Is there such a thing as global governance? It is a pretty ambitious concept. We have a world with a lone superpower that, almost reluctantly, finds itself at the centre of most international events. There are global markets, global financial flows, global information and technology that can ignore traditional national sovereignty. We have powerful multinational corporations whose loyalty is primarily to shareholders and their own senior executives. The threat of international terrorism casts its own pall on this global scene. And the international media watch it all and report whatever is going on with breathless immediacy.
Is anyone in charge?
There is, of course, the United Nations—that imperfect but indispensable product of World War II. But does it do global governance? Surely not. Its powers are too limited. Yet the UN has great moral force. It can move other, more powerful players. And it should.
Andrew F. Cooper’s Tests of Global...
David S. Wright, who is the Kenneth and Patricia Taylor Distinguished Visiting Professor in Foreign Affairs at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, was Canada’s Ambassador to NATO from 1997 to 2003.
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