Re: [ga] Paul Twomey: "My goal is to improve responsiveness"

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It was Alan Davidson who really closed in on the key power issue. DoC
doesn't much like ICANN. DoC, like any boss, wants to keep a certain amount
of pressure on ICANN (and wants to be "seen" doing that for the
international audience).

But above all, DoC wants to retain just that "sovereign control by one
country" that Paul Twomey alludes to... what Nancy Victory terms
"Stewardship of the DNS".

And Alan Davidson several times reminds DoC that there is an interest in the
big wide world for a multi-national governmental approach, if ICANN messes
up.

And *that's* what it's really all about.

DoC is desperate to keep ICANN, because ICANN is USG's method of keeping
"sovereign control" while giving some semblance of keeping others involved
in a 'consensual process'.

The last thing DoC wants is for the administration of the DNS to be farmed
out to a multi-governmental body or the United Nations or anything like
that. Because that would result in a diminution of control and power.

Alan Davidson well expressed this central pirouette around a point of power.

ICANN, knowing that DoC still *needs* it, recognises that it therefore has
considerable leeway over minor matters because USG can't allow it to be
replaced.

Given this symbiotic relationship, it is entirely logical to suspect that
DoC and ICANN consulted in advance of this hearing about how they would
'spin' this relationship, and present it to the public.

If you read the tone of Nancy Victory's statement, it is quite astonishing.
A year ago she was "going through the motions" of being "threatening" to
ICANN. Twelve months later, as Nancy prepares to leave DoC, her words to
ICANN read like a valedictory!

And as for Paul Twomey : his words were stereotypical of the spin and gloss
that is big on claims but almost laughably constructed to portray an
appearance of activity that doesn't match what we have watched and awaited.

ICANN can get away with so much, because few people (and USG in particular)
like any alternative to ICANN.

That is the power-reality of all this.


yrs,

Richard Henderson