Recently, the Presidents of four Latin American countries slammed ICANN over its .amazon domain name decision. This added to a long list of geo-politically infused challenges which ICANN needed to render final decisions on after all delay tactics or deferments had already been fully exhausted.

It is clear that ICANN is facing unprecedented challenges as it tackles issues that go beyond its current narrow mandate. A mandate that was originally granted to it by the US government thru its NTIA, but who no longer oversees it.

Moving forward ‘as is’ appears unsustainable and may damage it as a legitimate international names and numbers regulator mandated to serving not just the ICANN community but most importantly, the international community above all.

So the stakeholders all over the world will want to know if ICANN board and leadership feel/believe staying ‘as is’ is fine or not, or whether additional mandates are needed and will be sought, and if so, where would ICANN go to ensure these added mandates do carry ‘legitimacy’?

The reality is that future decisions which ICANN and its board must decide on will continue to be highly infused politically, so this great challenge will not go away. In fact, it will get worse, and it cannot be avoided or deferred.

Therefore, the pressing questions the international community and its global stakeholders will be asking are:

1. “Can ICANN survive today’s global Geo-Political challenges unscathed under its existing narrow mandate of being the mere ‘Technical Coordinator of the Domain Name System (DNS) & IP Numbers?
2. Can it continue ‘as is’ while being constantly challenged by heads of states and others after decisions it makes that go beyond its narrow mandate?

So as a mere stakeholder who contributed to making ICANN what it is today since its birth and who wants it to remain and become even more relevant, let me put these questions directly to the ICANN board and its leadership in this transparent and public format so they are given the opportunity to not just answer me but also answer them for the benefit of the ICANN and international community alike, and do so publicly and transparently.

1. Can ICANN survive without a new mandate? If Yes, how? If No, then who is authorized to grant ICANN such a new mandate with legitimacy?
2. Can the ‘authorizer’ be the US government who only recently relinquished its control of IANA to ICANN itself? How?
3. Can the ‘authorizer’ be the International community? Would it be willing to do this without significant ICANN reforms?
4. Can the ‘authorizer’ be the UN? (“God forbid” some ICANN insiders might whisper, and others scream aloud)?
5. Can the ‘authorizer’ be ICANN to itself, i.e. by putting it down to the ICANN community? If so, overseen by whom? ICANN itself?
6. Will punting it to the ICANN community secure international legitimacy?

I hope many inside the ICANN ‘club’ resist thinking that (5) & (6) can be managed (choreographed) to secure the desired outcome, once again.

Not easy questions, but answered they must be, especially when you add to this mix the likelihood and consequences of the birth of a new and government legitimatized parallel internet universe root which I warned about since 2003 and which today may end up being born as a consequence of recent unprecedented and still unfolding local, regional and global geo-political events and Geo-Poli-Cyber hacks and developments showcased recently by the Trump administration’s Huawei narrative and recent news media reported stories about Chinese and Russian Internets.

It will be fascinating to observe if and how ICANN’s board and its top execs exhibit the true leadership needed by not pretending this time that this white elephant does not exist but stepping up to the plate in front of the global community.

I look forward to their public responses to show they are aware of the problem and that they have a plan to address it transparently and legitimately and that they can be trusted to navigate these unchartered waters to keep ICANN relevant in this new Era of the Unprecedented events where the unexpected seems to always surprise so many when it somehow happens.