Open AccessRethinking Global Governance? Complexity, Authority, Power, Change
Author(s) -
Weiss Thomas G.,
Wilkinson Rorden
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.897
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1468-2478
pISSN - 0020-8833
DOI - 10.1111/isqu.12082
Subject(s) - corporate governance , phenomenon , global governance , globalization , order (exchange) , proposition , power (physics) , government (linguistics) , political science , synonym (taxonomy) , core (optical fiber) , law and economics , sociology , political economy , positive economics , law , epistemology , economics , management , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , telecommunications , philosophy , linguistics , botany , finance , biology , genus
Global governance remains notoriously slippery. While the term arose to describe change in the late twentieth century, its association with that specific moment has frozen it in time and deprived it of analytical utility. It has become an alternative moniker for international organizations, a descriptor for an increasingly crowded world stage, a call to arms, an attempt to control the pernicious aspects of globalization, and a synonym for world government. This article aims not to advance a theory of global governance but to highlight where core questions encourage us to go. A more rigorous conception should help us understand the nature of the contemporary phenomenon as well as look “backwards” and “forwards.” Such an investigation should provide historical insights as well as prescriptive elements to understand the kind of world order that we ought to be seeking and encourage us to investigate how that global governance could be realized.