The latest issue of the Journal Ethics & International Affairs has a special section that addresses probably the most pressing questions on today’s global world. Why, despite well-established and well-publicised intergovernmental processes that date back to the early 1970s, have we been unable to put in place effective mechanisms to combat climate change? to enforce human rights? to eradicate inequalities? Most fundamentally, why have the current international system and the outcomes that it has produced remained so inadequate in the postwar period?
The purpose of the special section edited by Thomas G. Weiss and Roden Wilkinson is to push outwards the boundaries of what we understand as global governance. That is to look at not only ‘traditional subjects’ such as state, international law, and international organisations, but also other actors, networks and strategies, either formal or informal. The idea is to understand global governance actors both as guardians of practices/issues and agents of changes.
Articles included in this special section are:
- Change and Continuity in Global Governance
- Global Governance and Power Politics: Back to Basics
- The Rise of China: Continuity or Change in the Global Governance of Development?
- Governing the Environment: Three Motivating Factors
- Voluntary Standard Setting: Drivers and Consequences