How the Internet Can Survive an Era of Rivalry and Fragmentation

Defending an open, global, and interoperable internet has never been more urgent. For decades, these principles were often framed as engineering solutions, technical design choices that appeared to align naturally with a world moving toward liberal economic integration. Because the global order seemed broadly consistent with these values, their political implications were rarely examined in depth. The internet’s architecture was widely assumed to support the direction in which the international system was already moving.

That assumption is no longer sustainable. The profound geopolitical shifts of recent years, including the retreat from globalization and mounting pressure on democratic systems, have placed these foundational characteristics under growing strain. What were once treated as neutral architectural features now appear clearly intertwined with political choices about governance, power, and control. At the same time, as the relationship between technology companies and state authority grows more complex, the continued existence of an open internet can no longer be taken for granted; it must be consciously defined and defended.