Global Governance

Abstract

This chapter traces the emergence and maturation of the concept of global governance – first as a general manifestation and then in relation to global environmental issues. We emphasize the departure from a traditional IR lens on world politics and highlight the proliferation of hybrid, non-hierarchical and network-like modes of governing on the global stage. We also point to the potential implications for legitimacy, effectiveness and the analysis of power. In a second, empirical part, we illustrate four major practices of global governance (norm-creation, information-sharing, standard-setting, and implementation and capacity-building) through a brief summary of several transnational governance initiatives dealing with environmental or climate change issues. We conclude that governing 'beyond the state' is not a panacea, but that it may have both a moderately practical (short-term) and a transformative (long-term) impact, thus deserving further scholarly attention.