IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/itse19/205176.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The International Radio Spectrum Management: A Regime Theory Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • El-Moghazi, Mohamed
  • Whalley, Jason

Abstract

The international radio spectrum management regime is one of the oldest existing regimes with the main treaty of the regime, the Radio Regulations (RR), being 113 years old in 2019. However, there have been calls that the Radio Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) has become irrelevant to today's wireless world. In terms of regime theory, there are three schools of international regime analysis, namely, liberalism, realism and constructivism. With this in mind, this paper's main research question is quite straightforward, to ascertain which of these three schools applies to modern international spectrum management? To achieve this, the paper adopts a qualitative inductive approach that is based on primary data collected from 58 semi-structured interviews with the main stakeholders from the ITU-R. The examination of the empirical data supports the existence of a postpositivism perspective in regime theory regarding the international spectrum management regime, where hegemonic countries have a mutual interest in having global harmonized spectrum for their technologies, standards and systems. Accordingly, they utilize their lobbying power to promote their ideas. While the regime decision-making procedures have started not to reflect advances in wireless technology, most of the regime's actors prefer to operate according to those procedures advocated by ITU-R so that they can get their technologies approved and legitimated. Unlike other international organisation (e.g., Security Council), developing countries feels more powerful in the ITU-R due to the one-vote per country rule. The ITU-R Bureau plays an important role of encouraging and reaching a compromise and providing data on the application of the RR. Finally, the paper shows that none of the three schools of theory can solely capture the essences of the international spectrum management regime. Thus, our analysis provides empirical support to a (tentative) synthesis of these schools.

Suggested Citation

  • El-Moghazi, Mohamed & Whalley, Jason, 2019. "The International Radio Spectrum Management: A Regime Theory Analysis," 30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 205176, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse19:205176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/205176/1/El-Moghazi-Whalley.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krasner, Stephen D., 1982. "Structural causes and regime consequences: regimes as intervening variables," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 185-205, April.
    2. Wallenstein, Gerd D., 1977. "Development of policy in the ITU," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 138-152, March.
    3. Cowhey, Peter F., 1990. "The international telecommunications regime: the political roots of regimes for high technology," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 169-199, April.
    4. Sung, Liching, 1992. "WARC-92: Setting the agenda for the future," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 624-634, November.
    5. Young, Oran R., 1982. "Regime dynamics: the rise and fall of international regimes," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 277-297, April.
    6. Rutkowski, A. M., 1983. "Deformalizing the international radio arrangements," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 309-316, December.
    7. MacLean, Donald J, 1995. "A new departure for the ITU : An inside view of the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 177-190, April.
    8. Don MacLean, 2003. "The Quest for Inclusive Governance of Global ICTs: Lessons from the ITU in the Limits of National Sovereignty," Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 1-18, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ronald Mitchell, 2013. "Oran Young and international institutions," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Genschel, Philipp & Werle, Raymund, 1992. "From National Hierarchies to International Standardization: Historical and Modal Changes in the Coordination of Telecommunications," MPIfG Discussion Paper 92/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Stephen, Matthew D., 2020. "China's new multilateral institutions: A framework and research agenda," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2020-102, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. G. Rosendal, 2001. "Overlapping International Regimes: The Case of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) between Climate Change and Biodiversity," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 447-468, December.
    5. Anne Egelston & Scott Cook & Tu Nguyen & Samantha Shaffer, 2019. "Networks for the Future: A Mathematical Network Analysis of the Partnership Data for Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Park, Mi Sun & Lee, Hyowon, 2019. "Accountability and reciprocal interests of bilateral forest cooperation under the global forest regime," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 32-44.
    7. Nathan Jensen, 2007. "International institutions and market expectations: Stock price responses to the WTO ruling on the 2002 U.S. steel tariffs," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 261-280, September.
    8. Diana Tuomasjukka & Staffan Berg & Marcus Lindner, 2013. "Managing Sustainability of Fennoscandian Forests and Their Use by Law and/or Agreement: For Whom and Which Purpose?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-32, December.
    9. Nathan, Iben & Chen, Jie & Hansen, Christian Pilegaard & Xu, Bin & Li, Yan, 2018. "Facing the complexities of the global timber trade regime: How do Chinese wood enterprises respond to international legality verification requirements, and what are the implications for regime effecti," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 169-180.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8527 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09i41p71525 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, 2022. "Ordering global governance complexes: The evolution of the governance complex for international civil aviation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 293-322, April.
    13. Paul R. Hensel & Michael E. Allison & Ahmed Khanani, 2009. "Territorial Integrity Treaties and Armed Conflict over Territory," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 26(2), pages 120-143, April.
    14. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73d5ls976m3igpqi is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Arts, Bas & Brockhaus, Maria & Giessen, Lukas & McDermott, Constance L., 2024. "The performance of global forest governance: Three contrasting perspectives," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5405 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Robert Wood, 1985. "The Aid Regime and International Debt: Crisis and Structural Adjustment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 179-212, April.
    18. Kadam, Parag & Dwivedi, Puneet & Karnatz, Caroline, 2021. "Mapping convergence of sustainable forest management systems: Comparing three protocols and two certification schemes for ascertaining the trends in global forest governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    19. Nina Seppala, 2009. "Business and the International Human Rights Regime: A Comparison of UN Initiatives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 401-417, August.
    20. Agung Wibowo & Lukas Giessen, 2015. "Actor Positions on Primary and Secondary International Forest-related Issues Relevant in Indonesia," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, April.
    21. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73d5ls976m3igpqi is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Jérôme Sgard, 2011. "The IMF Meets Commercial Banks: Sovereign Debt Restructuring between 1970 and 1989," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03473808, HAL.
    23. Maria J. Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2023. "Are international organisations in decline? An absolute and relative perspective on institutional change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 16-30, February.
    24. El-Moghazi, Mohamed & Whalley, Jason & Irvine, James, 2017. "World radiocommunication conference – 2015: Reflections on Africa international spectrum policy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 631-641.
    25. Paudel, Jayash & de Araujo, Pedro, 2017. "Demographic responses to a political transformation: Evidence of women’s empowerment from Nepal," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 325-343.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:itse19:205176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.itseurope.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.