP-3020: Applied Political Econ
- PUBP-3502: IT/Comm/Telecom Policy
- PUBP-4725: Info Security Policies
- PUBP-6502: IT/Comm/Telecom Policy
- PUBP-6725: Info Security Policies
- PUBP-6727: Cyber Sec Practicum
- PUBP-8813: Special Topics
- PUBP-8823: Special Topics
- PUBP-8833: Pub Pol for the Digital Age
Selected Publications
Books
- Will the Internet Fragment? Sovereignty, globalization and cyberspace
Date: May 2017
The Internet has united the world as never before. But is it in danger of breaking apart? Cybersecurity, geopolitical tensions, and calls for data sovereignty have made many believe that the Internet is fragmenting. In this incisive new book, Milton Mueller argues that the ‘fragmentation’ diagnosis misses the mark.
Journal Articles
- Information as Power: Evolving US Military Information Operations
In: Cyber Defense Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2022
- Standardizing Security: Surveillance, Human Rights, and the Battle Over TLS 1.3
In: Journal of Information Policy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2021
- Regulation of platform market access by the United States and China: Neo‐mercantilism in digital services
In: Policy & Internet [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2021
- Against Sovereignty in Cyberspace
In: International Studies Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2019
- Data Flows and the Digital Economy: Information as a Mobile Factor of Production
In: Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance [Peer Reviewed]
Date: January 2019
Who is requesting websites from whom in the global economy? This paper analyzes quantitative data about the national location of the requestor of a web site and the location of the requested web site to look at information as a mobile factor of production in the global economy.
Internet Publications
- The Hidden Standards War: Economic Factors Affecting IPv6 Deployment
In: Internet Governance Project
Date: February 2019
This report, commissioned by ICANN's Office of the Chief Technology Officer, examines the economic incentives affecting the competition between IPv4 and IPv6, two incompatible versions of Internet protocol. It examines quantitative data about current levels and patterns of IPv6 adoption and tries to predict an equilibrium.
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
- Information as Power: Evolving US Military Information Operations
In: Cyber Defense Review [Peer Reviewed]
Date: March 2022
- Standardizing Security: Surveillance, Human Rights, and the Battle Over TLS 1.3
In: Journal of Information Policy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: December 2021
- Regulation of platform market access by the United States and China: Neo‐mercantilism in digital services
In: Policy & Internet [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2021