Global Governance and the United Nations System (Changing Nature of Democracy)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9280810758 ISBN 13: 9789280810752

Publisher: United Nations University Press, 2002

This publication offers a wide-ranging analysis of changing world order at the beginning of the 21st century. The contributors to this volume discuss various aspects of this transformation, extrapolate its trends, and provide suggestions about possible forms of global governance. They address several key issues, such as the roles of states, intergovernmental organisations, the UN system, and non-state actors, market forces as well as civil society, in a future world order.

Synopsis:

This work offers an analysis of changing world order at the beginning of the 21st century. It examines the progression from international to global governance, focusing on the fundamental change of actors, agendas, collective decisionmaking, and the role of the UN system. Globalization does not only mean a change of relationship between governments and market forces. It also has important implications for the identities and activities of transnational social actors. International governance, the authors argue, faces three different challenges: the technological revolution, globalization, and the end of the cold war-leading to jurisdictional, operational, incentive, and participatory gaps in governance with which international governance systems cannot adequately cope. In attempting to respond to these new problems, international governance systems have engaged in a multifaceted move toward global governance, reacting to these challenges in part by transforming themselves.

About the Author:

Volker Rittberger is a professor of political science and international relations and director of the Center for International Relations/Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Tûbingen, Germany.