INSTITUTIONS OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

What Role Do Institutions of Global Governance Play in Globalisation

What Role Do Institutions of Global Governance Play in Globalisation

Introduction

Secretary-General Kofi Annan identifies in his millennium report to the United Nations some of the pressing challenges that the world's peoples face and that fall within the UN ambit. He proposes new initiatives (such as a disaster-response initiative or a health internetwork) and enumerates priorities that people should address (such as to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the world's people with an income of less than one dollar a day). Kofi Annan states that all these proposals are set in the context of globalisation, which is transforming the world as we enter the twenty-first century. The Secretary-General is not alone in referring to globalisation as a challenge to, and driving force for change of, existing international governance systems. It is widely accepted that globalisation not only alters the relationship between governments and market forces but also has important implications for the identities and activities of transnational social actors. Thus, instead of states only, a triad of actors comprising (1) states and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), (2) market forces and (3) civil society actors play important roles in existing international and evolving global governance. (Falk 1995, 12-19)

Emerging Concept of Globalisation

The world at the beginning of the 21st century is fundamentally different from what it was only 50 years ago - or so it seems. At the global, national, local, and individual levels, observers report dramatic transformations in the economic, social, and ecological environments. Likewise, political decision-makers and scholars identify deep changes in political organization and apply new concepts to describe and explain them. What then are the new institutions and qualities of political order? To be sure, a significant number of observers reject “newness” claims, arguing that the present situation merely reflects trends that started anywhere from 50 to more than a thousand years ago. Debates on new (or not so new) structures and qualities of international affairs have utilized references to two related concepts in particular: globalisation and global governance. In the popular and academic discussions, globalisation has come to stand for new opportunities and challenges for political organization. Likewise, among practitioners and scholars, global governance has been used to describe new forms of transnational political decision-making and regulation. Using these two concepts as entrance points, therefore, the present study explores theory and practice of international organization like UN in a transformed/ing world.

In particular, the study emphasizes the need to consider both discourse and material phenomena. Thus, the study highlights developments regarding the theory of globalisation and global governance. At the same time, however, it stresses the existence of material consequences of changes in the world. In regard to both aspects, the globalisation and global governance debates have had considerable problems (Falk 1995, 82-98). Pressure to specify and conceptualize objects of analysis adequately came too little and too late. Without explicit communication on these matters, a productive exchange is difficult. Subsequent debates focusing on theoretical questions sometimes reduced questions ...