The emergence of global governance in several key areas calls into question conventional understandings of world politics in terms of conflicts of interests between sovereign states under conditions of anarchy. At the same time the new phenomena of anti-globalisation demonstrations, transnational social movements and an emergent global civil society point to important developments in international relations. Leading scholars reflect on the usefulness of thinking about these processes as a dichotomy between the politics of governance and the politics of resistance, and consider its application to several areas of international relations.

This book offers a major new theory of global governance, explaining both its rise and what many see as its current crisis. The author suggests that world politics is now embedded in a normative and institutional structure dominated by hierarchies and power inequalities and therefore inherently creates contestation, resistance, and distributional struggles. Within an ambitious and systematic new conceptual framework, the theory makes four key contributions. Firstly, it reconstructs global governance as a political system which builds on normative principles and reflexive authorities. Second, it identifies the central legitimation problems of the global governance system with a constitutionalist setting in mind. Third, it explains the rise of state and societal contestation by identifying key endogenous dynamics and probing the causal mechanisms that produced them. Finally, it identifies the conditions under which struggles in the global governance system lead to decline or deepening. Rich with propositions, insights, and evidence, the book promises to be the most important and comprehensive theoretical argument about world politics of the 21st century.

This edited volume analyses different forms of resistance against international institutions and charts their success or failure in changing the normative orders embodied in these institutions. Non-state groups and specific states alike advocate alternative global politics, at the same time finding themselves demonized as pariahs and outlaws who disturb established systems of governance. However, over time, some of these actors not only manage to shake off such allegations, but even find their normative convictions accepted by international institutions. This book develops an innovative conceptual framework to understand and explain these processes, using seven cases studies in diverse policy fields; including international security, health, migration, religion and internet politics. This framework demonstrates the importance of coalition-building and strategic framing in order to form a successful resistance and bring change in world politics.

This edited volume analyses different forms of resistance against international institutions and charts their success or failure in changing the normative orders embodied in these institutions. Non-state groups and specific states alike advocate alternative global politics, at the same time finding themselves demonized as pariahs and outlaws who disturb established systems of governance. However, over time, some of these actors not only manage to shake off such allegations, but even find their normative convictions accepted by international institutions. This book develops an innovative conceptual framework to understand and explain these processes, using seven cases studies in diverse policy fields; including international security, health, migration, religion and internet politics. This framework demonstrates the importance of coalition-building and strategic framing in order to form a successful resistance and bring change in world politics.

Since the turn of the millennium, resistance to the liberal project of global governance has come to occupy centre stage in global and international politics. The Battle of Seattle, the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington and the Bush administration's ambivalent attitude towards multilateralism can all be thought of as conspicuous instances of the growing challenge to global governance. Global Governance, Conflict and Resistance provides a wide-ranging series of analyses of such challenges.

A world government capable of controlling nation-states has never evolved, but governance does underlie order among states and gives direction to problems arising from global interdependence. This book examines the ideological bases and behavioural patterns of this governance without government.

Conformity is a common coping strategy for dealing with stresses in political situations, as well a strategy for dealing with the lack of agreed foundations. This work introduces the conceptual frameworks of coping and conformity to provide a new analysis of the ethical and political demands of international life. The volume argues that coping through conformity is the only means available for dealing with uncertainty and the absence of shared foundations, and while conformity may be a largely practical issue it also reflects a consensus on values. Dyer draws on recent critical theoretical perspectives as well as engaging with dominant ‘liberal’ assumptions in the global context providing a critical study of the impact of norms and values in world politics. The book also addresses wider issues of freedom and necessity, individualism and communitarianism and cosmopolitanism, agency and structure, and the legitimacy of governance and institutions. The theoretical arguments are illuminated within the ecological context and such recent concerns as climate and energy security are examined as forceful illustrations of current political challenges as well as a potential source of insights into the alternatives. Providing a fresh theoretical perspective on world politics, this work will be of great interest to all scholars of global politics, international relations and globalization studies.