The Architecture of Global Governance
GGN Debate
By 2050, approximately 90 percent of humanity will be comprised of people now living in developing countries. Besides, it is estimated that the developing countries now part of the G20 leading economies will be responsible for 70 percent of the GNP of this group. This scenario reverses many of the transatlantic economic, political as well as security considerations upon which the present international order is based. Few existing global institutions today reflect this emerging political and economic reality.
Thus far discussions regarding the reform of the United Nations have failed to generate an innovative approach to global governance. Issues of substance in the political, environmental and economic fields are increasingly being negotiated not in multinational fora, but in restricted intergovernmental groups such as the G8 and the G20, and are often reduced to bilateral agreements.
The United Nations’ reform agenda has not effectively tackled such substantive issues as the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, the inadequacy of organizational mandates in specialized agencies to deal with such central globalization problems as migration, and the Millenium Development Goals have failed to constitute an alternative development agenda.
In this context, what possibilities for concerted governance can be anticipated? What can be learned from bilateral and regional experiences? Do the demise of multilateral negotiations and the slow progress of the UN reform effectively block innovations in the architecture of alternative governance structures? What are the political implications of increasing global governance deadlocks?