ABSTRACT
Global action networks (GANs) are a new type of organisation that is arising in response to complex global issues that traditional organisations cannot successfully address (Waddell 2003a, 2003b). In fact, they are an important emerging form of global governance that includes business, government and civil-society organisations as participants. They are related to Oran Young’s concept of ‘international regimes’ (Young 1999a, 1999b) but without the emphasis on the role of governments; to Wolfgang Reinicke’s concept of ‘global public policy networks’ (Reinicke 1999; Reinicke and Deng 2000; Witte et al. 2000) but without the political science framework and with a deep-change focus; and to Jean-François Rischard’s concept of global issue networks (Rischard 2002) that require collaboration between business, government and civil-society organisations. The Global Compact is an example of a GAN.
