Global Governance Framework Research Articles

Counter-Hegemonic Narratives and the Politics of Plurality: Problematising Global Environmental Governance from Latin America through the Case of Bolivia

This article seeks to problematise current frameworks of global environmental governance by examining how the neoliberal model continues to rely on the state to suppress plurinational justice. Firstly, it discusses the creation of counter-hegemonic discourses through the emergence of new centres of epistemic production. Secondly, it analyses the ways in which these narratives interact, or fail to interact, with state policies on a local, national and international level through the case study of Evo Morales’ Bolivia. The article argues that one of main challenges confronting environmental governance will be to reformulate sovereignty as an epistemic and relational – as well as political and territorial – set of relationships.

Producing Localized Commodity Frontiers at the End of Cheap Nature: An Analysis of Eco‐scalar Carbon Fixes and their Consequences

AbstractThere is no single ‘great’ commodity frontier whose exploitation under current socio‐technical conditions could fuel capital accumulation at the global scale. According to Jason Moore, this represents the ‘end of Cheap Nature’ and signals a terminal crisis for capitalism as we know it. In this article we complicate this assertion by showing how, in the context of global environmental governance frameworks of carbon control, a diverse range of actors situated at multiple scales are intensifying the use of cities and their hinterlands for the production/transgression of localized commodity frontiers. We draw on scholarship on uneven geographical development, state‐led restructuring and eco‐scalar fixes to present two case studies from different segments of the carbon cycle in the global South. The first case demonstrates how the introduction of waste‐to‐energy technology in Delhi facilitated the generation of ‘carbon credits’ while waste matter itself became a commodity. The second discusses attempts by the Brazilian state of Amazonas (Amazônia) aspiring to shift from rainforest exploitation to financialized conservation supported by the ‘green global city’ functions of metropolitan Manaus. These cases demonstrate that although the global carbon‐control regime may enable accumulation, implementation remains speculative, and localized commodity frontiers provoke social resistances that jeopardize their durability.

From problem to crisis to interdisciplinary solutions: Plastic marine debris

Marine plastic debris has evolved from being a problem to a cross-cutting crisis impacting natural and human environments across the world. Holistic approaches are needed to address the multifaceted, wide-spread and complex nature of this issue. We argue that a new global governance approach is essential, however, it needs to be aligned with interdisciplinary solutions – sound science and data collection; changes to behavioural psychology; utilising education as a tool; and through changes to management and policy processes. We argue that truly effective prevention is a long-term process that must begin at the ground level with smarter consumer choices, industrial consciousness and responsibility, and an overarching local to global governance framework.

Analysing the role of technology in compliance and regulatory structures

This paper does not set out to be an expert treatise on RegTech or FinTech, or any of the other catchy compound words that have entered our daily lexicon. It simply outlines one organisation’s journey in determining the need for a technological solution for a myriad of compliance obligations. The firm in which the author works has eight (soon to be nine) offices around the world, with two in Australia, and one in the UK, Germany, Switzerland (applying for registration), South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and the USA. There are some group entities also licenced in Canada and the Cayman Islands. Some regimes require more than one licence (eg, five in Australia alone). The subsequent regulatory burden is significant. Add to that a global insurance programme, a global taxation programme, a global risk management framework, a global governance framework plus the day to day burden of simply running a business — the compliance obligations are huge. Yet, on number of staff alone, the present author’s organisation is nothing like some of the massive financial behemoths around the world, a potential cause of compliance management headaches. This paper is about IFM Investors’ experience in implementing technology into the business to become more effective, and less intrusive on the front line teams when it comes to meeting firm-wide compliance tasks. In doing so, IFM Investors had some learnings along the way from which readers might avoid some of the challenges faced.

Holding Food Companies Responsible for Unhealthy Food Marketing to Children: Can International Human Rights Instruments Provide a New Approach?

Public health advocates argue that unhealthy food marketing to children infringes children’s rights, given its link to obesity, and that states have an obligation under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘UNCRC’) to protect children from such marketing. This article explains how international human rights concepts could be used to impose obligations directly on companies to modify their practices to protect children from unhealthy food marketing. We draw on the global governance framework that creates human rights obligations for businesses, and evaluate voluntary codes and initiatives on responsible marketing to children in Australia, to see whether they satisfy the obligations imposed under this framework and the UNCRC. Finding significant limitations in these measures, we set out recommendations for how the food industry could take an approach to food marketing that places children’s best interests as a primary consideration.

Voice and Exit: How Emerging Powers are Promoting Institutional Changes in the International Monetary System

In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, emerging powers engaged in political and legal strategies to challenge the actual framework for global monetary governance. This article examines two categories of monetary strategies designed as “voice” and “exit” plans (Hirschman 1970). For the former, they aimed at gaining more participation inside the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For the latter, strategies were built as legal alternatives to manage future liquidity crises outside the current framework. Using this theoretical classification, this paper identifies institutional responses formulated by the G20 emerging powers in Asia and Latin America after 2008 crisis. The specific approach proposed by this article is to analyse how the legal framework for the management of international money influences their strategies’ design and outcomes. Up to present, it seems voice strategies are promoting only incremental modifications in institutions. Exit strategies, however, have the potential of being more successful. These strategies have been built as a network of bilateral swap contracts between central banks. Asian powers are more engaged in this type of legal strategy. Latin American countries tend to be recipients of these plans. Exit strategies, however, are moving multilateral cooperation away from the IMF, reinforcing institutional fragmentation and uncertainty on how the next liquidity crises would be managed.

Globalization’s Vehicle: The Evolution and Future of Emission Regulation in the icao and imo in Comparative Assessment

Global aviation and shipping offer important lessons for the regulation of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In a relatively short period, each industry has, through international organizations, achieved seemingly effective, universally adopted rules. This article explores the historical development and prospects for air-pollution regulation by examining and comparing state delegation of rule making to the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization. It is argued that the success experienced in the regulation of the two industries’ air emissions would not have been accomplished without their multilateral organizations. That is because of the complexity of technical regulation and a lack of capacity in many states to design and implement regulations. The article examines the development of now-comprehensive air-pollution regulation by the two organizations. The lessons for regulatory design are canvassed, including for relevance to greenhouse-gas control and the emerging framework of global atmospheric protection. The question of how to assess the effectiveness of the regulation is considered in an effort to understand how progress in the two industries might be sustained. Improved regulation, it is concluded, will depend on the two governing regimes adopting measures from each other and ensuring that they are included in an emerging global atmospheric governance framework.

Global government and civil society

In this article the frames of democratic global government, which determine the role of a global civil society as an alternative of market-driven globalization, are being analyzed. With this intention the main theories of international political economy – hegemonic stability theory, complex independence theory, new multilateralism, and also the comparison of the approaches to the potential possibilities of strengthening of the role of civil society in the system of global government are being examined.In order to create the necessary framework for democratic global governance in the twenty-first century, global and national civil societies must enter into more intensive synergies with individual national states and international organizations. Therefore, the article aims to define the role of global civil society in the project of global democratic governance as an alternative to market-driven globalization and to consider the main theories of international political economy by comparing their approaches to the potential opportunities of civil society in the global governance system.The article concludes that, based on the definition of opportunities for expanding the role of civil society in global governance, the theory of complex interdependence and the new multilateralism offer the most appropriate theoretical framework for examining the contribution of civil society in removing the tensions generated by globalization. One can talk about the expansion of the role of civil society in global governance, as the growing presence of social movements and non-governmental organizations on the global scene has become visible due to their activities in the areas of services, education, and protection of rights that contribute to the development of a global cooperative system.

A REVIEW OF PARTICIPATING GROUP OF TWENTY (G20) COUNTRIES IN AUSTRALIA 2014

The group of twenty (G20) cooperation between the twenty members is seen as significant and systemic. These twenty countries are participating in Australia in 2014 with non- members countries. Australian business and community leaders will have the possibility to contribute to G20 discussions. Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers meet regularly to discuss ways to reform international financial institutions, improve financial regulation, strengthen the global economy hence these meetings is a year-long program. This study is then assesses the expansion of the G20’s scope to global development and context of the current global governance framework.

Strengthening Governance Frameworks for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Southern Hemisphere Perspectives

Abstract The southern hemisphere is dominated by oceanic influences with 80% of its surface area consisting of ocean space. It hosts abundant marine biodiversity, which is under increasing pressure from activities such as fisheries and shipping as well as multiple sources of marine pollution and climate change impacts. The process initiated by the un General Assembly Resolution 69/292 to develop the elements of an international legally binding instrument (ilbi) for conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction has the potential to contribute to a more integrated and cross-sectoral system of oceans governance at a global and regional scale. This article examines key features of the existing global and regional ocean governance framework in the southern hemisphere and how the anticipated ilbi might relate to existing ocean governance frameworks.

Human Rights, Symbolic Form, and the Idea of the Global Constitution

This Article develops a methodological basis for elaborating an idea of global constitutionalism. It applies this broader understanding of the idea of global constitutionalism to an examination of the specific role played by human rights within the evolving framework of global legal governance. The methodological basis from which the idea of global constitutionalism is developed derives from work in historical sociology that emphasizes the role played by underlying symbolic forms in the structure of social reality. The approach adopted here lays particular emphasis, following Claude Lefort and Marcel Gauchet, on the role of political theology as the principal mode in which symbolic form is constituted. From this perspective, the notion of the global human rights model is scrutinized as central to the symbolic form of global constitutionalism. Developed in critical engagement with the work of Samuel Moyn, human rights can be seen as central to global constitutionalism viewed as the latest political constellation of a distinctively secular understanding of the symbolic form and limits of political authority.

The global governance of human cloning: the case of UNESCO

Since Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1996, the question of whether human reproductive cloning should be banned or pursued has been the subject of international debate. Feelings run strong on both sides. In 2005, the United Nations adopted its Declaration on Human Cloning to try to deal with the issue. The declaration is ambiguously worded, prohibiting “all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life”. It received only ambivalent support from UN member states. Given this unsatisfactory outcome, in 2008 UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) set up a Working Group to investigate the possibility of a legally binding convention to ban human reproductive cloning. The Working Group was made up of members of the International Bioethics Committee, established in 1993 as part of UNESCO’s Bioethics Programme. It found that the lack of clarity in international law is unhelpful for those states yet to formulate national regulations or policies on human cloning. Despite this, member states of UNESCO resisted the idea of a convention for several years. This changed in 2015, but there has been no practical progress on the issue. Drawing on official records and first-hand observations at bioethics meetings, this article examines the human cloning debate at UNESCO from 2008 onwards, thus building on and advancing current scholarship by applying recent ideas on global governance to an empirical case. It concludes that, although human reproductive cloning is a challenging subject, establishing a robust global governance framework in this area may be possible via an alternative deliberative format, based on knowledge sharing and feasibility testing rather than the interest-based bargaining that is common to intergovernmental organizations and involving a wide range of stakeholders. This article is published as part of a collection on global governance.

The right to know: Suffering, human rights, and perplexities of politics in Lebanon

For decades, families in Lebanon have fought in vain for the release of information about their missing relatives. Their struggle has become increasingly entangled in a transnational configuration of experts, discourses, and practices, a configuration that is sustained by the humanitarian imperative to alleviate suffering and by an appeal to trauma, victimhood, and human rights. This appeal animates new legal and judicial forms of activism that have expanded the scope of the families’ rights, compelled the government to release long-held information, and urged it to enact reforms in accordance with international standards. The convergence of these processes extends a framework of compassionate global governance that is supposed to work on behalf of subjects who are construed as victims and whose experience is essentially one of suffering. [human rights, humanitarianism, missing persons, trauma, judicialization of politics, NGOs, Lebanon]

Research on How to Deal with the Dilemma of Global Cooperative Governance of Cross-Border Telecom Network Fraud in China

The rapid growth of cross-border telecom network fraud in the globalized information ocean and the economic tide has posed a threat to China and the global security and stability, and its governance is imminent. Under the analysis framework of global collaborative governance, this paper analyzes the external environmental factors and related internal governance factors, such as the background of cross-border telecom network fraud governance, which needs our attention. From the level of synergetic governance and the autonomy of the subject, the analysis of this paper draws a conclusion that cross-border telecom network fraud improvement is confronted with many dilemmas, for instance, the difficulty in reaching a consensus of values, the malconformation of legal norms, the high pressure of public opinion and the weakness of human nature. The paper puts forward the countermeasures based on Chinese perspective, from four aspects of value guidance, legal soundness, system regulation and technical complementation to work with all parties to manage the main forces, to combat and prevent cross-border telecommunications network fraud, achieving a good prospect of shared governance.

A Dualist Approach to Offshore Renewable Energy Governance: A Case for the Third World

The need for an environmentally sustainable alternative to fossil-sourced energy has led to a global increase in offshore renewable energy (ORE) ventures in the past decade. With fast-advancing technologies, these ventures are moving into deeper waters, putting the likelihood of ORE installations in the High Seas in sight. Concerns about potential conflict with other traditional uses of the marine space, marine pollution, inefficient and inequitable deployments have been raised. However, asides from few State-based regulatory frameworks, there is no international legal framework to regulate this burgeoning ORE industry. Adopting a socio-legal approach, this paper mainstreams Arvid Pardo’s argument for the equitable management of the ocean space as an ecological whole, to propose a dualist approach to ORE governance. This paper contends that the current global ORE structure is inequitable and inefficient and proposes ways existing structures can be adapted to regulate the burgeoning industry. Using Nigeria (and West Africa) as case study, recommendations have been made on the roles to be played by States and the International Community in a global ORE governance framework.

The BRICS and the G20

AbstractBrazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) have come together economically as a group since 2009. Their cooperation has been driven not only by economic and political factors, but also the failure of the existing global economic governance framework to satisfy the real needs of these countries. In this paper, we analyze how the BRICS moved from a financial category into a political group, and are progressively developing from a dialogue‐based platform into a full‐fledged mechanism of long‐term coordination on a wide range of key issues relating to the world economy and politics. We also analyze how the BRICS have coordinated their positions in the G20, pushing for deep reform in global governance. Then, given the major hindrances to cooperation among the BRICS, including the challenge of economic transition, weak geopolitical links, complicated internal and external relations and inadequate governance capabilities, the present paper speculates on how the BRICS can use the opportunity arising from China taking the G20 presidency in 2016 to improve the cohesiveness and influence of the BRICS in terms of their agenda, organization and deliverables.

A Relational Analysis of Migration and Remittances Sent By Migrants and Its Impact on the Educational Outcome of Left behind Children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Migration is a constant phenomenon in human evolution and had played a vital role in human affairs throughout the ages while the modern world that observe the ‘age of migration’ has no exception. Increasing international migratory flow during the last four decades have been the most visible manifestations of the globalization process accompanied by designation of the normative and institutional framework for global governance. This paper examines the relationship between migration and remittances sent by migrants with the educational outcome of left behind children. In this regard, the study has been carried out at Union Council Level in District Dir Lower Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. The primary data has obtained from a sample of 99 migrants' families through interview schedule utilizing purposive sampling technique. The collected information has classified and analyzed through computer-based program (SPSS) and the given hypotheses have tested through chi-squire test. The results thus confirmed that there is a significant relationship between migration and education of left behind children in the migrants' families.

Global Migration Governance

This article maps the global governance processes on migration and assesses whether the human rights of migrants are effectively included and mainstreamed therein. It is argued that the lack of a comprehensive framework for migration governance and the insufficient focus on the human rights dimension in migration management have led to serious human rights violations in the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers, and to a lack of oversight and accountability when these violations occur. The article commences with an examination of the legal and normative framework related to the three areas that have been the main objects of global migration governance: the refugee regime, international labour standards and transnational criminal law regarding human trafficking. It goes on to explore the complex institutional framework of global migration governance and how it has been mostly informal, ad hoc, non-binding and State-led. The article concludes with a discussion on the future perspectives for a human rights-centred approach in global migration governance. It is contended that there is a need to bring the migration dialogue inside the United Nations, as it already plays a key role in international cooperation, with human rights as one of its pillars.

Governing the Global Knowledge Economy: Mind the Gap!

Governing the Global Knowledge Economy: Mind the Gap!

Governing Cyberspace: Building Confidence, Capacity and Consensus

Cyberspace is an integral part of modern societies and has transformed global social and economic relations in the 21st century. From an arcane and technical domain on the margins of international policy debates, cyberspace has entered the realm of high politics and is an important feature of contemporary debates on global governance. The contributions presented in this special section seek to foster a better understanding of how to govern cyberspace – a domain that is complex, ubiquitous and an increasingly indispensable part of life in the 21st century. Despite the fact that cyberspace is primarily owned and operated by the private sector, the authors agree that states continue to exert a powerful influence over how cyberspace is used and governed. The contributions reveal that although cyberspace is a relatively new area of global governance, existing legal and political frameworks and traditional means and methods of conducting interstate relations remain relevant. A comprehensive, international treaty to govern cyberspace is unlikely to emerge in the near future. Therefore, a wide-ranging set of tailored efforts is required to ensure that cyberspace remains free, open and secure. Confidence and trust must be built between states and other relevant stakeholders through practical cooperation on specific issues, sharing information and best practices and exercising restraint in cyber activities. Bilateral cooperation and like-minded coalitions are essential for developing and disseminating norms or principles of responsible behaviour in cyberspace, which may set the stage for legally binding commitments in the future. Ultimately, the international architecture for governing cyberspace is likely to resemble the medium itself – an intricate web of actors, institutions and instruments securing a resource that is far greater than the sum of its parts.