Global Governance Research Articles

Can the CPTPP’s Digital Format on Data Flows Serve a Role Model for the WTO?

Digital trade has grown at an unprecedented pace due to advancements in information technologies. The global COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the importance of international digital transactions and created momentum for the negotiation of digital rules at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Large technology companies rely on free access to data and cross-border data flows, making them influential in shaping digital rule-making at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is currently the leading regional trade agreement (RTA) on digital trade, which aligns with the market-based approach. Australia, Singapore, and Japan, the main parties to the CPTPP, now play a key role in WTO digital negotiations. Their proposals, largely based on the CPTPP’s context, aim to liberalize data flows. However, many WTO members remain cautious of this approach, considering it may compromise regulatory autonomy and essential common interests, such as data sovereignty, privacy, and consumer protection.Though the CPTPP’s e-commerce chapter provides a comprehensive benchmark, fundamental problems with establishing cross-border digital rules remain unsolved at the WTO. This article will examine the limits of, and obstacles to, the realization of the CPTPP approach within the trade system, and propose a preliminary and progressive arrangement for global data governance.

India's strategic influence in BRICS: Balancing power with diplomacy

India's strategic role within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) grouping highlights its growing influence in global geopolitics. This paper explores how India leverages BRICS as a platform to balance power, especially vis-à-vis China, while promoting multilateralism and economic cooperation. As the only democratic nation within BRICS with a robust engagement in both the Global South and Western alliances, India strategically navigates its diplomatic relations to push for reforms in global governance structures such as the United Nations and financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Through a combination of economic outreach, leadership in technology and digital finance, and a firm stance on sovereignty, India is positioning itself as a bridge between competing global powers, while advocating for equitable global development. The paper argues that India's balancing act within BRICS underscores its aspirations to be a leading global player while protecting its national interests and regional stability.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Trends and Predictions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved rapidly, transforming diverse industries and societal functions. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of AI's current landscape, examining its advancements, applications, and ethical challenges. Key trends are explored, including innovations in machine learning and deep learning, AI’s expanding role across industries, and its potential for addressing climate change and sustainability. Furthermore, the paper highlights AI's role in enhancing human-machine collaboration, paving the way for systems that augment rather than replace human capabilities. Predictions for AI’s future are discussed, such as the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI), advancements in autonomous systems, the impact of quantum computing on AI, and innovations in AI-specific hardware. The paper also examines ethical and societal challenges, such as privacy, algorithmic bias, and the need for global governance, addressing the urgent call for responsible AI. In light of these trends, the paper emphasizes future research directions, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on explainable, robust, and resilient AI models. This work aims to shed light on the transformative potential of AI while advocating for ethical practices to ensure a positive and sustainable impact on society.

Cosmopolitan identity, authority, and domestic support of international organizations

AbstractWhat effect does the institutional design of international organizations (IOs) have on their domestic support? In this article, we focus on interactions between citizens’ social identity and institutional characteristics that may have the potential to polarize citizens’ IO attitudes. We argue that citizens’ cosmopolitan identity makes them react in diametrically opposed ways to IO settings on the authority dimension. Transferring more authority to an IO may make citizens with higher levels of cosmopolitan identity more supportive of the IO, while citizens with lower levels of cosmopolitan identity should become even more skeptical. We test our expectations by conducting a factorial survey experiment in six different countries. The empirical results support our argument. As cosmopolitan identity is strongly connected to the newly evolving domestic cleavage regarding international cooperation and global governance, reforms to IO authority settings thus have the potential to further increase the polarization of domestic attitudes toward IOs.

Localization vs globalization of carbon emissions trading system (ETS) rules: how will China’s national ETS rules evolve?

ABSTRACT China’s national carbon emission trading system (C-ETS) is central to its climate action. Previous studies have largely focused on the unique ETS design and/or regulatory details to determine whether the ETS functions successfully. However, less attention has been paid to crucial questions of how China adapts ETS rules to its unique political, legal, economic, and social contexts; and, given China’s climate ambitions, how those rules will develop in future global climate governance. Adding to discussions on how to design the ETS legal infrastructure, this study takes the world’s largest ETS (C-ETS) as an example to discuss the critical question of what rules should be differentiated and what rules should be harmonized (e.g. in alignment with the arguable prototype EU ETS and/or those of strategic partners). First, by examining China’s general ETS institutional framework, its legal evolution, and related legal disputes, this study highlights a ‘central government-promoted model’ underlying China’s ‘localization’ of ETS rules. A Functional Comparative Legal Analysis Framework is proposed to identify China’s key, distinctive, and long-lasting ETS legal features and to examine their collective potential to provide effective, efficient, and just abatement incentives. Further situating the C-ETS in global climate governance, this study provides insights into the potential future development of China’s ETS rules, with policy priorities that vary across stages. Finally, we draw lessons for other jurisdictions and discuss how our analysis might assist in the transnational understanding and potential coordination of different ETS rules.

Incremental progress or dangerous incrementalism? The case of tire wear pollution in global environmental governance

ABSTRACT Tire wear and tear is among the largest sources of global microplastic pollution. Interviews conducted in 2024 appear to indicate ‘incremental progress’ toward improving governance of tire wear. Knowledge of the ecological and health consequences is increasing. Pressure is growing for greater producer responsibility. Global standards to limit tire abrasion are forming. Regulations are being implemented to address chemical contamination, such as in California. And some manufacturers are supporting higher standards and reengineering tires to undercut competitors and capture emerging markets for lower-abrasion tires. Yet, as a deeper analysis reveals, regulations remain highly uneven, piecemeal, and inadequate on a global scale, with new risk-taking as firms delay actions and introduce new chemicals as ‘solutions.’ Moreover, I argue, a ‘dangerous form of incrementalism’ is taking hold, where modest changes to state policy and corporate conduct are conferring legitimacy on governance processes unable to prevent tire wear pollution from escalating globally.

The Rise of Global Health Emergency Governance

AbstractIn this paper I shed new light on contemporary developments in global health governance, policymaking, and knowledge production. Specifically, by investigating the historical roots and emergence of global health emergency governance. Drawing on the Foucauldian notion of “problematisation” and on Science and Technology Studies of disaster, I trace, examine, and elucidate three main axes through which, I argue, health emergencies became a problem of global governance. I show, first, the formation of emergency management as a distinct professional field. Second, the migration of emergency management into global health governance and its proliferation within it. And third, the move from global health emergency management to the global governance of health emergencies. Overall, I suggest the rise of global health emergency governance provides crucial context for understanding social, political, and epistemic tensions and controversies in health emergencies such as COVID-19. Through the analysis, I identify a particular rationale that is rooted in emergency management and had become embedded in global health emergency governance. A rationale that involves “temporal compression” and “structural plasticity.” I discuss possible implications of this rationale for global health governance, policy, and knowledge.

Globalization and global governance

Globalization and global governance

The power of materiality: Local orders, interaction and global governance

The article examines the power of materiality in the context of refugee camps, demonstrating how local orders and global governance are intricately interwoven within the material domain. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Burmese refugee camps in Thailand to illustrate how sociomateriality can establish spaces of exclusion and associated memberships through their practical implementation, but at the same time permit flexible forms of local manifestations. These aspects represent the tangible realities that people, both ordinary camp residents and local authorities, navigate and achieve in their local public camp life. By means of detailed observation of three distinct camp situations—namely, interactions of membership, checkpoint practices, and the temporary suspension of public camp life—the article argues that mundane sociomaterial practices can both produce and undermine the political intentions of architects to realize materialities of exclusion. Nevertheless, despite their partial and incomplete nature and the capacity of people to circumvent them, the materiality of exclusion is maintained and persists. By elucidating these dynamics, the article contributes to the existing literature that emphasizes the importance of understanding camp governance through the lens of sociomateriality.

The Current Situation, Issues, and Improvement Measures of Foreign Direct Investment in China's Agricultural Economy

With the rapid development of economic globalization, the connections between countries have become increasingly close, and foreign direct investment has gradually become an important factor influencing the agricultural economic development of various countries. In order to achieve their own economic development, countries have actively sought to attract foreign investment. With China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and its active participation in global governance, attracting and utilizing foreign investment for domestic agriculture has become a strategic consensus for economic development amid intense global economic competition. This paper analyzes the history and current situation of foreign direct investment in Chinese agriculture, identifies the main issues faced by Chinese agriculture in utilizing foreign direct investment, and proposes corresponding solutions, including improving the foreign direct investment environment in Chinese agriculture and optimizing the structure of foreign direct investment sources.

Contesting focality in global health governance: The World Health Organization-World Bank relationship in historical perspective

Focal organisations are typically seen as the undisputed leaders in addressing specific cooperation problems. However, as global governance becomes increasingly fragmented and contested, even well-established organisations are now facing challenges to their traditionally unquestioned focality. Drawing on new theoretical insights, the article contends that the contestation of focal organisations is not a new phenomenon. On the contrary, most focal organisations experience challenges to their focality from their very establishment. At the same time, focal organisations are likely to respond to these challenges with tailored, ad hoc strategies. The article tests these expectations in the case of the global health governance complex, where the initial focality of the World Health Organization was contested by various actors since the outset. Among those contesting the World Health Organization’s focality, a prominent position was gained by the World Bank. By examining the interinstitutional relationship between the World Health Organization and the World Bank from the 1970s onwards, the article shows how this dynamic impacted the World Health Organization’s focality and influenced the broader evolution of the global health complex over the past decades.

Global Climate Governance: Evaluating Policy Responses in an Era of International Cooperation and Competition

This research paper provides an in-depth analysis of how the global community is working to address climate change through international cooperation and competition. It highlights dual forces that shape global climate governance, focusing on the Paris Agreement as a key framework. The article focuses on the fact that although international cooperation. Most countries fail to achieve the targets they set forth as part of their pledges; the gap between the pledging and the actual reduction of emissions is huge. International competition, especially in the area of renewable energy, would spur innovation and progress. China and the United States have invested heavily in green technologies; these investments have economically and strategically benefited those respective nations. This competition creates unequal disadvantages, especially for developing countries that cannot compete because they do not have sufficient resources. Non-state actors, including cities, corporations, civil society organizations, are also increasingly crucial to filling out national efforts.

China’s Data Sovereignty and Security: Implications for Global Digital Borders and Governance

China’s Data Sovereignty and Security: Implications for Global Digital Borders and Governance

From Globalization to Isolation: Exposure to the 2008 Financial Crisis and Three Dimensions of Liberal Attitudes in a Swedish Twin Design

Abstract This study investigates the link between non-liberal attitudes and adverse exposure to market disturbances during the 2008 global financial crisis, drawing from the premise that anti-liberal sentiments among Western voters stem from economic distress. We delve into three facets of liberal ideology in a Swedish sample: economic liberalism, liberal multiculturalism and liberal internationalism. Using variation in crisis exposure within identical twin pairs, comprehensive longitudinal economic data and detailed survey responses, we find no significant shift in economic or multicultural liberal attitudes with different crisis exposures. However, exposure to increased unemployment risk significantly lowered support for liberal internationalism, increasing scepticism towards global governance and multilateral cooperation.

Beyond Borders : Addressing the Legal Quagmire of Jurisdiction in Cyberspace

This article delves into the complex scenario of governing cyberspace, addressing key issues such as accessibility, digital disparities, and the regulatory challenges posed by cross-border activities, and applicable test by judiciary across the globe while resolving such emerging issues. Despite technological progress, cyberspace largely remains an unregulated realm, creating opportunities for cybercrimes such as stalking, data breaches, exploitation of minors, and hacking. The lack of a cohesive global governance structure makes tackling these issues a formidable task. The article offers a critical assessment of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the sole international treaty on cybercrimes, pointing to its limited acceptance, especially among ASEAN nations. This hesitation underscores an ideological rift: some countries prioritize cyber sovereignty, while others support a multi-stakeholder model that incorporates contributions from governments, private enterprises, and civil society. These divergent views present barriers to legal harmonization and obstruct cross-border collaboration in prosecuting cyber offenders and ensuring data protection. To address these multifaceted challenges, the article suggests a layered governance approach, integrating global frameworks with regional alliances and national strategies. This model encourages international cooperation while respecting national sovereignty, emphasizing the importance of public-private partnerships to bolster cybersecurity. Furthermore, it advocates for investments in digital infrastructure and cyber literacy programs to reduce the digital divide, facilitating broader, fairer access to online spaces. Ultimately, the proposed governance model seeks a balanced approach, safeguarding individual rights alongside the imperatives of security and accountability, and aiming to cultivate a cyberspace that is safer, more inclusive, and subject to responsible oversight.

Amended WHO International Health Regulations for better global pandemic governance?

Recent amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), adopted at the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024, represent an important conceptual development in the field of global pandemic governance. The regulations now include the notion of a pandemic emergency, a heightened subcategory of the public health emergency of international concern, which necessitates rapid, equitable, and enhanced coordinated international action to counteract global pandemics. In addition, changes to the guiding principles expressly require that the implementation process ‘shall promote equity and solidarity’. This is further crystallised in concrete commitments to enable equitable access to health products and provide for the mobilisation of financial resources for developing countries. Taking lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes make the IHR a more effective tool against global pandemics and represent significant steps towards achieving global health justice.

Interactions between regulatory realms: new administrative law and credit rating agencies in a globalized society

This article examines European legislation and academic literature concerning the regulation of Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) during times of crisis, focusing on the perspective of administrative law in global governance. To this end, it proposes a perspective that considers a communicative process to minimise negative consequences for society within the context of CRA regulatory activity. Existing regulations, reports from European, American, and international authorities, as well as relevant literature, are reviewed to understand how regulatory challenges are addressed in the era of globalization.

Identifying and developing the roles of private business actors in international regime complexes

Abstract Business actors play increasingly important roles in global governance and international regulation. This paper considers how regime complexity influences the roles of businesses and impacts opportunities for business influence on international regulatory regimes. We conducted a scoping literature review of 243 articles from the International Regime Complexity (IRC) theory literature to explore if and how complexity affects the roles of businesses and their influence on international regulation. We found that complexity presents opportunities for businesses to regime shift and exploit knowledge asymmetry in order to influence international regulation. Further, IRC theory illustrates how the roles of businesses interact and leverage one another in order to create better opportunities for influence in specific international regulatory regimes. This paper contributes to IRC theory by building on the existing non-state actor discussions and offering specific theorization of business behavior, thus starting to bridge the gap between the empirical and theoretical understanding. Second, it contributes to existing discussions in business and politics literature by developing existing knowledge on the roles of businesses in global governance to better reflect the added dimension of complexity.

Bibliometric analysis of citizen science in global healthcare: Current trends, challenges, and future directions

With the development of information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, the application scenarios of citizen science worldwide are no longer limited to natural science research. A large number of application cases have emerged in the field of medical health, which suggests that the development of citizen science may bring new impetus to medical health. This study employs CiteSpace for a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the current status, objectives, and methodologies of citizen science in global healthcare. An analysis of 248 articles from the Web of Science Core Collection reveals that citizen science is predominantly implemented in high-income countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, with significant applications in public health, chronic disease management, infectious disease surveillance, and digital health. The COVID-19 pandemic has further catalyzed the integration of citizen science into health surveillance and public health responses. Conversely, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the development and implementation of citizen science remain nascent, primarily concentrated in traditional domains such as environmental science, ecology, and biodiversity conservation, with limited penetration into the healthcare sector. Several structural barriers, including inadequate technological infrastructure, insufficient policy support, limited public engagement, and constrained resource allocation, have impeded the broader adoption of citizen science in these regions. To mitigate these challenges, this study proposes targeted strategies, these interventions are anticipated to facilitate the expansion of citizen sciences role in global health governance, ultimately contributing to improved public health outcomes and social welfare.

Rainmaking: Observed with social systems theory

AbstractThis article examines contemporary efforts to control climate change through the lens of social systems theory, particularly by drawing comparisons to rain dances and shamanic rituals. It argues that modern climate control strategies bear functional similarities to archaic rituals aimed at influencing weather patterns, despite the absence of direct causality. Using Niklas Luhmann's concepts of autopoietic systems and functional equivalence, the article demonstrates that both historical and contemporary approaches to climate influence rely on blame‐shifting mechanisms and the social production of scapegoats, with failure often attributed not to the rituals or solutions themselves but to noncompliance or impurity among participants. The originality of this article lies in its application of social systems theory to link contemporary climate control strategies with ancient rituals, positioning them as functionally equivalent social phenomena. By drawing comparisons between shamanistic practices, corporate consulting, and global climate governance, the article provides a unique lens for understanding that the primary function of modern climate efforts may be to regulate social behaviour rather than achieving concrete natural environmental outcomes.