Council on Foreign Relations has released a brief today authored by Megan Stifel, former director for international cyber policy at the U.S. National Security Council in the Obama administration, urging Trump administration to not back away from the IANA transition and to instead invest in the multistakeholder process. In the report titled, “Maintaining U.S. Leadership on Internet Governance,” Stifel writes: “Given President Trump’s campaign statements, the U.S. government might attempt to reverse the IANA transition, possibly through lawsuits or by unilaterally reimposing NTIA’s oversight function. Such a move would be a grave mistake.”

— “Given that the transition is effectively irreversible, the United States needs to respond to new institutional and political realities and find alternative ways to maintain its influence on internet governance.”

— “Reversal of the transition would also undermine ICANN’s critical operations beyond administering the IANA functions, such as managing domain names. The appearance that ICANN is susceptible to the whims of the U.S. government threatens the integrity of its decision-making processes, which may discourage businesses and civil society groups from continuing to voluntarily participate in them.”

— “Short of reversal, the Trump administration might choose to distance itself from internet governance matters to delegitimize a model it does not believe in. This too would be a mistake because it would reduce U.S. influence over internet policy and leave authoritarian regimes to fill the vacuum.”

Also included in the brief are a set of recommendations for the U.S. government to reduce critical Internet vulnerabilities, build trust, and to empower newcomers to the Internet governance process. Read the full report here.