My research on global governance is informed by a profound sense of governance deficit which is provoking critical reflection both within the corridors of power and among scholars. Under the title ‘Global Governance in the Interregnum’, I have made an initial foray into new research directions in global governance research with my colleague, Dr Michele Acuto, published in Millennium in early 2015.
In my role as Deputy Director of the UCL Global Governance Institute I am committed to facilitating a major intellectual contribution to the study of global governance. A first generation of global governance research, principally in international relations (IR), has focused almost exclusively on formal mechanisms of interstate relations within public multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations and the World Bank. With these structures apparently in gridlock, many observers now regard global governance to be in crisis.
However, a second generation of disparate scholarship spanning IR, European Union Public Policy (EPP) and International Law (IL) has begun to investigate new forms of public and private global governance as a response to the limitations faced by states in tackling pressing transboundary challenges.
IR itself epitomizes this rebellion against old orthodoxies, having decisively shifted away in recent years from international relations to world politics, defined not simply by anarchic system structures, but also by an infrastructure built on liberal principles, and the presence of diverse social forces.
Together with colleagues, I am excited to be advancing a research agenda which seeks to integrate insights across this theoretically and empirically-rich second generation of scholarship to ground a powerful third generation of global governance research, distinguished by a concern for the complexity and dynamism of global public policy-making and delivery in the 21st century.
Watch this space for further updates and my publications page for the latest on the scholarly front. For further inspiration, check out these insightful commentaries:
BBC Radio 4 documentary, “Whatever Happened to Global Governance?” Broadcast: 31 August 2014
New York Times, “Laurent Fabius: Our Climate Imperatives”, 24 April 2015
The Financial Times, “New institutions can be a force for good governance”, 30 March 2015 [behind pay wall]
Council on Foreign Relations podcast, “Global Governance: Where is it Headed and Can it Deliver?”, 19 February 2015
The Diplomat, “4 Ways China Can Become a Global Governance Leader”, 28 April 2015
The Globe and Mail, “Why the G20 must revitalize our global institutions”, 4 May 2015
The New Indian Express, “It’s Time to Move to a Fully Global Governance Regime to Tackle Cyber Warfare”, 23 May 2015
Council on Foreign Relations, “In New Report Card, Heads of Global Think Tanks Give Poor Grades to International Efforts to Tackle Pressing Problems”, 11 May 2015
Steven Hoffman, “We already know how to save the world. Now we need a strategy to make it happen”, 26 May 2015