Global Governance And The Emergence Of Global Institutions For The 21st Century

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.

Is there any hope for those who despair at the state of the world and the powerlessness of governments to find a way forward? Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century provides ambitious but reasonable proposals to give our globalized world the institutions of international governance necessary to address effectively the catastrophic risks facing humanity that are beyond national control. The solution, the authors suggest, is to extend to the international level the same principles of sensible governance that exist in well-governed national systems: rule of law, legislation in the common interest, an executive branch to implement such legislation, and courts to enforce it. The best protection is unified collective action, based on shared values and respect for diversity, to implement widely accepted international principles to advance universal human prosperity and well-being. This title is also available as Open Access.

Is there any hope for those who despair at the state of the world and the powerlessness of governments to find a way forward? Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century provides ambitious but reasonable proposals to give our globalized world the institutions of international governance necessary to address effectively the catastrophic risks facing humanity that are beyond national control. The solution, the authors suggest, is to extend to the international level the same principles of sensible governance that exist in well-governed national systems: rule of law, legislation in the common interest, an executive branch to implement such legislation, and courts to enforce it. The best protection is unified collective action, based on shared values and respect for diversity, to implement widely accepted international principles to advance universal human prosperity and well-being. This title is also available as Open Access.

The current international system of institutions and governance groups is proving inadequate to meet many of today's most important challenges, such as terrorism, poverty, nuclear proliferation, financial integration, and climate change. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and UN were founded after World War II, and their structures of voting power and representation have become obsolete, no longer reflecting today's balance of economic and political power. This insightful book examines how to make such institutions more responsive and effective. Institutional reform is critically needed but currently in stalemate. A new push is needed from powerful nations acting together through a reformed and enlarged G-8 that includes emerging economies, such as China and India. Global challenges demand integrated approaches, with greater coordination among international institutions. Global Governance Reform argues that without reconstituting the Group of 8 summit into a larger, more representative group of leaders, with a new mandate to provide strategic guidance to the system of international institutions, the world will fall further behind in addressing global challenges. The path to global reform is defined by the need to act in coordinated ways on summit and institutional reform, and this book lights the way.

In the 21st century, the world is faced with threats of global scale that cannot be confronted without collective action. Although global government as such does not exist, formal and informal institutions, practices, and initiatives—together forming "global governance"—bring a greater measure of predictability, stability, and order to trans-border issues than might be expected. Yet, there are significant gaps between many current global problems and available solutions. Thomas G. Weiss and Ramesh Thakur analyze the UN's role in addressing such knowledge, normative, policy, institutional, and compliance lapses. The UN's relationship to these five global governance gaps is explored through case studies of some of the most burning problems of our age, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, humanitarian crises, development aid, climate change, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.

This book explores some of the opportunities and risks - economic, social and technological - that decision-makers will have to address, and outlines what needs to be done to foster society's capacity to manage its future more flexibly and with broader participation of its citizens.

A Brookings Institution Press and Centre for International Governance Innovation publication The global order is shifting. Even though no major war has intervened to reshape the architecture of the international order, the global financial crisis has accentuated the emergence of an enlarged global leadership. It is clear that change is afoot. The United States may be hanging on as the world's leading power, as the European Union remains an independent force in global politics, but a host of rising states—including China, India, and Brazil—clamor to be heard and take on bigger roles in world forums. Rising States, Rising Institutions features a panel of distinguished scholars who examine the forces at work: Gregory Chin (York University), Daniel W. Drezner(Tufts University), Thomas Hale (Princeton University), Andrew Hurrell (Oxford University), G. John Ikenberry (Princeton University), John Kirton (University of Toronto), Flynt Leverett (New America Foundation), Steven E. Miller (Harvard University), Andrew Moravcsik (Princeton University), Amrita Narlikar (Cambridge University), and Anne-Marie Slaughter (U.S. State Department). Together they analyze different models of international cooperation, the states that have most actively challenged the existing order, and leading and emergent international institutions such as the G-20, the nascent regime for sovereign wealth funds, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the entities organized to foster cooperation in the war on terror.

The key challenges of globalization are diffuse and outside the control of any one state. In its most ambitious and forward looking form, global governance seeks to create an international social fabric, albeit imperfect, which cumulatively, amounts to more than the sum of its parts. Global Governance in the Twenty-first-century aims to open a number of new areas for further analysis, and in particular, to begin a process of cross-fertilization between different disciplines examining issues related to global governance.