ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the roles played by international organizations, the sovereign states, and various non-state actors in addressing the various challenges of the twenty-first century. The dramatic growth of the world's population, alone, has placed much more pressure on the planet's resources than ever before in human history. Energy and water resources, in particular, are being consumed at heretofore, unimagined levels. The threat of contagious diseases and the risk of world pandemics threaten the global community. If the global community fails to recognize the imperative need for effective common action in order to collectively rise to the challenges of the new millennium, mankind will likely suffer an unenviable collective fate. Of course, the individual states can continue to press their own agendas, seeking only their own, narrowly defined, national interests, as many have done since the inception of the Westphalian system and, more broadly, throughout much of human history.
