Global Governance: The Next Frontier. Egmont Paper, no. 2, April 2004

Coolsaet, Rik, and Arnould, Valerie. (2004) Global Governance: The Next Frontier. Egmont Paper, no. 2, April 2004.

Abstract

In the past two decades, globalisation has proven to be not just economic. It is also a political, a cultural and a security phenomenon. Our collective ability to handle all these challenges has not progressed at the same pace as globalisation itself. Today’s rules, instruments and institutions are often inadequate and ineffective to tackle the scale of our challenges, new and old together. Notwithstanding this, serious talk about global governance has been scarce. The very word is sometimes judged divisive. Moreover, after 9/11 world attention seemed to turn to the sole issue of the combat of the threat of terrorism. Global governance suddenly seemed out of sync with today’s anxieties. But neglecting global issues today, spells trouble for tomorrow. No future is inevitable. Ultimately, our kind of future depends on the kind of choices that we are making – or not making – today. The Royal Institute for International Relations set up an informal working group with the aim of drafting an overall concept of global governance. This resulted in ‘Global Governance: The Next Frontier’. Its main aim was to rephrase the debate about global issues by using an alternative umbrella concept. This will help shake up the policy debate, get people to think afresh about these issues and hopefully tie in with some of the creative thinking from the very beginning of the post-Cold War era, that lead to various recommendations many of which still remain valid. ‘Global Governance: The Next Frontier’ rephrases the debate in two distinct ways. First, by equating the functions of governance at the global level with similar functions of governance at the domestic level, thus linking the national society we are all living in with the international community that has to be forged. Secondly, by equating the notion of global governance to that of core global public goods.