ABSTRACT
From a historical perspective, multilateralism has come to reflect much of what Woodrow Wilson envisioned for a new world order. The last two decades have been a terribly turbulent period for the world, economically, politically, and socially. This has resulted in considerable changes in the way societal actors interact with and relate to each other. States, businesses, and civil society at all levels, from the local to the global, are adapting to their respective roles to the increasingly complex reality of today's globalizing environment. This, in turn, is shaping the institutional and organizational structure of the international system and global governance. Moreover, as the traditional divides between the private and public and the national and international increasingly blur, the roles played by states, nonstate actors, and international organizations in the governance of the international system are being reconfigured.
