Towards Global Governance?

Abstract

Most of the IGOs considered to this point conform to a particular pattern or template. They have been formed by sovereign states to provide cooperative solutions to various international problems but without transforming or even significantly affecting the foundation stone of the contemporary international system, namely the fact that the sovereign state itself is the sole location and source of legitimate political authority. Most fundamentally, IGOs have been required to respect the central corollary of sovereignty: the principle of non-intervention in a state’s internal affairs. The main exception to this model is the European Union, whose members have pooled a limited measure of sovereign power in the common institutions of the Union, but even in that case, states retain the capacity to withdraw from the Union should they choose to do so, leaving ultimate authority in the hands of the states.