Public–private partnerships: Unlike partners? Assessing new forms of regulation

In international relations, norms and rules are less and less set and implemented by states alone. Instead, private actors, that is non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and business companies, are taking part in these processes. An example of these new forms of regulation is the World Commission on Dams in which delegates from states and intergovernmental organizations together with operators of dams and NGOs agreed on new standards on the construction of large dams. This way, massive conflicts on this issue, as had occurred since the 1980s, were to be avoided.