Expanding the Mandate of the ITU?

The disagreements among states that occurred in December 2012 at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai (WCIT-12) about appropriate revisions to the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) highlighted the controversy over what the appropriate role of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ought to be in the age of the Internet. Some have argued that the ITU should remain focused exclusively on technical and economic issues. Recently, others have advocated for an expanded role for the ITU, recommending that the ITU take on security issues in an effort to constrain espionage and cyber conflict. This article argues that the ITU is not the appropriate organization to regulate such matters of "high politics," demonstrating under international law that there are existing competent institutions to manage the challenges related to issues of intervention, use of force and aggression in the cyber domain.