Should we give up on global governance?

Abstract

Two decades after the high point of global governance in the mid-1990s, hopes that globalisation would be buttressed by a system of global rules and a network of specialised global institutions have been dashed by a series of setbacks. This retreat from multilateralism can be attributed in part to political developments in individual countries. But such factors hide a series specific roadblocks to global governance: the growing number and diversity of countries involved; the mounting rivalry between the US and China; doubts about globalisation and the distribution of the associated benefits; the obsolescence of global rules and institutions; imbalances within the global governance regime; and increased complexity. Demand for global governance has not diminished, but support for binding multilateral arrangements has. Thus, the narrow path ahead is to establish a sufficient, critical multilateral base for flexible arrangements and to equip policymakers with a precise toolkit for determining, on a field-by-field basis, the minimum requirements for effective collective action.