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Should the United Nations
Contact Group on Piracy off the
Coast of Somalia Serve as a Role
Model in Experimental Global
Governance?
By Mr. Michael Edward Walsh
Published: August 7, 2014

Professor Christian Bueger opens Experimental
Governance: Can the Lessons of the CGPCS be
Transferred to Other Problematic Situations?
with an explicit recognition of the importance of
two questions: What is the Contact Group on
Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS)? and
What can be learned from it? He then quite
rightly observes that CGPCS is an exemplar of
the larger shift in global governance away from
formal multilateral organizations to informal
organizations characterized by the lack of
explicit rules, standardized procedures and
work without standing secretariats. And, he
provides important theoretical insights on the
CGPCS as a concept.

Nevertheless, Buegers piece fails to fully
address, what can be learned from CGPCS.
At best, it answers the narrower question, Can
the CGPCS and its working practice become a
role model for how responses to other global
problems are organized and for how future
contact groups are designed?

While Bueger makes some important points on
the institutional transferability of the CGPCS, the
topic is arguably of secondary importance to,
Should the CGPCS and its working practice be
a role model for how responses to other global
problems are organized?

It is for this reason that the article leaves us
wanting for a broader account of what can be
learned from the CGPCS. This is unfortunate
given that the literature on lessons learned from
the CGPCS is in desperate need of a proper
treatment of the should question. This
includes more counterfactual accounts of what
might have been achieved had the international
community turned to alternative formal and/or
informal governance mechanism(s) as opposed
to the CGPCS.

Until the global governance and/or piracy
literatures provide a stronger justification of the
should question, it seems inappropriate to
conclude that the CGPCS and its working
practice should be a role model for how
responses to other global problems are
organized, which is why it is perhaps premature
to tackle the can question.


Article Reviewed

Christian Bueger. Experimental Governance:
Can the Lessons of the CGPCS be Transferred
to Other Problematic Situations? forthcoming in
The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of
Somalia. A Lessons Learnt Compendium,
edited by Thierry Tardy, Paris: EUISS, 2014.



Michael Edward Walsh is a PhD student at
SOAS, University of London. He also serves as
an Exchange Researcher at Waseda University
and an Academic Guest at the University of
Zurich.
Footnotes
Article Reviews by Asia-Pacific Experts