The Promise and Challenge of Global Network Governance: The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network

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Abstract Networks are often heralded as a promising strategy of global governance. This article examines the challenges encountered in managing one relatively successful network—the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). Over the past decade, this international network of public and private institutions has played a major role in organizing the global response to infectious disease outbreaks around the world. Despite its successes, GOARN confronts difficult challenges in balancing performance objectives with the goals of maintaining and developing the network. The imperative to integrate closely into World Health Organization (WHO) operations makes it difficult for GOARN to balance its obligations to the WHO with the need to maintain and cultivate its role as an independent network.