ABSTRACT
On 15 October 1999, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the medical relief organization, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).1 The award of what is perhaps the world’s most prestigious peace prize to a nongovernmental organization (NGO) was the second time in recent years that an NGO was acknowledged for its contribution to the ultimate of public goods: peace and security.2 While the Nobel Peace Prize has acknowledged the work of the NGO community in the past,3 these recent awards have generated a wealth of attention to the increasing role of NGOs and NGO issues in global public affairs. Given the Nobel award and many other signs, it is possible to conclude that today’s public policy now involves new actors and new agendas, both of which bring renewed interest in the concept of the public domain.
