ABSTRACT
The relationship between global governance and regionalisation is fraught with ambiguity.1 If the core of global governance is about rule-setting and maintenance, the architecture of this project should be constructed at the universal level. The development of multilateral institutions, and modes of authority, trumps all other options. Global governance should also allow for an expansion of actorness beyond the traditional state-centric model. The interactive participation – including possibly some delegative responsibilities – for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and what some proponents of global governance term civil society must be a priority here (Lipschutz 1996: 249), building on the notion of transnational advocacy networks on a global scale (Keck and Sikkink 1998). The formalistic attributes of intergovernmentalism are simply not enough. In agenda terms any embrace of global governance needs to take into account the extent to which an extensive set of issues have become trans-sovereign in nature (Cusimano 2000), with problems ‘without passports’ and their solutions extending across borders as well.
