ABSTRACT
Nation-states, national forces, and, as we have seen in the previous chapter, MNCs are all leading actors on the international and global stage. Another increasingly important actor is the non-governmental organization (NGO) (under whose heading is also included international non-governmental organizations), an entity which is best treated as being part of a gathering social movement. Thus, one observer declares that: “The role of NGOs in the twenty-first century will be as significant as the role of the nation state in the twentieth.”1 Another speaks of a “global associational revolution,” and refers to NGOs as a “fifth estate.”2 However hyperbolic such statements may be, there is little doubt that they point in a significant direction.
