Speaking at a Technology University of Delft conference on the internationalization of infrastructures, Professor Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger made some unique and provocative observations about the future of the ICANN tether to the U.S. government says Mueller. Mayer-Schoenberger, he notes, was trying to predict the position of the three main players: the EU, the US and China.

In his summary of the speech, Mueller notes Mayer-Schoenberger saying the EU was typically about 4 years behind and was now willing to accept and confirm the American decision to privatise ICANN. Moreover, the EU no longer has any substantive policy position but is focused entirely on structures and processes. "But just as the Europeans come to accept a privatised ICANN the U.S., he said, is starting to question it," with Mayer-Schoenberger predicting the Obama administration will re-nationalise ICANN. To Mayer-Schoenberger, re-nationalising means two things simultaneously: first, that the U.S. "doesn't give a damn" about internationalising it; second, that the US government may be inclined to reverse the privatization and bring ICANN closer to the U.S. government to supervise and regulate. For China, Mayer-Schoenberger called their position a "Sun Tzu realism" in which Multi-lateralism replaces Multi-stakeholderism, but the multilateralism occurs on several different layers.