Marc Holitscher was a visiting fellow at the NCDG during the fall of 2003.  He is a lecturer and head-assistant at Institute of Political Science, Department of International Relations, at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Before defending his dissertation in spring 2003, Marc served as a member of the Editorial Committee of the Swiss Political Science Review and published as a journalist on several Internet-related topics. From 1995 to 1998, he worked as a research associate at Institute of Political Science and co-founded the Unit for Internet Studies, a virtual think-thank focusing on matters related to Internet Governance.

Holitscher's research interests include the increasing capability of the private sector to act as a key alternative producer of governance functions in international affairs, or the increasing willingness (need?) of traditional nation-states to share their powers with private actors in this domain respectively. In his dissertation, Holitscher asks why hybrid governance arrangements in the field of the new communications technologies develop on a global scale and what the driving forces are. The theoretical framework of his work combines recent approaches to global governance with positive theories of regulation. Against this background, Holitscher explains why ICANN was finally founded as an international private organization while any intergovernmental solution has been successfully avoided by the US-government.