WHAT IS GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?

BY

AMINA MOHAMMED

Presented on December 1st, 2014

Global Governance

This presentation will look at the following:

• The various definition of global governance.

• The evolution and views of global governance.

• The functions/ various aspects that drive global governance.

• Achievements and challenges.

• Conclusion and reference.

Global Governance

Diverse definitions

Definition depends on two factors:

• The person defining

• Under the circumstances it is used

No Consensus on Definition Yet:

• Not among academia

• Not among policy makers

• Not between academia and policy makers

Rosenau (1995;13) views global governance as perceived to include systems of rule at all levels of human activity- from the family to the international organization- in which the pursuit of goals through the exercise of control has transnational repercussions.

Global Governance

Attempt at a definition.

• "Government, management and

administration capabilities of the

United Nations, World Bank and

other international organizations,

various regimes, coalitions of

interested nations and individual

nations when they act globally to

address to various issues that

emerge beyond national

borders, such as development,

the environment, human rights,

infectious diseases and

international terrorism."

- Yozo Yokota, 2004

Global Governance

“The collective effort by

sovereign states,

international organizations,

and other non state actors to

address common challenges

and seize opportunities that

transcend national frontiers.”

The WHO, defines global

governance as the way in

which global affairs are

managed.

- Stewart Patrick, 2014

Global governanceEvolution and views on global governance

Since the end of the cold war,

globalization has become a buzzword, not

only in the social sciences but also in the

international political community.

The Commission on Global Governance

was an independent group of twenty-eight

leaders that issued a report called ‘Our

Global Neighbourhood’ in 1995 about the

implication of globalization for global

governance. Their conception of

globalization, too, was one of several

dimensions, including economic, security,

environment, the emergence of global civil

society, and uneven global development,

including development aid.

-Anne Mette Kjaer, 2004

Global governanceViews on global governance

Realist.

The dominant analytical perspective of the time, posited that

states were the only significant actors in world politics; that

they act as units; and their military security interests trump of

their other goals.

Liberalist.

They succeeded in debunking the realist assumption, yet it

was also clear that states remained the key factors in the

international system. However, they believe international

regimes are important in all national levels to dampen the

effects of anarchy.

Global democracy.

They believe in the existence of global civil society and a

global citizenry call for more democratic global governance

and cosmopolitan democracy which involves a global

constitution and recasting of territorial boundaries.

Global Governance

Governance covers overlapping categories of functions

performed internationally, such as:

• Formulation and promulgation of principles.

• Promotion of consensual knowledge affecting the general international order, regional orders, particular issues on the international agenda, and efforts to influence the domestic rules and behaviour of states.

• Good offices, conciliation, mediation, and compulsory resolution of disputes.

Global Governance

• Information creation and exchange.

• Regime formation, tending, and execution.

• Adoption of rules, codes, and regulations; allocation of

material and program resources.

• Provision of technical assistance and development programs

• Relief, humanitarian, emergency, and disaster activities.

• Maintenance of peace and order.

- Finkelstein, 1995.

Functions Continued

Global Governance

1. Targeted organizations/ Institutions.

These would include:

• International organizations such as the United Nations and UN

organizations;

• IMF, World bank, WTO, WHO.

• Treaty organizations (regimes) that have been prominent

recently in the fields of the environment and human rights.

• Regional organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO);

• Regional arrangements, including ASEAN and the Japan-U.S.

Security Treaty.

• Loose confederations of nations, including the Group of Eight

(G8).

• Individual nations dealing with global issues.

Analyzing the aspects of global governance:

- Yozo Yokota, 2004

Global Governance2. Targeted issues

These would include:

• Security

• Terrorism

• Disarmament

• International Criminal organization

• Poverty/ Education

• Population

• The environment

• Human rights/ Labor

• Infectious diseases/ Health

• Gender politics

• Culture

- Yozo Yokoto, 2004

Global Governance

3. Essential Factors of global governance

These would include:

• Efficiency (whether goals are achieved without wasting

resources).

• Effectiveness (whether issues are dealt with effectively and

satisfactory outcomes are produced)

• Fairness (whether costs and benefits are balanced)

• Transparency (whether organizations and their procedures to

resolve issues are open to public scrutiny)

• Democracy (whether all interested parties participate in the

decision-making and implementation process)

• Accountability (whether the content of activities are

sufficiently explained to interested parties and approved by

them, and whether the organizations in charge are ready to

take responsibility for the outcomes resulting from the

measures taken).

- Yozo Yokota, 2004

Global governanceAchievements

Intergovernmental organizations have addressed a

host of global needs such as UN, The World bank,

WTO.

The peaceful rise of the BRIC’s.

Challenges

Enhancing the role of global civil society.

Action needed in the field of green growth .

Efforts to meet the UN’s Millennium Development

Goals with specific reference to education and health at

both national and international levels.

National interest.

Global Governance

What global governance is not:

• It is not a world government

• It has no “binding” sovereignty

What global governance is:

“Governance is the sum of the many ways individuals and

institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs.

At the global level, governance has been viewed primarily as

intergovernmental relationships, but it must now be

understood as also involving non-governmental organizations

(NGOs), citizens’ movements, multinational corporations, and

the global capital market (Commission on Global Governance,

1995:2-3).

“Global governance is governing, without sovereign authority,

relationships that transcend national frontiers”. Global

governance is doing internationally what governments do at

home (Finkelstein, 1995).

Global governance

Reference

Global Governance

END

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