Global Governance

Presented by:
Jeannette D. Arcega
CAF Lobo
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
•define global governance
•distinguish world government from global
governance
•identify the roles of the United Nations
•determine the challenges of global governance in
the 21st century
•explain the relevance of state amid globalization
•analyze a sample scenario on a particular dispute
between countries
The second World Trade
Center tower explodes
into flames after being
hit by an airplane, New
York September 11,
2001, with the Brooklyn
Bridge in the foreground.

Source: REUTERS/Sara K. Schwittek

About 815 million people - 11% of the
world's population, went hungry in 2016,
according to the latest data from the UN.
Between 1990 and 2015, due to a set of
sweeping initiatives by the global
community, proportion of undernourished
people in the world was cut in half. In
2015, U.N. member countries adopted the
Sustainable Development Goals, which
doubled down on this success by setting
out to end hunger entirely by 2030. But a
recent U.N. report shows that, after years
of decline, hunger is on the rise again.

Source: Samberg, Lea. “World hunger

increases for the first time in 15 years”
https://www.usatoday.com
China claims large portions of the South China Sea. To
bolster its position, the Chinese government has built
artificial islands to turn a dispute about the ocean into one
about land. This was investigated by an international
tribunal in the Hague during the summer of 2016. Since
then, Washington has taken a relatively cautious approach.
However, during a Senate hearing on January 12th, US
Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, made it clear
that he believes the Chinese stance to be unacceptable.
“You’re going to have to send China a clear signal that,
first, the island-building stops, and second, your access to
those islands is also not going to be allowed,” he told
senators.
The Arctic seafloor

In August 2007, a Russian submarine descended nearly four

kilometers (2.5 miles) under the Arctic to plant a flag on the seafloor. As
many investors are no doubt aware, the claim is not only a way to gain
access to the potentially vast natural resources under the ocean; rather
it also has the potential to determine control of shipping lanes
as Arctic ice melts.

Since 2015 Russia has attempted to legitimize this claim through UN

recognition. However, it was not until August of 2016 that the UN
Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf began its evaluation.
It is important to note that US, Canada, Norway, and Denmark have
also made claims in the region.
How is the world governed in the absence of
a world government?
World Government vs Global Governance

What is world government?

• World government refers to the idea of all humankind

united under one common political authority. It has not
existed so far in human history, yet proposals for a unified
global political authority have existed since ancient times—
in the ambition of kings, popes and emperors, and the
dreams of poets and philosophers.

• It implies an international system with some of the

capacities that associate with functional national
governments.
 One way to think of governance is as purposeful
systems of rules and norms that ensure order beyond
what occurs 'naturally'.

Yet, governance is more than government.

Oran Young (1994, 15) defines governance as:

“...the establishment and operation of social institutions
capable of resolving conflicts, facilitating cooperation, or
more generally, alleviating collective action problems in a
world of interdependent actors...”
What is global governance?

•Global governance is a rules-based order without

government.
• It is better viewed as the sum of governance
processes operating in the absence of world
government.
• Global governance is a kind of surrogate for
authority and enforcement for the contemporary
world.
Global Governance
It is the sum of laws, norms, policies and
institutions that define, constitute and
mediate trans-border relations between
states, cultures, citizens, intergovernmental
and non-governmental organizations and
the market - the wielders and the objects of
the exercise of international public power.
The United Nations
• The United Nations, in particular is the
closest to a world government. While it
cannot displace the responsibility of local,
state and national governments, UN can
and should be the locus of multilateral
diplomacy and collective action to solve
common problems.
Role of United Nations
As an “intellectual actor”, the role of UN
consists of:
identifying and diagnosing problems
developing norms (principled ideas)
formulating recommendations (operational
ideas)
Challenges of Global Governance in the
21st Century
• Moving beyond the original roots of today's
multilateral order
• Reassessing the values on which multilateralism
is based and promoted
• Recognizing that contemporary and prospective
challenges call for more agility, nimbleness,
flexibility, adaptability and anticipation rather
than reaction
Relevance of State amid Globalization
Despite the many concerns about the loss of
sovereignty, the States remain the key actor in the
domestic as well as international arenas.
In the international arena, closer cooperation and
concerted action among states represent an
exercise of State sovereignty.
Such concerted action does not necessarily
weaken States; rather it can strengthen them by
creating a more stable international environment
and by giving them greater scope to expand their
exchanges in a variety of fields.
 At the national level we must govern better, and at the
international level we must learn to govern better.

Since its inception, the nation-State has guaranteed the

ff:

•internal and external security

•underpinned the law
•funded national welfare systems
•provided the structures for popular representation
•instituted public accountability
•built framework for economic and social activities
 Moreover, only the State can guarantee through
independent courts, the respect of human rights and
justice; promote - together with other actors - the national
welfare and protect the general interest.
Its role is fundamental in operating the intricate web of
multi-lateral arrangements and inter-governmental regimes.
Still, it is the States, collectively or singly, that set the
rules of the game, that enter into agreements with other
States and that make policies which shape national and
global activities and the agenda of integration.
Global governance is such a multitude of ideas to
deal with. Also, understanding the roles of UN is
deemed necessary and equally challenging to
promote order, security and respect when it comes
to political, social, and economic concerns
including as well the role of States amid
globalization.
Learning Tasks

1.Essay Writing
Analyze the sample scenario (TB, 48 - 49) and
list the possible measures which you may
recommend to solve the dispute between
Countries A and B.

Other suggested activity:

2. Film Analysis of Never Cry Wolf , The Thin Red
Line and other films whose theme centers on
global issues (economy, politics, people, etc.)
References
• Claudio, Lisandro E. and Patricio N. Abinales. The Contemporary World.
Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc., 2018
• Weiss, Thomas G. and Ramesh Thakur. “The United Nations Meets the
Twenty-first Century: Confronting the Challenges of Global Governance
• Bertucci Guido and Adriana Alberti. “Globalization and the Role of the State:
Challenges and Perspectives”
• Hampson, Fen O. “The Role of United Nations in Conflict-resolution and
Peacekeeping”, Carlton University, Ottawa, Canada
• Manor, Adare Global Governance Defining the United Nation's Leadership
Role, 1999
• United Nations (2000), Millenium Report of the Secretary-General, “We, the
People: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century”, A/54/2000
• https://www.slideshare.net/azhymatullya/global-governance
• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/world-government/
• https://www.google.com